LR duplicates exisiting folders on new computer.

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Jim McClain

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I built a new computer and added a separate drive to store all my user files, including the Pictures folder. The old computer that I previously had LR on was a single drive, single partition Windows 7 machine, now it is a multiple drive Windows 8.1 machine.

When I imported new pictures from a folder I previously used on C: drive, I directed the search to the new E: drive and the parent folder of the images I was going to import. Somehow the system knew to select only the new pictures and it appeared to have the new drive letter already in use. The newest images were in a folder named "capture." The import seemed to go off without a hitch.

That's when I noticed that, in the folder list in the left panel, there were 2 E: drives listed, one that had all the folders and images I had previously stored on the C: drive of my old machine, and the other contained only one folder parent and one child, the capture folder inside its parent folder. Only the new images I imported were in that folder.

When I tried to move only the images from the second instance of E:\critters\capture to the former location, it actually moved the capture folder into the other capture folder, creating a E:\critters\capture\capture.

How can I fix this? I just want the system to see that I have all my user files and folders on a single E: drive. I don't want duplicates of anything. Should I just delete the old catalog or database and let LR start over?

Jim
 
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I think I'm following you Jim, but a screenshot would help to clarify.

And when you say "When I imported new pictures from a folder I previously used on C: drive, I directed the search to the new E: drive and the parent folder of the images I was going to import." - were these photos that had previously been imported into Lightroom or completely new?

The critters images you mention - besides the folder showing up twice, are the photos actually on the hard drive twice, or in Lightroom's catalog twice?
 
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Thanks for replying, Victoria. The pictures I imported when I discovered the problem were all new, never previously imported. I built the computer several days ago and then had to make a trip to the SF Bay Area. This was the first time I have used LR to import and develop since the new build, although I did install LR and configure it before I left for my trip. When I first opened it, it asked me to locate the catalog file, which I did. But that's pretty much all I did at the time.

Attached are 2 cropped screenshots. I took these when I did another import of some Landscape pictures I took on my trip. As before, LR selected only the new pictures, but instead of adding them to the existing E:\Landscapes parent folder, it created the folder structure in the second E:\, just as it did with the critters folders yesterday.

lr-folder-prob01.jpg lr-folder-prob02.jpg

Jim
 
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When you hover the mouse over any of the folders, a tool-tip will pop-up showing the full path to that folder. Can you hover over the Landscapes folder under both of the listed E drives and either take a screenshot of both pop-ups, or if that's a problem (print screen will capture the pop-up) just jot down the exact path of both Landscapes folders. I'm particularly looking for a case difference somewhere in the paths, so please take care to note the paths exactly including the correct case for each letter.
 
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OK, that's a bit odd....I was expecting a case difference in something like the user name (the case of the initial letter often gets changed during a rebuild, which upsets Lightroom as it's case sensitive), but I wasn't expecting the difference to be on the drive letter. TBH, I wasn't aware it was possible to assign a lower-case drive letter, so what do I know?

The fix is relatively straightforward, but could you just confirm that the OS definitely now lists the drive as upper-case E?
 
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It does appear that Windows 8.1 sees all my drives in upper-case (C:, D: and E:, all SSD drives). The only place I see the lower-case is in that LR list of folders, but it correctly lists all the folders and images I had previously imported while on the old computer.

Jim
 
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This is the first time I have ever seen a lower case drive letter listed in any path. Most unusual, but this is the part that needs to be corrected in LR.
 
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OK, to fix you need to do the following:

1. Make sure you've got an up-to-date catalog backup which will act as the restore point should the procedure go wrong (it hasn't yet).
2. On the E drive create a new folder called Fred in the root directory.
3. In the Lightroom Folders panel, right-click on the "Pictures" folder in the topmost E drive list and choose "Update Folder Location". In the resulting browser window, navigate to and select that Fred folder that you just created. This should cause that topmost E drive list to disappear from the panel, and Fred should appear in the bottom (now only) E drive list. All the sub-folders that were under Pictures will now appear under Fred, but they'll all be listed as Missing.
4. Now right-click on Fred and again choose Update Folder Location. This time navigate to and select the Pictures folder on the E drive, you will likely get a message to the effect that some files/folders already exist, do you want to merge them. Go ahead and select Merge, and hopefully everything should then appear as you would have expected them to be, i.e. one drive, one set of folders.

If anything in that process doesn't happen as I've described, stop and get back to me.
 
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Good to hear. Thanks for reporting back.
 
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