Re: wish I could start all over...

[cameragirl]

wish I could start all over...

My whole organization is messed up. I have folders by year/month/subject. By accident a few folders were created with different dates and name. Its even too hard to explain how bad I messed up!
Started with a folder Pictures/years with 2''7-2''8-a few by subject-2''9 and so on. I'm afraid there is no way to reorganize this? I do have tags on every photo to find what I need, but the folders in the Library is just a total mess and nothing is in order. Am I the only one who created a mess in something that is supposed to do the opposite?

 

[MarkNicholas]

I think we have all been there to some degree or other. When I started out putting together my collection of digital images it was a complete mess. I had renamed photos, had multiple copies of the same photo with different names. They were all Jpegs and had been edited many times and had seriously deteriorated. I had no proper folder structure. Fortunately I was able to use the exif data to piece it all together.

That is why I now have a very simple folder structure.

I think you should be able to tidy up your "mess" but it would take a little patience and time.

 

[perottol]

First, dont panic. This in a one time job, and the photos will be organized for the rest of your life. I would recommend "Pictures/2''9/2''9-12-24 - Description", of if you shoot very much "Pictures/2''9/12/2''9-12-24 - A good description".

Create the complete new folder structure first, and then slowly start to move your pictures.

 

[johnbeardy]

Start off by getting things right from now on - go for a simple date-based folder structure "/year/2''91224 - Description". Deal with the past when you're more confident of LR - just keep adding keywords and other metadata.

When you're ready to sort out the older stuff (if you feel you still need to do so), make certain no files have got question marks and that LR knows where all your files are. Use CmdS to save your adjustments and metadata back to the files. Backup the LR catalogue, and ensure every picture is backed up. Ask yourself - if it all goes wrong, can i get back to where I am now?

Then remove all the old folders from LR, and re-import them - choosing a better date-based folder structure.

John

 

[PatrickC]

1. Simple date-based folders: 2''9/2''9-12/2''9-12-25 - you don't need anything else, especially because you're already using tags to locate your images.
2. As John says, write metadata to files (Cmd-S) and back up EVERYTHING. Make sure you have a current copy of your LR database (which is what a backup is, but there's no harm in having an extra one).
3. As I understand it, you have a substantial proportion of your images in the file system you think is right? If so, you can do as follows: Create an new folder inside Lightroom, at the top level. Select all of the folders which do not conform to your preferred folder naming structure and drag them into your new folder - okay any warnings you get about moving files on disk.
4. Delete this top-level folder from LR BUT DO NOT DELETE THE FILES FROM DISK, just remove the folders from LR.
4. File>Import>from disk, navigate to the folder you created (which still exists on your hard drive although you deleted it from your LR database), make sure 'include subfolders' is selected, choose 'copy to new location' and your preferred folder structure and sit back. Once the import has completed and you have checked that all your images are where you want them and don't have !s on them you can delete the folder you created.

If there are many image files you need to move you might need to use an external hard drive as you will temporarily be creating copies of the image pixel files, so doubling the HD space.

One caveat: if your images are in collections, doing this will remove them from those collections. If this is an issue, you'll have to either write out a list of the images which will be removed and add them back to the collections manually, or use a more manual way to reorganise, eg set up collections by date and then move the images within LR.

Good luck - it shouldn't take too much of your time, though it might occupy your computer for a few hours if there are many images!

Patrick Cunningham

 

[clee01l]

The approach recommended by John and Patrick is good and very similar to the one I used. I had used several othrre post processors and at least two schemes for importing. When I started LR, I imported everything In-Place. New Imports took the simple date based folder appraoch offered by Lightroom. Starting with the most recent 'old' folders and working backwards, I manually created a date based folder to match the dates of the images I needed to move.Then using LR, and selecting "All Photographs" from the left panel, I would first filter images in my date then drag these images by date to the appropriate new folder. When I emptied an OLD folder showing in the folders panel, I would delete it. LR does it own housekeeping and I don't need to worry about making sure I don't lose any of LRs processing metadata. Of course, it is always good to keep your metadata written and upto date with <Cmd-S> The nice thing I think about my approach variation is that you don't need to do all of it at once. I worked on mine when I had extra time and when I need to do work on photos that took me into the older folder structure.

