Problems finding the same image in nested catalogs

[rowf]

Hi
This is my first post - so apologies if the topic has been covered previously. I catalog my images by external drive/folder (year)/ subfolder etc exactly as per the way the original images are stored. As an example of the problem I recenlty came back from a trip to Nepal so the catalog is Drive O:/ Graphics 2'1'/ 4'D. I modified the images and ranked them by color label and by rating ( a few also by flag). Now when I look at the numbers of images in the 4'D folder they are correct. However when I look in the library some are missing. If I look at all im,ages in Graphics 2'1' all of the images are there! It does not seem to be that I have inadvertantly transferred the images to a different catalog as they do not appear in any of the other sub folders.

Best Regards.

 

[dj_paige]

There are no functions that work from one catalog to another, so a search to find images in multiple catalogs is not a feature of Lightroom. This is one reason why most people use a single catalog to contain all of their photos. If you use a single catalog for your photos, searching for photos across the entire catalog is easy, and you won't have "nested" catalogs with photos in several catalogs.

I really have trouble understanding why you are organizing your photos in this manner, via "nested" catalogs that essentially match your folder hierarchy. Seems like a lot of work, for little (if any) benefit.

It is my opinion that replicating your folder structure using Lightroom tools (in your case, catalogs, but also via collections or keywords) is a waste of time. Why? Because when you import your photos into Lightroom, the folder panel contains a representation of your folders on your hard disk(s). So, if you want to find photos in a specific folder, you don't have to create collections or keywords or catalogs for that folder, you simply use the folder panel.

I would strongly recommend you begin using keywords to organize your photos; where the keywords describe the content of your photos (for example, Nepal, Himalaya, village, river, sherpa, etc.) and where the keywords do NOT describe your folder structure, and where the keywords do NOT describe dates and times.

 

[Denis Pagé]

Welcome to Lightroom Forums rowf!

It is not clear to me what you call "Catalog" as you can't transfer to another catalog...

Anyway, from what I can understand of you differing counts problem, can you first check in menu -> "File" -> "Library Filters" -> "Include Photos from Subfolders" and see if there is a checkmark in front of it? Yhis may explain the different counts.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Rowf, there's a bit of a tangle there, where you're explaining the different counts in different folders. Could you describe a little clearer, about the source of the counts? Are you looking at Lr's counts vs. the Windows Explorer counts, or what exactly?
As Denis says, that preferences setting could affect the Lr counts, also you may have a Lr filter applied affecting which images are displayed and counted, or if you may be using stacks with some of your images which gives different counts depending on whether the stacks are expanded/collapsed.

Paige gives reasonable advice, but I believe he may be addressing a different question at this point.

 

[rowf]

Many thanks to all for the useful advice!

As you can tell I am a novice not only at Lightroom but also in forums. I have however managed to solve the problem by eliminating all flags and ratings from the catalog. This obviously was causing some sort of conflict.

 

[Denis Pagé]

If this is the case, you just had to put the filter' switch to off rather than loosing your info.