At some stage, most people run into worrying exclamation points or question marks denoting missing files. These warnings appear when Lightroom can no longer find the photos at their last known location. But if Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do you fix it?
Usually, the issue is because you’ve used other software such as Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) to:
- Delete the photos or folders.
- Move the photos or folders.
- Rename the photos or folders.
It can also happen when something’s happened to the drive, such as:
- The external or network drive holding the photos is unplugged/disconnected.
- The drive letter has changed (Windows) or drive mount point has changed (Mac).
- You’ve moved to a new computer.
How do I know that Lightroom can’t find my photos?
Missing files are identified by a rectangular icon in the corner of the Grid thumbnail, with or without an exclamation point. In earlier versions, it displayed a question mark icon instead.
When you switch to the Develop module, the sliders are unavailable, as you can’t edit a photo that’s missing unless you’ve built smart previews.
If the entire folder is missing, the folder name in the Folders panel goes gray with a question mark folder icon.
If an entire drive is offline, the volume name in the Folders panel and the small rectangular icon on the left turn gray.
STOP!
If you have missing photos or folders, don’t be tempted to synchronize the folder or re-import the photos until you’ve explored every other possibility. If you do so, you may lose the work you’ve done in Lightroom.
How do I fix the missing files?
If Lightroom tells you that files are missing, don’t panic. First, stop and work out the extent of the problem, and if you can, why it’s happened. Then fix it as soon as you can, using the instructions below, as problems tend to snowball if you ignore them.
The quickest way to fix the missing files is to follow these instructions in order. If you start relinking missing photos before you relink missing folders and drives, you can create a bigger job.
- First, you must find the files on your hard drive. Lightroom can’t tell you where you’ve put the files if you’ve moved/renamed/deleted them using other software, so you first need to locate the missing files.
Once you’ve found them on your hard drive using Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac), you can move on to step 2. If you get stuck, try using Windows Search or macOS Spotlight to search for one of the filenames.
- Look in the Folders panel. Is the whole drive offline, shown by dark gray text and a gray rectangle on the left?
If the answer’s no, skip on to step 3.
If the answer’s yes, why is the drive offline? Is it disconnected? If you’re on Windows, has the drive letter changed? If you’re on a Mac, has the drive name changed?
If the drive is disconnected, plug it back in or reconnect to the network storage.
If the drive letter/name has changed, you can change it back using Computer Management (Windows) or Finder (Mac), or you can move on to step 3 and reconnect the individual folders. (When using external drives, Lightroom doesn’t change the drive letters, but Windows often does. This can confuse Lightroom, requiring you to relink missing files on a regular basis. Leaving the drives plugged in to your computer, or always reattaching them in the same order can help avoid the drive letter changing.)
- Look in the Folders panel. Are some of the folders marked as missing, with gray text and a question mark on the folder icon?
If the answer’s no, skip on to step 4.
If the answer’s yes, why are the folders missing? Did you delete, rename or move a folder?
If you deleted the folders, restore from the Recycle Bin/Trash or from a backup.
If you renamed or moved the folder, you could move/rename it back and then redo the move/rename within Lightroom.
If you can’t put them back as they were, you can link Lightroom to the new name/location. That’s the next step…
- If you set up the folders as a hierarchy using the instructions in our free Quick Start eBook or our main FAQ book (or this post), is a whole folder hierarchy of parent/child folders marked as missing? Or is it a single folder (or a few folders) that’s marked as missing?
If it’s a whole folder hierarchy that’s missing, right-click on the parent folder (rather than the individual subfolders) and select Find Missing Folder from the context-sensitive menu, then navigate to the new location of that parent folder. As long as the names and structure of the subfolders haven’t changed, all of the subfolders are fixed at the same time.
If it’s a single missing folder, right-click on the missing folder and select Find Missing Folder from the context-sensitive menu, then navigate to the new location of the folder. Lightroom then updates its records to the new location and the question marks disappear.
If there are multiple missing folders, that aren’t in a folder hierarchy, do the same for each of these folders.
- Are individual photos still marked as missing?
If the answer’s no, your work is done. Go to , just to double-check you haven’t missed any photos.
If the answer’s yes, why are those photos missing? Do you remember moving or renaming them? Or deleting them?
