Import Problem when importing photos from external hard drive.

[bobpringle20-yahoo]

Lightroom Version Number

13.3

Operating System

1. Windows 11

I imported several thousand photos from external hard drive using the "Add" button in the import dialogue screen. Leaving the actual photos where they were(on the external drive). After import the drive showed up in the folders panel and all my photos are fine(no question marks). The problem is that there is another folder showing in the folders panel "Windows C" in which all the photos show up in exactly the same folder structure as the external hard drive, but are greyed out and every folder under Windows C has a question mark. I could just ignore it because everything works fine when accessing the photos on the external drive. In the catalog drop down menu, in All Photographs, it says 70,000 photos but I only have 35,000 photos. If I right click to "Remove" the file under the Windows panel, it also removes the same file from the external hard drive panel. Any clues?

 

[clee01l]

At some point you probably moved the photos from your Pictures Folder in your Home (Robert) folder to the Seagate volume. When you did this, the path stored in the master catalog file was broken (as shown by the (?) and [!]). You then reimported these images now on the Seagate volume creating duplicate entries in your master catalog.

Reimporting is never the way to handle this. IF (and this is a big IF) these missing images are in the Seagate folders, the quick solution would be to REMOVE them from the Lightroom master catalog. The first thing you need to do is verify that the missing images in the Home ("Robert") sub folder are in fact reimported and cataloged in the Seagate folders If that is the case REMOVING them from the catalog will cause you to lose any edits and metadata work that you did to those images before you moved them outside of Lightroom.

 

[bobpringle20-yahoo]

At some point you probably moved the photos from your Pictures Folder in your Home (Robert) folder to the Seagate volume. When you did this, the path stored in the master catalog file was broken (as shown by the (?) and [!]). You then reimported these images now on the Seagate volume creating duplicate entries in your master catalog.

Reimporting is never the way to handle this. IF (and this is a big IF) these missing images are in the Seagate folders, the quick solution would be to REMOVE them from the Lightroom master catalog. The first thing you need to do is verify that the missing images in the Home ("Robert") sub folder are in fact reimported and cataloged in the Seagate folders If that is the case REMOVING them from the catalog will cause you to lose any edits and metadata work that you did to those images before you moved them outside of Lightroom.

Thanks Cletus. So what do you suggest I do?

 

[clee01l]

Thanks Cletus. So what do you suggest I do?

The first thing you need to do is verify that the missing images in the Home ("Robert") sub folder are in fact reimported and cataloged in the Seagate folders If that is the case REMOVING them from the catalog will cause you to lose any edits and metadata work that you did to those images before you moved them outside of Lightroom.

 

[camner]

If I right click to "Remove" the file under the Windows panel, it also removes the same file from the external hard drive panel. Any clues?

Isn’t this unusual? If the OP at some point reimported all of his images and targeted the Seagate EHD as the destination, then in his LrC catalog there would be two instances of each image, one listed under “Windows (C)” as missing, and one listed under “Seagate Backup Plus Drive (D)” as present.

Why would removing an image from the LrC catalog in the “Windows (C)” folder tree also remove the copy listed in the
“Seagate Backup Plus Drive (D)” tree?

 

[Califdan]

Why would removing an image from the LrC catalog in the “Windows (C)” folder tree also remove the copy listed in the
“Seagate Backup Plus Drive (D)” tree?

That's a darn good question. It's even stranger as on the "C:" drive the images are shown in LrC as being in the "Pictures" folder and on the Seagate they are shown as being in the "Photographs" folder.

Going under the assumption that the OP "removed" a folder shown on the "C" drive using the LrC folders Panel and it simultaneously removed the corresponding folder shown on the Seagate, the only thing that comes to mind is a corrupted catalog. Somehow, in the catalog the tables where folder paths are stored has gotten tangled up and multiple branches point to the same physical folders. I've never seen this particular corruption before, but could envision that it is possible.

However, if we're talking about using Explorer to remove folders, that's a different story and could be caused by a mixed up OneDrive (assuminmg it is involved ) or through the use of Symbolic Links.

Can @bobpringle20-yahoo please expand the description of the extact steps, in order, that you did to a) get the images from your C drive to the Seagate and b) whee you removed an image from one place and it removed it from the other as well. in your list of steps, be sure to include what tool you used in each step (e.g. Windows explorer, LrC Folders Panel, image in grid, Etc.). Also screen shots of these expanded folders as shown in Explorer as well as in the LrC folders panel. For the LrC Folders Panel, rignt click on the highest levels being shown and select "Show Parent Fodler" Repeat a few times to make visible the entire tree. This may help us understand your situation.

 

[bobpringle20-yahoo]

That's a darn good question. It's even stranger as on the "C:" drive the images are shown in LrC as being in the "Pictures" folder and on the Seagate they are shown as being in the "Photographs" folder.

Going under the assumption that the OP "removed" a folder shown on the "C" drive using the LrC folders Panel and it simultaneously removed the corresponding folder shown on the Seagate, the only thing that comes to mind is a corrupted catalog. Somehow, in the catalog the tables where folder paths are stored has gotten tangled up and multiple branches point to the same physical folders. I've never seen this particular corruption before, but could envision that it is possible.

However, if we're talking about using Explorer to remove folders, that's a different story and could be caused by a mixed up OneDrive (assuminmg it is involved ) or through the use of Symbolic Links.

Can @bobpringle20-yahoo please expand the description of the extact steps, in order, that you did to a) get the images from your C drive to the Seagate and b) whee you removed an image from one place and it removed it from the other as well. in your list of steps, be sure to include what tool you used in each step (e.g. Windows explorer, LrC Folders Panel, image in grid, Etc.). Also screen shots of these expanded folders as shown in Explorer as well as in the LrC folders panel. For the LrC Folders Panel, rignt click on the highest levels being shown and select "Show Parent Fodler" Repeat a few times to make visible the entire tree. This may help us understand your situation.

Thanks guys for all advice. Just wiped everything from new computer and reinstalled. Everything working ok with no duplicates or question marks. No idea why but maybe it was a corrupted catalog file. The mysteries of Lightroom.

 

[Califdan]

VERY STRONG ADVICE: DO NOT LET THE FOLDER CONTAINNG THE LRC CATALOG RESIDE UNDER A ONE DRIVE FOLDER.

If you have a new computer or reinstalled Windows the "Pictures" folder under which LrC places the catalog will be controlled by OneDrive. In other words OneDrive will be be a higher level folder in the path to the catalog folder. You don't have to take "Pictures" out from under OneDrive, but you do need to take the folder containing the catalog (Probably a folder called "Lightroom") out from under OneDrive.

With LrC closed, drag the Lightroom folder out from under pictures and place it someplace like "C:\users\<youraccountname>". Then, after moving it, using Windows Explorer, expand the folder and double lick on the "<yourcatalogname>.lrcat" file to open LrC using the catalog in its new location. If, when you do this, your image fodlers show up with "?" marks on them, use the "Locate missing folder" tool on the highest level folder that is marked as missing and point it back to where the images are.