 

[johnbeardy]

[quote author=clee'1l link=topic=8288.msg56233#msg56233 date=1257254''5]
The nice thing I think about my approach variation is that you don't need to do all of it at once. I worked on mine when I had extra time and when I need to do work on photos that took me into the older folder structure.
[/quote]
And that's a very important point! Very often the apparent scale of the task puts people off ever starting, but beginning to get things in order makes it more manageable, and gives you the skills to make the rest of the work much easier than you'd ever imagined.

John

 

[cameragirl]

Good to hear that there is still a way to fix it. Thanks sooo much for everyone's tips. Before I dive into this, what do you do with photos in folders that are saved on an external hard drive? I have a 8'GB Lacie that is full of course and has been replaced now by a 5'' GB ext. hard drive. But the photos in my LR library shows this ?, because these ones are on the 8'GB lacie. Or did I do something...dumb?

 

[Denis Pagé]

[quote author=cameragirl link=topic=8288.msg56239#msg56239 date=1257268357]
Good to hear that there is still a way to fix it. Thanks sooo much for everyone's tips. Before I dive into this, what do you do with photos in folders that are saved on an external hard drive? I have a 8'GB Lacie that is full of course and has been replaced now by a 5'' GB ext. hard drive. But the photos in my LR library shows this ?, because these ones are on the 8'GB lacie. Or did I do something...dumb?
[/quote]
Just plug back the LaCie and the ? marks will disappear. There is no harm keeping it unplugged if you don't need to work with those images at the moment.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Some good advise here, I reorganised all of mine into year/year-month/year-month-day description folders.I did this all within Lr so lost no settings or collections.Yes it took a bit of time but worked well.Of course everything is imported into the right place mow!!

 

[cameragirl]

[quote author=PatrickC link=topic=8288.msg56228#msg56228 date=1257241'67]
1. Simple date-based folders: 2''9/2''9-12/2''9-12-25 - you don't need anything else, especially because you're already using tags to locate your images.
2. As John says, write metadata to files (Cmd-S) and back up EVERYTHING. Make sure you have a current copy of your LR database (which is what a backup is, but there's no harm in having an extra one).
3. As I understand it, you have a substantial proportion of your images in the file system you think is right? If so, you can do as follows: Create an new folder inside Lightroom, at the top level. Select all of the folders which do not conform to your preferred folder naming structure and drag them into your new folder - okay any warnings you get about moving files on disk.
4. Delete this top-level folder from LR BUT DO NOT DELETE THE FILES FROM DISK, just remove the folders from LR.
4. File>Import>from disk, navigate to the folder you created (which still exists on your hard drive although you deleted it from your LR database), make sure 'include subfolders' is selected, choose 'copy to new location' and your preferred folder structure and sit back. Once the import has completed and you have checked that all your images are where you want them and don't have !s on them you can delete the folder you created.

If there are many image files you need to move you might need to use an external hard drive as you will temporarily be creating copies of the image pixel files, so doubling the HD space.

One caveat: if your images are in collections, doing this will remove them from those collections. If this is an issue, you'll have to either write out a list of the images which will be removed and add them back to the collections manually, or use a more manual way to reorganise, eg set up collections by date and then move the images within LR.

Good luck - it shouldn't take too much of your time, though it might occupy your computer for a few hours if there are many images!

Patrick Cunningham
[/quote]

Thanks so much Patrick I did not know it was easier than I thought. I dragged the photos to the right folders and it looks already way better. I guess I was just scared every time I got this warning about moving files.
I am still working on it, but am so relieved that I'm going into the right direction. I will take it by little steps.
Thanks again!