In an earlier post, we briefly discussed using the Destination panel to choose where to select the location for your photos, highlighting the folder in white. We also said that Lightroom can automatically organize the photos into subfolders for you, and that any folders that Lightroom creates are placed inside your selected folder. So, how do you use Lightroom’s Import dialog to put photos into dated folders while importing?
How the photos are organized within your selected folder depends on your Organize pop-up selection at the top of the Destination panel. You have three choices:
- By date gives you a choice of pure date-based folder structures. It automatically organizes your photos into a tidy folder structure.
Into one folder places the photos in the single folder that you select, or into a subfolder of that selected folder. It allows you to create your own folder structure manually. For example, you may want to create a folder for each shoot or event.- By original folders imports in the same nested hierarchy as their existing structure, but at a new location. This is useful if you’re importing existing folders of photos and you wish to keep the existing organization.
In this post, we’ll concentrate on the By date option, and in another post, we’ll look at the into per-shoot folders option. For more detail, see pages 36-42 in my Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ book.
How do I pick a date structure?
In the Organize pop-up at the top of the Destination panel, select By date. The Date Format pop-up appears, giving you a choice of difference dated folder structures, based on the capture date stored in each file.
The slash (/) creates nested folders so 2017/01/16 creates a folder 16 inside of a folder 01 inside of a folder 2017, not a single folder called 2017/01/16. If you want a single folder, you need to use a format with hyphens (-) or underscores (_ ), such as the 2017-01-16 format.
For most amateur photographers, the best of these options is YYYY/MM, which creates month folders inside year folders.
I’d suggest ignoring the ones with the month spelled alphabetically, as the Folders panel sorts in alpha-numeric order and isn’t quite smart enough to know that May should come before August
Why are some of the Destination folders in italic?
As you test the different Date Format options, watch the folder hierarchy below. The folders shown in italic are folders that don’t currently exist, but will be created by the import. It’s an easy way to check that the folder organization setting that you’ve chosen is the one that you want.
There’s one particular thing to look out for here… nested year folders.
One of the most frequent problems I see is the wrong Destination folder being selected. For example, notice in the first screenshot below, there’s a new italic 2016 folder being created inside the existing 2016 folder, which is inside yet another 2016 folder. This happens when you select an existing year folder, and tell Lightroom to create dated folders inside it. But look how easy it is to spot in the Destination preview!
To fix it, if you click on the parent folder – Lightroom Photos, in this case – the dated folders slip back into the correct place in the hierarchy, shown in the second screenshot.
Something as simple as double-checking the preview in the Destination panel each time you import new photos can save hours of work tidying up later. You just need to know where to look.
For extensive information on Lightroom Classic, see Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ.
If you have the Photography Plan, then as well as Classic you have access to the Lightroom cloud ecosystem including the mobile apps and web interface. For more information on these apps, see Adobe Lightroom – Edit on the Go.
Note: purchase of these books includes the first year’s Classic or cloud-based Premium Membership (depending on the book purchased), giving access to download the latest eBook (each time Adobe updates the software), email assistance for the applicable Lightroom version if you hit a problem, and other bonuses.
We also have a special bundle offer for the two books. This includes Premium Membership for the first year as described above for the whole Lightroom family!
Originally posted 16 January 2016, updated October 2019.
Hello,
I’ve been using LS for years and had no problems with the Destination of my imports until recently. I must have clicked on something wrong but haven’t figured out how to get back to ‘normal’. I wish I could show you screen captures because it’s hard to put into words.
Basically, I accepted the default destination in the beginning which was Pictures/2013 (yep that long ago) . I would import and LS would create a subfolder name based on the date the photos were taken, ex 2013/2013-01-01. Now 10 years later, on 09-09-2023 after I made some unknown change, LS thinks 2023-09-09 is the top folder and it creates new subfolders under it, ex. 2023-09-09/2023/09. Yes, the subfolders are italiced in the Destination location. I can work but I have to clean up after myself every time I import.
HELP!
Roxanne
Oh yeah, there are no folders above 2023-09-09 in the Destination window. Honestly I never used this Organize pop out before. I would most often just hide it to get it out of the way. Until now…sigh.
You should see the Folder tree in the Destination Panel and be able to click at a higher level to make that the start point for Import.
Can we suggest open a thread on our Forums, then you can share some screen captures, it’s easier to ask you questions and we can help sort!
I find your website very interesting and would be happy if I could get help with my project:
I used the option to create folders by date when importing, I would like a folder name consisting of year and month – but without a day, unfortunately there is no suitable default for this. The second option would be almost appropriate – only the day should not be included.
is there a way to configure this somewhere?
