Weird Harddrive path problem (with screen shots)

[reydnad]

I've been looking for a similar problem online I can't seem to find anything written about this, so here goes...

I'm using LR2. The catalog and photos on an external drive named Frank.

The problem:
Two Frank hard drives are showing up in Lightroom (but in reality there is only one). One of them shows question marks on most of the folders. The other looks normal.

It turns out my computer has named one of them Frank1 to differentiate.

So now I have a Frank and a Frank1.

above: two Frank drives
below: Frank has lots of question mark folders

above: Frank1 showing no question marks

Some explaination:
In my /Volumes folder on my mac it shows Frank and Frank1. Frank1 is the external drive and Frank has been assigned as a Volume in my computer, and looks like and alias

below: what Frank and Frank1 look like in the finder

When I try to drag folders (within LR) from Frank (on my computer) to Frank1 the external drive it won't let me.

I checked and some of the folders on Frank are actually on Frank1 one but show up in LR on Frank but not Frank1. But also, some folders on Frank are NOT on Frank1. It's kind of a mess.

Summary:
I just want one external hard drive to show up, named Frank. I want all my folders and photos to be on that drive (that drive is backed up).

I'm lost on this one. Please help me out. I'll be happy to answer any questions where I am unclear or don't share enough info. Thanks in advance.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi Reydnad, welcome to the forum!

Ok, for a start, which version are you running? I'd suggest updating to 2.3 from http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Lightroom_2.3

And then let's take Lightroom for a moment.

Actually ON your drives, where are the photos? Are they all on right drive? I'd be inclined to remove any strange aliases, to prevent confusion.

Now back in Lightroom, right click (ctrl-click) on any folders with question marks, select Find Missing Folder and point them to the correct location.

And then preventative measures for the future - are the folders in any kind of hierarchy on disc? Because I'd show that hierarchy in Lightroom too, so that you'd only then have to relink the parent folder and it'll cascade through the rest.

 

[reydnad]

Thanks for your input. I'm not sure how to "make" the hierarchy show. I'll take any instruction there. (i'm in LR 2.2) I'll upgrade later tonight.

I'm still unsure about finding the missing folder. For example... I have the /2''8 Aug 2' folder that on Frank has 63 photos and that same folder on Frank1 has 4'' or so photos. After quick comparison neither of the folders has previews that the other has. I checked for another 2''8 Aug 2' folder I even searched computer wide for one. In the actual folder on the disk all those photos are there... as far as I can tell without examining 4''+ photos.

So if I find the missing folder will all the photos be counted from the actual folder on the drive? and why don't either of the folders currently count all the photos?

Thanks.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

No problem reydnad.

Here's the instructions on showing the hierarchy: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/...can-i-change-it-to-show-the-folder-hierarchy/

So physically the photos are all in one folder, but Lightroom is showing them in 2 different folders, have I got that right? If so, right click on each question mark folder, choose Find Missing Folder and point to the correct disc location. There's more instructions here: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroomqueen/2'samples/missingphotos2'.pdf (it's a PDF, I haven't transferred it to the blog yet!)

 

[reydnad]

Thanks Victoria
I tried to find the missing folder can came up with an error:
The selected folder or a folder it contains is already in Lightroom.

Also it did another weird thing. I tried a couple different folders and on one of the folders the computer thought a second and then it looked it had found all the folders. Then all the folders went back to question marks, except the same few.

So, I'm still not sure of how to fix this.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Which folder were you trying to relocate when it came up with that dialog? And ARE that folders images or the folder itself already showing up elsewhere in Lightroom?

 

[rhynetc]

The selected folder or a folder it contains is already in Lightroom.

Thanks Victoria
I tried to find the missing folder can came up with an error:
The selected folder or a folder it contains is already in Lightroom.

I also experienced this behavior, and I know what caused it in my case: I used the disk manager in Vista to assign a different drive letter to my external hard drive (ehd) containing my photos.

When I click on the question mark, I find the photo in the ehd with the new drive letter, and then a link to that folder is established with no question mark but it only contains the photos in that folder. All other photos still have the question mark because they are pointing to the previous drive letter for my ehd.

Now when I try to find the new drive letter for the ehd, I get the message "The selected folder or a folder it contains is already in Lightroom."

It seems I will have to udo my first "find" and then go for finding the proper drive letter for the ehd.

Note added: This process worked, sort of...

Lr found the new drive letter, but now the one folder which I originally found and then "undid" is missing from Lr but is still on the ehd in the original file structure. Do I now have to go through import again to get these photos into Lr?

 

[rhynetc]

I restarted Lr by clicking on one of my recent backed-up catalogs (from just before changing the drive letter of my external hard drive) and noted that all photos have the question mark, as expected.

Rather than "finding" the photos in the most recent folder as I did above, I went to the parent folder on the external drive and clicked on the question mark, thus finding all the photos at once. Took a few seconds to complete the find, of course, but this time there are no ambiguities to generate the error message noted above.