Re-Linking Missing Files Without Previous File Structure

[bailey_b]

Lightroom Version Number

8.4.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I've got a problem in Lightroom Classic that I've found a slow, time-consuming fix for, but am hoping a simpler approach is possible.

The situation is this:

The hard drive that my photos were on was accidentally erased and the data had to be recovered. It looks like most if not all of my photos were successfully recovered, but the recovery simply put them all into one folder rather then the nested Year/Date structure that Lightroom imported them into. I was able to restore a backed up Lightroom catalog, but of course the files aren't in their previous location, so all the files are seen by as missing by Lightroom. The files are now in one large "Pictures" folder. I can redirect each individual folder to the recovered files with the "Find Missing Folder" command, but this seemingly can be only done one folder at a time, which is not desirable when I have 5-some years worth of folders to re-link. Is it there a fast way to redirect all the folders to the new "Pictures" folder at once?

Thank you for any help!

 

[clee01l]

If you were using a date named folder structure before and you need to recreate the folder structure “Like Lightroom would”. You hav a good catalog but missing images. While you don’t want to reimport those images into the old catalog you do want them moved into the folder structure.

Try this:
Make a backup catalog copy (you should not need this but this is insurance in case you screw up).
Set aside your good backed up catalog and create a new empty catalog
Using this empty catalog to do the work, Import all of your image (in the one big folder) using the Move option to Move them into a Date Named folder structure to match the Date named folder structure of your good backed up catalog . Once the images have been moved to the Date Named Folder structure, open the good backed up catalog and use the Find Folder function in the Folder panel to re connect the old catalog to the correct path that the images are now in,

 

[Califdan]

Clee: Brilliant.

 

[clee01l]

Clee: Brilliant.

I thought the solution was enlightened myself. (pats self on back)

 

[bailey_b]

Thank you. That worked great and went much faster than re-linking each folder one at a time would have been.