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LR replicates the volume and folder name when I import....

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Nigel T

New Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2019
Messages
17
Location
Surrey, England
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Lightroom Version Number
Classic, latest with May update
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
Something strange has started happening recently to my LR classic on my pc. When I import photos, instead of adding them to the folder I’m importing to under my existing volume of Data F (yes my photos are on the F drive), the Folders section on the left hand side of the screen generates another volume also called Data F [with a new number of photos but with the same used/free space figures] and generates another folder again with the same name. This happens every time I import, so for example, I end up with multiple ‘Data F’s’ and ‘2019 Q2’ folders. For the time being I’ve stopped importing which is a bit of a drag!

I’ve not been able to find threads for a similar problem so thought I should ask if anyone has any experience of this or any ideas. Many thanks, Nigel
 
Thank you Johan. I shall try that. On first reading it seems quite complex but then I realised that I only need to work with / create empty folders for the very top level (in my case - 5) and so I don't have to replicate the whole structure of sub-folders. I assume that when I redirect the top level folders to the temporary empty top-level folders, all my photos will be 'missing' but then they will be found again when I redirect the top-level folders back to the original hard drive where they live. Do you think that I have understood it correctly? Thanks again for your help. Regards, Nigel
 
Thank you Johan. It does indeed get rid of the replicated volume / folders and, as you say, is quite easy to do. However, each time I import, I get a new replicated drive / folder. Do you have any insight into why this might be happening or what I can do to stop it? Thanks once again.
 
There is no real solution for that, because it’s unclear what creates these double folder names in the first place. What you could try is the following: if you know which folder is the one with the double names, then in Lightroom rename the ‘correct’ folder so it gets the ‘incorrect’ name. I’m not sure if you can do this without getting an error (backup your catalog first!), but it is worth a try. If it doesn’t work in Lightroom, then you could try to do it in Windows Explorer / Macintosh Finder. You would have to ‘reconnect’ Lightroom to the changed folder afterwards (right-click on the folder, then choose ‘Find Missing Folder’).

A kind of “if you can’t beat them, join them” solution...
 
I have also seen this happening when I do an import, started after the last update. Initially I thought I had done something wrong while setting up the import. However it has happened a few times now.

The import does put the files in the correct folder (I’m using Windows 10) on the HDD so when I tried moving the files (within Lightroom) from the new folder to where they should be the message that appeared told me that the photos already existed in the folder. To cut a long story short I came up with a workaround.

Once the import is complete I simply right click on the new folder on the left hand pane and remove it. This leaves the files in the folder on the HDD. I then synchronise the Lightroom folder where the files are and add them to the catalog. I know this is not a fix but it dose sort out the problem.

The other thing I have noticed is that when I edit in Photoshop from Lightroom and save the files it does the same as above I.e. creates another entry in the library. I once again remove this and synch the folder so the edited “.tif” appears in the correct place.

Hope this all makes sense.

Joe.
 
Yes, this will work too. There are two more ways to deal with this:

1: Simply ignore it. Use collections and smart collections to manage your files, not folders. That is a much better approach anyway. If you use (smart) collections to organise your files, you can collapse your folder panel and be blissfully unaware of what is happening in there and how Lightroom shows it.

2: Store your photos on an external drive that is case-sensitive formatted. MacOS X can do that, I'm sure Windows can do that too. This is a real fix. Now both Lightroom and your OS are case-sensitive, so this problem will not happen anymore. Mind you: you should not format your system drive case-sensitive! Lightroom will choke on that and so will a lot of other applications.
 
Hi
Please ignore my ignorance here but I am obviously missing something. Where does the "Case Sensitive" thing come into this issue. I am creating a new folder under an existing folder when I do an import. I am therefore typing the new name, so not sure how the case of the name can be confused as it does not exist yet. The folder is being created correctly and the files are there its just the reference in the Lightroom Library that's not right.

Apologies if this is obvious, but as I say I must be missing something.

Thanks.
 
Hi
Please ignore my ignorance here but I am obviously missing something. Where does the "Case Sensitive" thing come into this issue. I am creating a new folder under an existing folder when I do an import. I am therefore typing the new name, so not sure how the case of the name can be confused as it does not exist yet. The folder is being created correctly and the files are there its just the reference in the Lightroom Library that's not right.

Apologies if this is obvious, but as I say I must be missing something.

Thanks.
If you create a new folder on import, that folder will almost certainly not be the problem. The problem is a parent folder somewhere in the hierarchy. There are two parent folders (one you see, the other one with different capitalization you do not see), so the new folder is created inside the wrong parent folder. And so it shows up in Lightroom in the wrong place. Using case sensitive formatting of the disk, or a case sensitive folder hierarchy of the parent folders, avoids that.
 
Thanks Johan

I was totally unaware of this issue and only started seeing the problem after the last update.
 
I must have been lucky I guess, I have never had any issues with Lightroom all the way from Version 1.
I will try the Case Sensitive settings on the folder as suggested earlier.
Thanks.
 
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