Moving Photos in Lightroom

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GadgetRick

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Ok, I've been having this problem for a while now. When I have photos imported into a folder, I try to drag them into another folder and it just seems to copy the photos, not move them. How on earth do I move photos rather than copy them?

I've been messing around with Collections. I have some questions:

-What is the difference between a Collection and a Smart Collection?
-Is there any way to have the photos in a Collection sync with the photos in the original folder or am I working with the original photo when working on it in Collections? Hope this question makes sense?
-Is there a way to create folders inside Collections?

Thanks a bunch!
 
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I do not know how you are managing a Copy. Every Drag and Drop operation in LR implements the Move operation in the OS The only way That I know to have an image exist in two places is to create several static collectiions and drag the image to each. This still does not physically move the image from its folder which is seen in the folder panel. Perhaps you are confusing the Collections Panel with the Folder panel. The icon for a static Collection is a "stack of images'. The icon for the folders in the folders panel is a 'manila folder' . The Folders panel behaves just like Windows Explorer and operations inside the Folders panel are reflected inside Windows Explorer. The converse is NOT true.

A Smart collection is a constant filter on your images. If you set up a smart collection to filter on "Rejected Flag" then the Collection will contain every image that you have flagged as rejected. To add to this collection, you only have to select an image in the Library Grid mode and give it a reject flag. The great advantage of the Smart Collection is the ability to stack multiple "Rules" i.e. "Give me all the imasges with a Reject Flag that have a Capture Date Before Janm.'1, 2'1'"

You create Collection Sets Collections both Smart and Static can reside in a Collection Set A Collection Set can also Contain Collection Sets
 
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Thanks for the clarification on Smart Collections. Couldn't figure that out.

And, I have no idea why, but, when I drag a photo (or photos) from one folder (not collection...definately) to another folder, it does NOT move them, rather, it copies them. It is frustrating as hell as I want to manage my folders and I cannot. I have no idea why this is happening as it seems like it should move the photos rather than copy them.
 
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[quote author=GadgetRick link=topic=9343.msg63'75#msg63'75 date=1268686582]...And, I have no idea why, but, when I drag a photo (or photos) from one folder (not collection...definately) to another folder, it does NOT move them, rather, it copies them...[/quote]As I said before I don't know how you manage to effect a copy instead of move. Perhaps somebody smart will jump in and solve this.
 
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How do you know you aren't having permission problems? Exactly what did you check to be sure?

To move (not copy) to a new hard drive:

In the LR Folder panel, select the top level folder containing your photos, and drag it to elsewhere in the LR folder panel, where your new hard drive is.
 
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I know I'm not having permissions because I've never changed them and I've also done enough troubleshooting to know. Why would it copy them and not move them? That doesn't sound like a permission problem anyway.

btw, I just installed LR 3 Beta and it does the EXACT SAME THING. I have photos in a folder, I select some photos I want to move, I drag them to a new folder and it COPIES them, not moves them. It tells me I'm about to move them but it doesn't move them (with the warning about moving files).

Now, if this is a permissions problem, I'm all for looking into it but I've never seen nor heard of anything like this and I don't see any permissions problems. Add to that, when I first installed LR 2 I was able to move files a couple of times and it will not do it any longer.

I'm quite frustrated by this.
 
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Anything odd about your Recycle Bin? Full? Non-standard location? Photo files located on a network drive?
The only time I've heard anybody mention this particular symptom was with 'moving' photo files on a network drive, where there's an issue with the OS giving delete permission to the requesting application.

This isn't some generic Lr bug that you're experiencing; in general this operation is working fine for most folks. We need to isolate what may be different with your installation.
 
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Not wishing to offend, but thie solution probably means identifying what I call "Stupid User Tricks" And before you take offense, please remember that I am often just as guilty of this as anyone else. I would hope that you can back away and try to look at this with an open mind.
Why would it copy them and not move them? That doesn't sound like a permission problem anyway.
Click to expand...
It sounds exactly like a permission problem to me. If your source location is a network drive or a USB attached external drive used by several computers, then the local windows machine may not have ownership of the file and until it does will not be able to delete any file 'Moved' In the windows OS, a Move operation is a Copy of the source followed by a Delete of the source. If you have read permissions but not write permissions, you can copy but you can't delete. If you are not the owner and you don't have write permissions, you cant delete.