If you deleted them, you’ll need to restore the photos to their previous location from the Recycle Bin/Trash or from a recent backup. Remember, the photos are never IN Lightroom, and most of Lightroom’s tools won’t work without the original photos. (We’ll come back to worst case scenarios in a moment).
If you moved the photos without renaming, you can either move them back, or you can link Lightroom’s records to the new location of the photos.
To link Lightroom to the new name/location, click on the rectangle in the corner of the thumbnail. Lightroom displays the last known location of the photo. Click Locate and navigate to the new location of that photo. Check the Find nearby missing photos checkbox to allow Lightroom to try to automatically relink other files in the same folder. Lightroom updates its records to the new location and the rectangular icons disappear.
If you renamed the photos outside of Lightroom, the quickest solution is to restore the photos with the old names from your backups and then redo the rename within Lightroom. If there are only a few photos, you can link Lightroom to the new name/location (using the previous instructions), however every renamed photo must be relinked individually.
What if I can’t find the files?
If you can’t find the original files, you’ll need to restore from backups. (And if you’re reading this before you’re confronted by missing files, please go and check your backups!) If you can’t restore from backups and the photos are recent, try using disk recovery software to recover the files from your memory cards. As a last resort, it may be possible to recover Lightroom’s previews if they’re available, but they’re only low quality JPEGs. I can’t stress the importance of backups strongly enough.
Preventing Missing Files
Prevention is better than cure, and preventing missing files will save you some additional work, so there are a few things to look out for…
- Don’t delete the original files from your hard drive. Photos are not stored IN Lightroom.
- Move any files or folders within Lightroom’s own interface, simply by dragging and dropping around the Folders panel. Don’t “tidy up” using other software or the operating system (or if you do, fix Lightroom’s links immediately).
- Rename any files before importing into Lightroom, or use Lightroom to rename them. Whatever you do, don’t rename in other software once they’re imported.
- Don’t use Synchronize Folder to remove missing files and import them again at their new location as you’ll lose all of your Lightroom settings.
- Set Lightroom’s Folders panel to show the full folder hierarchy to a single root level folder. If a folder is moved from its previous location, or the drive letter changes, it can be fixed more easily than individual folders.
For extensive information on Lightroom Classic, see Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ.
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 published December 29, 2015. Updated June 3, 2019.
I imported a folder for specific date and edited the photos, dated 2024-10-15. I want to return to this folder to work on a photo and I no longer find the folder in my lightroom folder list. The folders with adjacent dates are listed (Library – Show Folders in Subfolders is checked). The photos for the missing folder show in the ‘Missing photos’ folder. When I select ‘find in folder ‘the photo appears but when I try to develop it, LRC states the folder is missing. I searched for the folder in explorer and it, and it’s photos are where they belong. I tried to reimport the photos and LRC says they already exist. I have tried all of the solutions I could find in the “Missing FAQs” and this website.
Any ideas on how to show the photos and their folder (that are where they belong)?
So if you right-click on the photo and choose Go to Folder in Library, it finds the folder ok but the folder has a question mark on it? If so, I think we might need some screenshots to spot where the problem’s coming from. We can’t upload them in the blog comments, but feel free to create a thread on the community forum (link in the menu) and we’ll help you troubleshoot further.
Hello
interesting but … 😉 I have nearly 4000 missing photos BUT
They are exactly where LRC is looking for them and they have exactly the same name (were never removed)
BUT
They are coming from Mac (very old LR ) and I am now on PC with the latest version
AND
Most of them were taken in August so their name in French (sorry I’m a frog) contains “aoùt” with an accent which is august in French
I saw other people have the problem but I saw no answer
Thanks in advance
Any clues welcomed becaus
That could be some kind of file permissions problem since they’ve gone between machines. How’s the drive formatted?
Hello,
Thanks it feels like a path to explore !
Destination is NTFS , source was Mac (old)
All of my photos are gone from my 2024 catalog. The folders are still there, but showing 0 photos in them, and if I try to re-import the photos (attempted this on a folder I didn’t really need), Lightroom Classic is showing that photos have already been imported. Looking for options to hopefully solve this, so that I don’t have to create a new catalog, re-import everything, and start from scratch.
Hi Joey
Lightroom saying they are already imported is a good sign – they are there but not showing.
