Moving files to NAS

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George Burrows

George Burrows

Drummer Photographer
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Chicago Area
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Cloud Service
I am moving all my photos (RAW) to a NAS soon and seek a tutorial-thanks
LR CC
 
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Welcome to the forum. It is a simple task of moving the images files. The catalog file needs to remain on a local drive. The Catalog file keeps a reverence pointer pointing to the path to each image. If you move the image file, LR needs to be aware of this change and update this path entry. This can be done inside LR by simply moving folders in the folder panel to a different volume (also previously listed in the Folder panel). When done this way LR automatically updates the path to each image. The other choice is to use Windows Explorer to move the folders to the new NAS volume. Once this is done, the LR catalog will not know where these folders are and you will need to use a function found on the Folder context menu to "Update Folder Location..."
This Blog article from Victoria may help.
How do I move only my photos to another hard drive, leaving the catalog where it is?
 
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Hi George,

I would recommend that you select a disk copy tool that will validate the files after they are copied to the new drive. Windows Explorer does not validate that the data written to the new disk is the same as the original. I use ChronoSync on the Mac and I believe the SyncToy will provide the same for Windows.

@Victoria Bampton perhaps you could update the article to include using a validated transfer method as an option.

-louie
 
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Teracopy is another tool that does separate validation passes (and is free). I use it for any massive moves, as Explorer historically has not been all that good at reporting errors. Errors are very rare, very very rare, but do happen in big copies.
 
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Thank you kindly to the insights and instructions. I do not think my collections are on my C drive, is that and issue? Did I do this by just copying (Control A) of the photo folder to the NAS:
Never Reimport
Using these instructions to update the location in the catalog is essential. Don’t import the photos at the new location, or use Synchronize Folder to update the folder references, as you’ll lose all of the work you’ve done in Lightroom."?
"
 
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George Burrows said:
Thank you kindly to the insights and instructions. I do not think my collections are on my C drive, is that and issue? - G
Click to expand...
LR Collections is an entry in the LR catalog database file. Collections are not a physical location on your hard drive.
 
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I moved the copied the contents of my external drives to my NAS. The drives remain hooked up to PC. Now all my collections are missing their path. I have now way to individually find each photo out of 100 collections. I am confused about the "LR Collections is an entry in the LR catalog database file" If they were on the C drive and I did not move the database then why are the photos missing. My next question is what do I do? Starting over would be a nightmare. George
 
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There's an issue in the description. Collections do not have paths. If you mean folders, you should have to change only the very top level folder's path and it ripples.

On the left side see here:

i-WNRzDXt.jpg


The "Collections" area can be ignored for now. Concentrate on folders. Expanding it should show each drive, and under it any folders on the drive.

At worst you need to change the top level for each of those entries under folders, or maybe the drive itself will be adequate depending on how you had them identified.

Once folders are fixed and visible all collections will be fine. Don't work on collections yet, or you may screw it up.
 
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Folders.JPG
Folders , there are more below but 4168 are in one folder?
Collections.JPG
Collections is where I put all the photos I have worked on in lightroom

Missing.JPG

I am only familiar with the ! in the right hand corner but all have them and the above info does not go to location?
 
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Right. Ignore the collections.

Please do not do anything with individual photos. That will make it harder.

Consider "Pictures". That was likely in c:\users\yourname\pictures or similar before. You moved it somewhere. Where? Let's pretend you moved it to x:\myNas\Pictures. It's been a while since I did this, but I think you right click on the "Pictures" and "Update folder location". It likely shows up as the old location still. Change it to the new one (browse or whatever). Once done, everythign in there, all 4168, should be found.

At least... they will be found ASSUMING you kept the same folder structure underneath "Pictures" wherever you moved it. If you completely rearranged all your folders... well, that's a bigger deal. If you just rearranged folders, you only need help it locate the top level folder in the pieces you moved to NAS.
 
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You have (or had) 4168 images on the C drive in the Pictures folder. Are you saying that you did not move those to the NAS? Then are those still there?

Is this the catalog that you started with -- un-changed -- from before you moved the files? Or did you do something trying to recreate? You should NOT have done anything to create a new catalog, to import any photos, synchronize any folders or photos. All those things will just make a mess.

THe basic process is EITHER:

1) Exit lightroom
2) Move one or more folders that were in the lightroom catalog to another location
3) Start lightroom in the same catalog.
4) Use the option to point those folders, in lightroom, to their new locaiton.

OR DO THIS INSTEAD:

1) With lightroom running.
2) Get access to the new drive space (e.g. create a top level folder on the new drive in lightroom).
3) Drag and drop the folders from their old location in lightroom (NOT in explorer) to the new folder in lightroom.

In the first case you are moving things outside of lightroom, in the second case you let lightroom do the move (and it will update the catalog).

If you did not do one of these, I think for someone to help you more, we need a pretty detailed list of the steps you did take.
 
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George Burrows said:
Folders , there are more below but 4168 are in one folder
Click to expand...
Please read my earlier post #2 and follow those instructions. LR does not know where you moved your cataloged photos. You have to tell LR where the folder named "Pictures" and all of the others are on the NAS volume
 
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Thank you for the answers. I am very confused. The confusion stems from not knowing the "basic language " associated with setting up LR.

Here is what I have done in the past two months. I have an SSD C drive half full of pictures (lR) I followed Lightroom setup when I switched to the CC and figured out where to put the photos on import (not C drive). I used several external drives as not to fill the C drive.

I will need sometime to look back at all the information that has been given me and try to understand. I am not in a hurry, I just need to get LR setup correctly and hopefully with all my storage is on the NAS it will make more sense. Thank you-George
 
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Just a few key points.
  • The Catalog must not be on a network drive, but can be on your C drive, any internal drives or external drives.
  • Your images can be on any combination of networked , internal or external drives.
  • If you move images from one drive to another outside of Lr then Lr still remembers where the were, but does not know where they went to.


As long as you do not
a) Re-Import the images from the new location .... or ...
b) Change the structure of your folder / image combination (even if on a different drive)

Then it is a relatively simple task to re-connect the images to your catalog.
 
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George Burrows said:
Thank you for the answers. I am very confused. The confusion stems from not knowing the "basic language " associated with setting up LR.
Click to expand...
In my initial reply I referenced Victoria's Blog article on how to move photos to another hard drive How do I move only my photos to another hard drive, leaving the catalog where it is? This should contain all of the instruction that you need explained clearly in the most basic terms. Please use this to move your photos and if there are parts of the blog article that are unclear, come back here and we can explain further.
 
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I "tried" to read the blog you posted. I was confused with many terms a I have stated. I apologize but since I got LR 3 this whole "catalog" must be on... issue I could never grasp. I have started over several times. I did figure out The catalog and the actual photos is best not to be on the same drive? Thanks for your help I can try again or just start over and follow 12 year old's You Tube on how to setup Lightroom CC. George
 
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