One of the 'rules' of LR is to do all file operations on images cataloged by LR in LR. As a test, I'm going to ask that you violate that rule and find in Windows Explorer one of those image files that LR has cataloged and "Move" it using the OS Move operation and not LR's Drag & Drop. (This BTW is the same "Move" operation that LR uses inside of LR for D&D.) If you are successful, when you return to LR, your image in the Grid should exhaibit that "?" in the corner. If you are able to get to this point and everything is as I have described, then we must make some other assessment on what exactly you are describing that you are doing when you say "When I have photos imported into a folder, I try to drag them into another folder and it just seems to copy the photos, not move them" I am reminded that in your initial post you also questions and some confusing about Collections. It may still be possible that you are not yet clear on all the terminology and aren't clear about the function and purpose of the various panels on the LR application desktop. If it is not a permissions problem it is more likely the latter and at that point we will drop back to some more basic LR operations instructions and try to find exactly where this 'simple' operation is going astray.
 
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[quote author=Brad Snyder link=topic=9343.msg63591#msg63591 date=12697'5476]
Anything odd about your Recycle Bin? Full? Non-standard location? Photo files located on a network drive?
The only time I've heard anybody mention this particular symptom was with 'moving' photo files on a network drive, where there's an issue with the OS giving delete permission to the requesting application.

This isn't some generic Lr bug that you're experiencing; in general this operation is working fine for most folks. We need to isolate what may be different with your installation.
[/quote]
I'm on a Mac and nothing strange about the trash. Not using a networked drive. Just an external USB drive. Same thing happens when trying to move photos if I have them on my internal drive.
 
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[quote author=clee'1l link=topic=9343.msg63595#msg63595 date=1269711862]
Not wishing to offend, but thie solution probably means identifying what I call "Stupid User Tricks" And before you take offense, please remember that I am often just as guilty of this as anyone else. I would hope that you can back away and try to look at this with an open mind.
Why would it copy them and not move them? That doesn't sound like a permission problem anyway.
Click to expand...
It sounds exactly like a permission problem to me. If your source location is a network drive or a USB attached external drive used by several computers, then the local windows machine may not have ownership of the file and until it does will not be able to delete any file 'Moved' In the windows OS, a Move operation is a Copy of the source followed by a Delete of the source. If you have read permissions but not write permissions, you can copy but you can't delete. If you are not the owner and you don't have write permissions, you cant delete.

One of the 'rules' of LR is to do all file operations on images cataloged by LR in LR. As a test, I'm going to ask that you violate that rule and find in Windows Explorer one of those image files that LR has cataloged and "Move" it using the OS Move operation and not LR's Drag & Drop. (This BTW is the same "Move" operation that LR uses inside of LR for D&D.) If you are successful, when you return to LR, your image in the Grid should exhaibit that "?" in the corner. If you are able to get to this point and everything is as I have described, then we must make some other assessment on what exactly you are describing that you are doing when you say "When I have photos imported into a folder, I try to drag them into another folder and it just seems to copy the photos, not move them" I am reminded that in your initial post you also questions and some confusing about Collections. It may still be possible that you are not yet clear on all the terminology and aren't clear about the function and purpose of the various panels on the LR application desktop. If it is not a permissions problem it is more likely the latter and at that point we will drop back to some more basic LR operations instructions and try to find exactly where this 'simple' operation is going astray.
[/quote]

No offense taken, sorry if I came off that way before. I'm quite frustrated by this.

First, I'm on a Mac and my permissions are fine. I am the owner and I have full permissions.

Second, just moved them fine outside of LR (I'm getting, "File is missing..." on the photo after moving it outside of LR).