Things to check:
– If you drill down to the lowest sub-folder, do they appear?
– Do you have any Library filters applied?
– Is Library > Show Photos in Subfolders ticked?
I’ve been using Windows LrC for a number of years without any problem and have 40k RAW images and thousands of hours keywording, ranking etc. on a Synology NAS. Recently, I decided to upgrade to a Mac Studio. I followed the recommended procedure for moving the LrC catalog files to the MacHD but when I opened the MacLrC, using the Find Missing Folders procedure I got an internal error–invalid path message. I contacted Adobe Support and after several hours I was told Adobe doesn’t recommend storing images on NAS drives and that I should put them on an external drive instead!!! After a couple of additional unproductive sessions with Adobe Support and one with Synology technical support, I finally gave in and got a 20 TB external drive and copied my photo folders to them. However, when I used the Find Missing Folder and selected the folders on the external HDD, I got the same error message!!! I’ve checked with Apple tech support and verified that my NAS drives and external drive are properly set up to allow access by LrC. If any one has any idea what might be going on and has any suggestions for solving this problem, I will be eternally greatful!!!
Frustrating indeed! I see there’s a thread on Adobe’s forums that might include some clues and possible solutions: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/an-internal-error-has-occurred-invalid-path-error-while-finding-raw-folders-on-a-nas/td-p/13624232
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/photos-appear-black-gray-rectangles.html
This is the right solution
That doesn’t help at all with missing photos, it’s a different issue.
I have 570 missing images in a catalog of over 300,000 images. It is tedious going through them. In about 90% of instances, it is due to what were once duplicates. When I try to find the image an identical photo with the same name is in my Main Photo folder. It cannot be pointed to by the missing photo because the image is in the LR catalog alerady. So I remove the “missing” photo from LR. I guess there is no way to speed up this process. I only implemented LR in 2020. Somehow in that import process in 2020, I ended up with duplicates.
You could right-click on a missing one and select Go to Folder in Library to show others in the same folder. That may allow you delete others from the same folder, as they’re likely to be missing for the same reasons.
Hi Victoria
No sure if you have answered this before but…
I have several thousand missing photos (I know why and won’t do it again 🙂 ). But my issue now is that when I look at Folders in LR it shows the parent folder and 4 sub folders each with further sub folders. On the external drive I have the same parent folder and and 14 sub folders again each with sub folders.
I cannot work out how to get LR to find/display the folders that are missing from its list.
If I can find this I should then be able to quickly Re link the missing images to their originals.
Thanks in advance,
Mike
Are the photos from the other 10 folders already in Lightroom somewhere? If they are, those other 10 folders are probably already showing in the Folders panel somewhere. But if the photos from those other folders aren’t in LR yet, you’d show the folders by importing the images.
Or perhaps I misunderstood… it’s possible that the missing photos are in those 10 missing folders… when you reconnect those photos, the folders will appear.
Just an update, Victoria. I found out (with the assistance of the forum) that the backups were no longer being stored where I thought they were. I managed to find a recent, and accurate, backup catalog and was able to use that to link the missing photo folders back to LR.
Really appreciate the assistance from this resource and the forum members.
Thanks!
John
Ah good, glad to hear you’re back on track!
I need your advice on moving all my photos to a new external drive. My previous external drive is full so I purchased a larger drive and copied “All Photos” and “Catalog” to the new external drive. I disconnected the previous drive and opened LR from the catalog on the new drive. On opening LR the file hierarchy in LR differs to the hierarchy on the new drive. I have them open on the screen together. There are whole folders that used to exist in LR, and still exist (with photos) on the new drive. However LR does not ‘see’ these folders/images. Further, when I use the “import photos” command the file hierarchy on the bottom right (the one used to choose the LR folder to import) shows the file hierarchy as it is on the external drive but NOT the hierarchy displayed on the left panel in LR.
None of the photo are actually ‘missing’. They are all on the external drive. However, LR no longer shows a whole bunch of folders. I estimate approximately 30% of my photos (about 30,000) are no longer ‘connected’ to the LR hierarchy panel on the left. For some listed folders on the hierarchy panel I have been successful in locating missing photos. But where there is no folder actually listed at all I cannot locate missing photos because LR does not display the ’empty’ folders.
