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Trying to make order in file system!

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ipri

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2015
Messages
28
Lightroom Version Number
LR 6.14
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
Hi,
after moving all photos from old to new PC with lots of help from you folk, I now want to tidy up my folder structure. As you can see from my screen grab , I seem to have a mess re. photos taken in 2018. How do I re order these without causing more trouble? thanks .
Capture.PNG
 
Hi Johan,
I was about to re order my files as you describe, when I noticed I did not have access to my photos from the "Develop" mode. The Library module is as per screen grab. I don't know why the "E" drive shows all the file structure...there is no external drive in use. I did use an external drive to transfer all files from old PC some weeks ago. All was well until last night. I must have accidentally clicked something ! I'm not sure what's going wrong...if anything! Any help , appreciated. Ian.
Capture.PNG
 
Most likely Windows assigned different drive letter to the same drive. That happens sometimes, for example when the original drive letter is already given to some other device you have not always connected.

I assume that the drive with the 'Pictures' folder on it is now assigned D:, but in order not to have this problem again, it's a good idea to manually assign a much higher drive letter, so it won't be changed by Windows. Use P: from 'Photos' for example. How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

Then do the following: Right-click on the missing 'Pictures' folder in the Lightroom folder panel, and choose 'Find Missing Folder'. You will get a standard open-dialog. With that dialog navigate to the Pictures folder on the P disk and select it. Done.
 
Johan, just to be clear, when in "Library", the " Pictures" folder is greyed out, but somehow is under the "E" drive with lots of "?" . When I go to Edit > import photos and videos, the import page comes up ...with all my files....C> user> pictures ...then full file structure. Sorry if I sound muddled, I am a bit nervous of doing more harm!....PS. did you want me to change the "E" drive to "P" ?
 
Last edited:
Just read my message again. Lightroom thinks that the 'Pictures' folder is on your E: drive. However, that drive now has a different drive letter assigned to it. What you need to do is assign the letter P: to the drive that has the 'Pictures' folder on it, and then follow the instructions.
 
Sorry, but now have about half of my photo folders showing, but the other half greyed out with "?" I will try again tomorrow. Looks like I will be individually "finding " folders....
 
That's possible. If you moved folders outside of Lightroom, then the hierarchy that Lightroom expects no longer exists. The only way to solve that is to either undo those changes, or reconnect the folders individually.
 
Hi,
have almost completed the process of sorting the mess out. I have a number of sub folders with "?" in the "pictures" folder. The photos appear blurred when opened. As far as I can see, the photos all seem to exist in the correct place an display ok. Can I safely delete these ? thanks for all help so far.
 
Hi,
have almost completed the process of sorting the mess out. I have a number of sub folders with "?" in the "pictures" folder. The photos appear blurred when opened. As far as I can see, the photos all seem to exist in the correct place an display ok. Can I safely delete these ? thanks for all help so far.
If you are seeing question marks, then LR cannot see where it believes those images are located. This can be for a number of reasons, like Windows assigning a different drive letter to the external drive, or images being moved outside of LR. While you may believe that the images are where they should be, LR only knows where they were when they were imported (unless you moved the images within LR). I would not recommend deleting anything until are are able to get LR to see where these photos are currently residing. If it is only a few images, then all you need to do is point LR to the new location of these images. I do not recommend re-importing them into LR, as this will most likely just create duplication, and lose any edits, thus creating a bit of a mess on itw own.

--Ken
 
Thanks for you comments. I have sorted almost all of these. The remaining few don't worry me. However, somehow I have "lost" the settings I have made to my photos. I have no idea how this happened, but may have to do with trying to get some better order in my file structure. I have tried unzipping the .lrcat files ( "extract all") , but then get a message saying the destination already has a file of that name. Trouble is, with trying a bit too hard I'm not sure what Catalogue ,or what file I'm supposed to be working with!! Any help really appreciated. Ian
 
PS I have recently transferred all LR and files successfully to my new PC . Created a new Cat. called Main. But there are some other Cats. called LR5 Cat. I now have LR6.14....hope that helps.
 
Why are you trying to unzip LR files?

I think that you are making this more complicated than it needs to be. The only catalogs LR creates are the initial catalog after installation and backups. Any other catalogs created are by the user. Might I suggest that you identify all the catalogs that you have (regardless of LR version or machine and sort them out if you want to resolve this issue. On the other hand, if you do not want to resolve it, work with your new catalog if it meets your needs.

Good luck,

--Ken
 
I must have read something re. unzipping the .lrcat files. When I transferred my photos to my new PC, I seem to remember double clicking on a file to show all the settings I had made for each of the pics. That's all I want to do. Can you help?
 
I must have read something re. unzipping the .lrcat files. When I transferred my photos to my new PC, I seem to remember double clicking on a file to show all the settings I had made for each of the pics. That's all I want to do. Can you help?
Are you saving out your edits from LR in XMP sidecar files?

--Ken
 
Ken, I don't know. Like most of the folk asking for help here , I don't have much knowledge of LR other that using it to improve my photos. thanks anyway Ian
 
I must have read something re. unzipping the .lrcat files. When I transferred my photos to my new PC, I seem to remember double clicking on a file to show all the settings I had made for each of the pics. That's all I want to do. Can you help?
Edits are shown in the Develop module. Is it possible that you were looking in the Develop module when you saw the changes you made to an image?

--Ken
 
All I know is that the edits on the thumbnails in Develop module have gone. When I bought new PC I re downloaded LR then transferred all my photos to the new PC. The edits were not them either. Someone here suggested how I could re unite my edits with all my pics. And it worked. All the edits flooded back. will be back online later in week . Thanks for help ian
 
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