Third, my question wasn't confusion about Collections, just a question of what a Smart Collection is. I understand Collections and it's not me moving to a Collection. I'm absolutely trying to move to another folder and it will not do it. Just copies it. I'm quite frustrated by it at this point.
 
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Now, it is my turn to be frustrated. I should have recognised the profile was set to the default OS but I did not. Even though nothing that I have suggested is OS specific, a lot of my assumptions have been based upon the presumption that you are working with a 1' year old obsolete OS. My experiences with OSX (if it is OSX) has been only as a casual user and I do not have the in depth experience that I have working with all flavors of the Windows OS family.

As Brad has stated, "This is not some generic LR bug." It is either the result of something that you are doing or have done with the file permissions in your OS or from a misunderstanding on your part or ours as to what you are actually doing when you attempt to 'Move" files inside of LR.

With the test I suggested, you have pretty much eliminated the file permissions as a source of the problem. So that leaves the "Misunderstanding " part as the next thing to tackle.

If there are any Mac Gurus still reading this thread, perhaps they can offer insights into the problem that extend beyond the Windows centric world that Brad and I live in.

Oh, one other thing, please update your profile to reflect your true hardware/software environment.
 
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When you drag the photos on your Mac over the destination folder, do you get a "+" icon on your cursor?
When you release the button to finish the maneuver, do you get a Move Photos warning from Lightroom?

Please take a moment and fill out your profile information so we have exact details on your OS/LR Version, etc.
 
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[quote author=RikkFlohr link=topic=9343.msg63655#msg63655 date=1269872'53]
When you drag the photos on your Mac over the destination folder, do you get a "+" icon on your cursor?
When you release the button to finish the maneuver, do you get a Move Photos warning from Lightroom?

Please take a moment and fill out your profile information so we have exact details on your OS/LR Version, etc.
[/quote]
If you're talking about in the OS, yes, it is doing the copy as it should--been working with Macs since the Mac Plus and used to support them so I'm quite familiar with the MacOS.

When I select a photo (photos) in LR, I drag them from one folder (the one they were imported into, "2'1'-x...) into another folder I've created. Could be within the original folder or another. I get the dialog box asking me if I really want to MOVE the files and what the consequences are. I say I'm ok with that and it copies the files.

I've looked through all preferences I can find in LR (both 2 and 3) and can't find anything about this. I'm more confused as to why it gives me the dialog as if it's actually moving the files and the only copies them.

I will fill out my profile.
 
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No, there's no preference for that. Lr, in fact, is not supposed to be able to copy the images. That's completely contrary to its operating philosophy. That's what collections, virtual copies, snapshots and parametric editing are all about; ways to produce multiple views of an image, without proliferating multiple copies.

Hence, our confusion, and gape-mouthed questioning. :eek: The fact that yours is doing it, is kind of like you saying, "I just set a brick on thin air, and it's not falling. While that's neat, I'd really rather it fell, how do I make that happen?" (Poetic license, for effect). We're not trying to say you're wrong, or incompetent, just that you're reporting a perplexing effect, and we're brainstorming potential causes.
 
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[quote author=Brad Snyder link=topic=9343.msg63794#msg63794 date=127''6'523]
No, there's no preference for that. Lr, in fact, is not supposed to be able to copy the images. That's completely contrary to its operating philosophy. That's what collections, virtual copies, snapshots and parametric editing are all about; ways to produce multiple views of an image, without proliferating multiple copies.

Hence, our confusion, and gape-mouthed questioning. :eek: The fact that yours is doing it, is kind of like you saying, "I just set a brick on thin air, and it's not falling. While that's neat, I'd really rather it fell, how do I make that happen?" (Poetic license, for effect). We're not trying to say you're wrong, or incompetent, just that you're reporting a perplexing effect, and we're brainstorming potential causes.
[/quote]

LOL! Yeah, I sorta figured it was something like that based on what the helpful people who've replied have suggested. I'm still scratching my head.

Sorry, was away for a while so hadn't checked back here.
 
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