Will I have to re-import EVERY one of the ‘missing’ 30,000 photos??
Thanks
John
Definitely don’t reimport anything John. Do you have a catalog backup from just before you moved the files (or even a backup from just after, before you started reconnecting things)? I think we’re going to need a bit more troubleshooting than we can do in blog comments, but start a thread on the forum (link in the menubar) and we’ll help get you back and running. Adding some screenshots to the forum thread would also help, then we can see exactly what needs fixing.
Thanks Victoria – I will post to the forum. I do have the catalog backups from both before and after. The catalog is stored on both the previous and new external drive and both still exist. I will post to the forum with screen shots as well.
John
I hope you can help me. Every time I update LR, the structure I set up in my Collections is gone and I wind up with hundreds of missing photos and missing synced photos. I always backup my catalogs each time I close LR. What do I need to do to keep this from happening?
That sounds like it’s losing the catalog and opening an old one. Why that’s happening in unclear though. I see you’ve just bought the LR Classic book, so I’ll drop you an email as a Premium Member so we can help you investigate.
Thanks for the reminder, Victoria. It’s prompted me to realise that re-lettering a particular drive recently removed a whole bunch of pics from my catalog. Now sorted!
Struggling to rebuild a single Lightroom Classic library (in V11, on a Mac, 11.6), from a shared library s) mess, and making some progress… though have a couple of real issues with finalising this effort:
1] for some reason (perhaps from merging too many old, duplicate Lightroom date stamped, folders?) I have duplicate file names and am only “allowed” to point to one exact file name in the library
2] When using “Point to Missing Folder” tp point to a “missing” file this does not always work despite the fact that the file is visible (greyed out in Lightroom) and exists in same Finder window.
The first, 1] above is probably a nightmare of my own making… , 2] is something that I don’t understand. Grateful for any pointers on either problem
I think we might need some screenshots to offer some clues. Post it on the forum (link on the menubar) and we’ll see what we can do.
It’s not Lightroom classic, because I have that as well and never use it. This is that other one, I guess the cloud based one that can be put on your phone as well.
I just signed up, but could you post a link to the appropriate forum you think I should post to? Thanks for your help
Apologies, the word catalog threw me!
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/forums/lightroom-desktop-apps-cloud-based-service.24/
I dug myself into a hole and desperately need help. I have missing photos, and unfortunately no cloud backup. I store all my photo work in Lightroom on an external hard drive.
I use Lightroom cc, and it all started with a corrupt catalog. From there, I read a tip to change the “Lightroom Library.lrlibrary” file name. So I did that, then I went from 62000 photos in Lightroom to 400. I then had a tech company help me, their solution was to delete that library file and then reopen Lightroom. When I did that, it only imported the 14000 photos that I did have a cloud backup of. Then they told me I needed to find the files and start reimporting them. We found them on my external hard drive, even the edited ones, but when I import them, it doesn’t show the slider adjustments, so I stopped the import at 22000. Im afraid to go any further in fear of causing more damage. What do I need to do?
It sounds like you’ve received some poor advice. I assume you’re using Lightroom Classic (there is no Lightroom CC now) as you mention a corrupt catalog.
The Lightroom Library.lrlibrary is purely the local copy of the Adobe Cloud photos, not your whole catalog. Deleting it will simply download what is in the Adobe Cloud, it won’t help at all with your Classic catalog.
Re-importing: as stressed in the Blog above, that’s not the best move and is a last resort as you’ll lose the edits and other information (which is held in the catalog).
Usually these are the times when you look at using a backup (assuming the problem was indeed a catalog corruption).
May I suggest come onto our forums, give additional details (Lightroom versions) and we can assist you further. It also means we can ask for screenshots to assist us.
Where to begin. I tried putting pic files on ext hd . then they were missing. I have a selected folder or one of its subfolders is already in Lightroom. Do you want to combine the folders. Check box. I tried rekindling the photos to the ones on ext HD. Its a mess.
Hi Laura
Can we suggest come onto our Forum, where we can ask for screenshots and help you to untangle things?
Yes. I’m now a member
Where do I post pictures. Its a mess. I’m on pc. First I tried exporting pictures from int HD. Not in or to ext HD. Then missing links showed up. I reminded them from ext HD which I don’t think was correct. I get a merge files pop up when I try to relying.
