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Migrating LRc; Do you want to combine these folders?

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gedurkee

George
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Messages
5
Location
California
Lightroom Experience
Beginner
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
Classic latest
Operating System
  1. macOS 10.15 Catalina
Hi all. Using TeamViewer, I'm helping a friend set up his new iMac Pro. We used Migration Assistant to move files and settings. This brought over his entire photo collection (~20,000 images) into a single folder (Howard) on his desktop. I am a PC guy and have never used Lightroom before but we're chipping away at it! (My tech skills are way better than his...). Clicking on the LR Catalog ,which is in the Howard folder, LR Classic started up with his folder structure showing as well as images. Assume the images just the equivalent of thumbnails stored in the Catalog?

As the "how to" videos warn, when clicking on the image, the error message "file not found" shows up so obviously the path has changed. I thought, somewhere in the sequence, I had told the folder the correct path but may have messed up somewhere. In any event, still getting "file not found" for all of his images. As a test, I right clicked on a sample folder within Howard and used the Find Folder tool. It did so, the files were successfully found but the folder then appeared outside the Howard catalog tree in LR.

Next, I right clicked on Howard and chose the Find Folder tool. I get the message: "The selected folder or one of its subfolders is already in Lightroom. Do you want to combine these folders?" Then a Merge button. I'm holding off for fear of totally screwing things up. What happens if I combine folders? We have two backups (Time Machine and the old computer) so it's not super-critical but, still... .

Would greatly appreciate anyone's help here. If I have to zap everything and start over, I think I'll avoid Migration Assistant and just transfer directly by external drive and put it, as recommended, in the Pictures folder. Overall, though, hoping the Merge doesn't put us in more trouble and that's the thing to do... . If so, with that many images, how long would that take? Assume it's just updating a database so should go fairly quickly (??). (The question is whether to set it to go overnight or, if fast enough, during the day).

Many thanks for your help!
George
 
You added the subfolder you created in Howard to Lightroom, so Lightroom now knows this subfolder and consequently also the parent folder, which is called 'Howard', but apparently not the same 'Howard' Lightroom knows should exist but is missing. If you then try 'reconnect' that missing Howard folder and select the new Howard folder, then Lightroom has a problem: it knows a parent folder called 'Howard', and now you tell it that another folder is actually the same Howard folder. That is possible, but Lightroom has to verify that because it means that both folders are one and the same after all. So just click 'Merge' and this problem should be sorted out.
 
BTW, it sounds like you used Migration Assistant not to migrate the entire content of his old computer to the new one (which would have created the exact same paths), but only a part of the old files. You then placed these in a different location. I would not be surprised if the ‘Howard’ folder that is now on the desktop was actually the User folder of the old machine. That would explain the differences in paths and why Lightroom lost the connection to the images.
 
John: many thanks. Yes, that makes sense. Also your explanation about Migration Assistant explains a lot. Yes, it was the user folder on the old machine. It not only transferred the data folder (Howard) but it put it on the desktop rather than its original location AND copied the old computer's user onto the new machine, which already had the original user created in setup, so now 2 users. This confused me quite a bit though I vaguely understood what happened.

Anyway, I'll close my eyes and hit Merge so all should be good. Much appreciated. Incidentally I've done this a number of times with PCs using Laplink or just copying data and reinstalling apps. I think it likely I used the wrong settings for Migration Assist and that was likely part of our Original Sin.

Thanks again!

George
 
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