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Multiple Duplicate Catalogs, Missing Photos and So On....

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mbImagery

New Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2019
Messages
5
Lightroom Version Number
LR CC Classic
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
Hi folks,

Firstly let me apologise to all the good people on this forum, and to the Lightroom Queen herself...... Due to a lack of understanding I've let things get very messy over the years.
I've always tended to import (no folders or keywords... awful I know) , edit and then save a final online res, large jpg res and a tiff file on to my external hard drive. Inevitably being the scatter brain I am, I would then end up shifting them about again....

As you can see I have multiple catalogs, the most recent being LRCAT 7.18 lrcat which has all up to date images, and I'm trying to be well behaved with.
The remaining catalogs seem to be a mix mash of missing images, which would take forever and a day to locate. I even think there are duplicate photos amongst all these catalogs.
The anxiety of attempting to sort all of these catalogs out is incomprehendible and I'm considering holding on to one and ditching the rest....

Thoughts people?

Many thanks.

Mark.
PS. I promise not to make such a mess again....
 
Catalogs do not contain images. The Lightroom catalog is a database, like an address book. The details of your friends are in your address book, but the friends themselves are not. So if you have a current catalog that shows all the images, then don't worry about old ones. If your current catalog only shows recent images, then you could merge the older catalogs with this one by using 'Import From Another Catalog'.

By the way: You wrote 'as you can see', but there is nothing to see. Did you mean to post a screenshot?
 
Indeed I did.... Sorry about that.
I understand that these are merely virtual copies, and having save the majority as finished files on to my hard drives there's probably little to worry about. But having said that there are some that are duplicates that do not exist upon my most recent catalog.... and I could do with finding them.... But this is quite the process.... when I do eventually discover images, they don't seem to like finding the ones that are nearby or similar....
 

Attachments

  • LR CATALOGS.JPG
    LR CATALOGS.JPG
    203 KB · Views: 275
Hi folks,

Firstly let me apologise to all the good people on this forum, and to the Lightroom Queen herself...... Due to a lack of understanding I've let things get very messy over the years.
I've always tended to import (no folders or keywords... awful I know) , edit and then save a final online res, large jpg res and a tiff file on to my external hard drive. Inevitably being the scatter brain I am, I would then end up shifting them about again....

As you can see I have multiple catalogs, the most recent being LRCAT 7.18 lrcat which has all up to date images, and I'm trying to be well behaved with.
The remaining catalogs seem to be a mix mash of missing images, which would take forever and a day to locate. I even think there are duplicate photos amongst all these catalogs.
The anxiety of attempting to sort all of these catalogs out is incomprehendible and I'm considering holding on to one and ditching the rest....

Thoughts people?

Many thanks.

Mark.
PS. I promise not to make such a mess again....
 

Attachments

  • LR CATALOGS.JPG
    LR CATALOGS.JPG
    203 KB · Views: 261
No, they are not 'virtual copies'. A virtual copy is something else. They are databases with all the information (edits, metadata) about the images. Like I said, if your current catalog does not contain all the images, then maybe they can be found in one of the old catalogs. In that case you can merge the new and the old catalog by using 'Import from another catalog'.

Your screenshot shows that all the images are 'missing' in your current Lightroom catalog. That means that Lightroom does not know where they are, because they are in a different location that what Lightroom thinks. Here's how to fix that: Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen
 
No, they are not 'virtual copies'. A virtual copy is something else. They are databases with all the information (edits, metadata) about the images. Like I said, if your current catalog does not contain all the images, then maybe they can be found in one of the old catalogs. In that case you can merge the new and the old catalog by using 'Import from another catalog'.

Your screenshot shows that all the images are 'missing' in your current Lightroom catalog. That means that Lightroom does not know where they are, because they are in a different location that what Lightroom thinks. Here's how to fix that: Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen
 
For a number of reasons I've got a number of photos in LR that are unable to locate their parents. I HAVE seen the photos in the "Photos" app on my Mac , but as the hierarchy structure is different than in LR , I can't just locate them as the Mac Photos app is not part of the LR world. Does anyone know of a way to edit the Mac photos so I can use the same system (Year,month,day,time of capture) that Lightroom uses? I feel this may be the only way I can link the two systems. As of now I choose a photo in the Mac Photos app, choose "Edit with" and use LR, then import to LR and drag the photo to the appropriate folder. It works, but soooo time consuming.
 
Let's start by suggesting that you either use Lightroom or Photos and not both. Using both is sort of like trying to get from LA to NY by plane and train at the same time. Pick one and ditch the other.

If you decide that LR will be the one, then we can delve into your issue. As a preview though, the basic plan is to a) export your images out of Photos and into folders on your hard drive. Then b) import those images into LR during which time you can have LR place them in a date oriented file structure if you wish.

If you have already done something like this (as indicated by already having the images showing up in LR), yet the images can't be found by LR, first use Finder to see is you can find the images outside of LR. Ignore those that Finder finds in Time Machine and in backup drives or folders. Once you locate where the image lives in your file system you can either move it to where LR thinks it should be or use the LR "Find Missing Folder" or "Find Missing Photo" functions and point to where you found it.
 
Most of the photos on my hard drive are from before I started using LR. It seems that LR cant locate missing images is because the image capture information is not exactly the same. Seems its Year, month( spelled out not numerical),day(numerical) . I was wanting to see if there was a known way to change capture format in Photos. Aslo, without having modified any dates-some images are found, others aren't.
 
I should add that I am only searching through Apple "Photos" because I can see the images rather than relying on metadata . I dont edit with that app.
 
The find missing photos feature in LR is a bit different than I think you assume. When an image is imported into LR, a pointer is saved in the LR catalog that contains the full file path (whole chain of folders) and the file name on disk. If, subsequently, that pointer no longer points to the image then it is marked as missing. This can happen if you move the images, move any of the parent folders of the image or rename either the image or any of the parent folders.

If you then use the "find missing" folder or photo function in LR, it does not go searching your hard drive(s) for matching images. Rather it just brings up a "finder" window that permits you to navigate to where the missing folder or image is. Once you've selected the folder or image (depending on if you're using the find missing folder or find missing photo tool) LR resets the pointer for that folder or image. It then checks to see if there are other images marked as missing that are also in that same neighborhood (based on file name (I'm sketchy on if it also checks other things like capture date/time or file size) and fixes the pointer on those images at the same time.

So, if you have a bunch of images or folders that are missing in LR, you first need to figure out where they actually are on one of your hard drives. Then use the Find Missing Folder or Find Missing Photo tool to have LR reset the pointer.

Hope that helps
 
Let's start by suggesting that you either use Lightroom or Photos and not both. Using both is sort of like trying to get from LA to NY by plane and train at the same time. Pick one and ditch the other.
How / where on the screen do you select LR and not photos on Mac please
 
I'm not a Mac user, but what you want to do is go to the Photos app in your Mac and disable the function that automatically imports images on newly attached devices (such as card readers) to Photos. I don't know the exact setting or settings but just step through all the settings and turn off anything that looks like it might be related to such automation. Then just don't use Photos anymore (once your Photos images are being dealt with by LR.

Perhaps a Mac user on this forum can give you more specific instructions.
 
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