Great, we look forward to helping when you post on the Forum (assuming it’s Lightroom Classic, that’s the thread to post these on)
I posted on forum. Thanks
Hi,
Love your site/articles/books.
I have a client with the following problem that I have never seen before. In a folder “X” LR shows 148 images. In the folder on her external drive are 165 images. These do not show up in the missing images.
We tried to import them but LR insists they exist but still does not show them as missing. This problem exists in 3 out of several hundred folders.
The client would really prefer that we don’t move them into a new folder and rename them.
I’m stumped
So you have ‘Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates’ ticked on Import? If so, it would sound they already exist in Lightroom, in a different location. Note the name of one of the files in question. Go to All Photographs and use a Library Text Filter, entering the name of the file. See if that helps with the mystery!
Sadly, already did that and nothing…But truly, thanks for the response
Hi – Thanks so much for all your helpful info here! I managed to relink most of my catalog using the parent “Pictures” folder (thank goodness), but there are still individual ones I’m having a challenge with, despite following instructions by clicking on the rectangle and then on Locate. These seem to all be images that were automatically renamed as psd, because of Photoshop edits. When I click on Locate and am browsing through the images in that file (I guess on my hard drive?), I can locate other earlier versions of the images – both the originals and some earlier versions of Photoshop editing – but not those final edits. (Which I put tons of work into, and was hoping to show soon in my portfolio.) Have I just lost that editing or do you have thoughts on how to retrieve? Thank You!!!
Hi Kirsten
I’d suggest look for the file(s) directly by a search by name using Windows Explorer to see if you can locate them elsewhere on your disk(s). Then either point Lr there or, probably better still, move them to where the other files are and then tell Lr.
Wow! This was a huge life saver, as one hard drive died and I needed to use a different set of folders. However, I think I did something wrong. Now my collections are empty and the photos have none of the developing I’ve done. It’s as if every photo is newly imported.
Yes, that does sound like you’ve done something wrong. I’d suggest reverting to your last backup catalog and then follow the instructions carefully.
Hi Victoria,
I’ve just upgraded to a new Win 10 system with a new installation of LR. I will be installing some of my old drives with photos into my new system, and have the former C drive with former LR installation and catalogues. What is best strategy for making sure new installation and catalogues can find the photos? Thanks in advance…
I use LR Classic
We’d suggest download our free Moving Computers eBook as it answers most questions on this and other things to watch out for.
Hi, I’m currently in the process of “recovering” a few hundred missing NEF files from Flickr JPGs, there was no way to find my original raw files…
…works perfectly fine by replacing what I had. It’s at least some version.
Now here comes the question: Planning to migrate to Lightroom Non-Classic, I wanted to save the the metadata of another 300 missing photos unfortunately haven’t been uploaded to Flickr because I assume those non-existing photos will not migrate, there is no smart collections, and I do not want to loose the information what’s still missing. My Lightroom Classic catalog somehow seems to have all the data like time stamps and all of EXIF even though there are no longer image file associated.
Is there a way to export that metadata of a non-existing photo to a text file? Save metadata is grayed out 🙁
Thanks, Harald
Erm, could you clarify what you mean by Lightroom Non-Classic? I know Adobe hasn’t made it easy with their naming!!
What image data do you have for the missing photos?
Hi, I’m missing some photos that were converted to dng on import. I found raw backups on my second hard drive and copied them to my main drive. Can I just point Lightroom to the raw photos and then convert them to dng once Lightroom knows where they are or should I do something else? I don’t think I ever edited the dng files. Thanks.
As long as the names are the same for the raw files and the missing DNG files (obviously the extension will differ), you could create the replacement DNG file as follows:
• Import to Lr using Copy and use the DNG option (so they copy in as DNG files) but using a temporary folder that IS NOT the one where the photos are missing
• In Windows Explorer, move the new DNG files to the location of the ones that are missing in Lr
• Check Lr now sees them in the locations that they were previously missing
• Assuming the previous point is successful, then in Lr the ones that you imported to the temporary folder will be shown as missing (logical as you moved them outside of Lr) – just delete them
Alternatively, just do the first step, then re-point the ones that Lr sees as missing to the new temporary folder – you can move them around within Lr after. Depends on how many, are they all in one folder,…
Hi Victoria
I am attempting to set up my third LR Book through Blurb. There are a few photos from Library I would like to include which aren’t in the Collections folder. How do I get them over? Tried clicking B to get them in Target Collection set as well as drag n drop but so far unsuccessful. Would appreciate your assistance.