There is a line in the Lightroom Classic CC 7 Preferences.agprefs that indicates: AgImport_shootNameFormat = “%Y/%Y-%m-%d”,
but when I remove %d it has no effect
You’d need to edit the Translated Strings file. The principle’s the same as changing keyboard shortcuts here: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/custom-keyboard-shortcuts/
Your Website is amazing, I got a new Mac awhile ago and was procrastinating about moving my Lightroom over from my old computer, hence my photos were way behind being uploaded and my Lightroom versions were too old. Your website helped me pick the Lightroom to install on my new Mac, organize my photos into a proper hierarchy, rework my keywords and my rating system and also solve my problems of why it wasn’t saving to the correct spot on import. Thanks so much for all your help, your site is my go to for anything Lightroom.
We’re very pleased, there’s a lot of helpful information in the blogs, on the forums here and Victoria’s books. We have appreciated your feedback!
Hello Victoria,
I configured my LR database folder layout as Subject / Shooting Date (YYYY-MM-DD).
By connecting Iphone to the destination folder via USB, I upload it via LR. This is advantageous for me. However, I had a problem with the folder opening date. It started to open a folder with the Date of Modification, not the Original Shot Date. The problem started after switching to Iphone 6.
The answer on the adobe feedback page worked ( https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/to-be-able-to-change-the-import-destination-date-format-setting-to-original-file-date ) . When loaded on the hard disk and then imported in LR, it was installed in the correct folder according to the shooting date.
With the addition of a code, can we force the LR to create a folder with the Date Shot on the Target folder? I was wondering if there is a way to continue using USB.
Thanks for the Enlightening articles about Lightroom.
I don’t think that’d help I’m afraid, as it’s the date that’s wrong, regardless of format.
Morning
Always amazed how every time I pay a visit to your website I actualy learn something useful…. again and again!
Merci Victoria
michel d
This website is an incredible resource, Victoria. Thank you.
I’m just reporting that the October release felt quite a bit slower on my MacBook Pro (2015, 16G RAM, OS 10.11), especially populating the filmstrip. The new February release feels much faster. No data, just feeling.
That’s great news!
hi. is there any way to sort by only year/month. I have tried many of the options above but it goes further and sorts to the day. My problem is that some days only have one photo. I’d prefer to have all photos taken in january stored in a “january” folder and no date sub folders. hopefully my question makes sense
Yes, the 2017/01 (or 2017/02 by now) option I’ve highlighted in this screenshot will just be months inside years.
Yes, it’s not entirely automated but it’s not too time consuming and you don’t lose anything. The trick is to build the new folder structure, filter for the month’s photos using Metadata filters, then drag and drop a month at a time. There’s a more detailed post coming up in a few weeks time.
OK, yes I see how that can be done. I guess I was hoping that it might have been possible to (somehow) use LR’s import destination format options to re-organise existing folders. Without actually doing an import. I was probably hoping for too much!
We can dream, David!
Thankyou for a post which made me think. It seems to me that it just *might* be possible to persuade LR to reorganise folders from an existing structure (eg yyyy/yyyy_mm_dd) to eg yyyy/mm, without performing an import. Clearly a lot is at risk (20k photos) so I’m treading very carefully. Might it be possible?
Great post! I just installed (rather my IT guy did!) a Synology NAS external drive system where I am importing & storing my photos from a memory card through LR. The problem is that the Synology drive doesn’t appear in the Destination panel on the right. How can I add it so I can point the import directly to the correct folder/subfolder? My workaround is to point the TO: in the upper right hand section of the Import screen to the exact folder. Note: in the Library mode, after import I do have a complete Synology Folder with all my file hierarchy. Thanks!
Interesting. Which operating system do you use Julie? A really odd one, but if you’re on Windows and he mounted it as drive A or B, that can cause trouble.
oh yes: windows 7 professional and yes he did mount it on the B: drive and P: drive for the Synology photo station. So, which Drives should the Synology be on?
Here’s what the hard drives and Synology drives look like on My Computer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0rbph8qu1c1wl4e/Screenshot%202017-01-18%2014.41.14.png?dl=0 .
thanks so much! Julie
Anything but A or B will be fine. A and B used to be assigned to floppy drives years and years ago, and for some unknown reason, Adobe thought it was a good idea to ignore those letters.
It worked to change the drive! Thanks so much!
Great, thanks for the update.