Thanks
Mike Ward
Have you saved the book, so it appears in the Collections panel? Then you can drag the photos into the book collection in Grid view.
Your information literally saved me. Thank you so much for putting this info out there. I tried to “organize” external hard drive and couldn’t find any photos in lr. I was breathing thru paper bag until i found your info, STOPPED. And changed the names and folders back to what they were. Thank God i did not do more than a handful.
I’m glad we could help Brittany!
This process worked like a charm — thank you for such clear directions and graphics to with with them!
Now, on to “How do I consolidate photos from multiple drives” by way of “How do I clean up duplicate photos.”
cracked it!! that was really easy:)
Glad you sorted it!
eek i moved my files over to a new iMac using a straight copy onto an external drive and then into pictures folder on new iMac . now have 51k missing photos. how do i tell it where the masters are now in bulk?
Hi — The photos I thought I deleted from both LR Classic and my computer’s hard drive using “delete from disk” still show up when I reopen that folder. There is an exclamation point in the upper right of these photos. I thought “delete from disk” eliminated them from LR. They are gone from my hard drive and I have emptied the trash. But when I reopen LR and that folder, they are still there. I must be doing something wrong.
You are absolutely right, delete from disk should delete from the catalog as well as the disk. Any chance you might be opening a backup catalog or something like that?
Great article, however, my issue is that I have my catalog on an external hard drive. I imported photos to a folder while the hard drive was connected to my PC. I later imported additional photos to the same folder while the hard drive was connected to my laptop. Lightroom is not showing anything as being missing, however, I know that the photos are. When I drill down into the folder on the hard drive all images are there. Depending on the device that I’m using, LR is only displaying the images on that device that were imported while the hard drive was connected to the respective device. Any idea’s on how to rectify this? I hadn’t noticed this before, but on closer inspection, I don’t think that this has been an isolated incident.
Check the name (or letter if windows) of the drive is the same on both PC and laptop.
Awesome explanation! Thank you so much … was able to link my photos and folder!!
Sorry, but another point to add to my previous posted question- Assuming I have the “missing” photos on the external drive, I would not have that drive attached all the time. Once the drive is attached and the photos are located, is there a way, from within LR to bring those missing original photos over to my current internal drive or would that be a mess that I’d have to deal with one photo at a time? Thanks in advance.
Get everything linked first. Then you can drag high level folders to the internal drive from within Lightroom and it’ll know where they are.
There’s a free eBook here on our site ‘Moving Computers’ that has lots of useful tips.
Thank you- ill do my best and leave results or further questions here.
Hi- Hope this string is still active. Due to multiple errors made at various times early on using LR (now v6.9) on an iMac I have a good number of missing photos. This occurred after moving on to a new computer and with the help of an Apple “Genius” I had bad info as to how to migrate contents from old computer to this one. Long story short, I have to link the missing photos to LR on the newer one. I am now copying as may of the photos, from the “PHOTO” app on the mac to an external hard drive(Should take loooong time) . Once they are copied to the external drive and the drive attached to the current computer, will LR be able to find the missing photos if they still exist on that drive? these photos would just be that-photos before having been used in LR. This may have been answered before but I havent seen this exact question.
Follow the steps in the post – so once you have all your photos on the new drive, try to connect each folder at the highest possible level (update folder location in Lightroom) then anything that Lightroom had seen as below that level will be ‘seen’ again by Lightroom.
Sorry, but another point to add to my previous posted question- Assuming I have the “missing” photos on the external drive, I would not have that drive attached all the time. Once the drive is attached and the photos are located, is there a way, from within LR to bring those missing original photos over to my current internal drive or would that be a mess that I’d have to deal with one photo at a time? Thanks in advance.
Am I missing something? (pun intended)
I’ve been working through my catalog(s) cleaning up and found that there are, in fact, files (and folders :-O) accidentally deleted and not on backups for some strange reason. Therefore:
looking into all the advises and devices for recovery I find I have many 1:1 previews but if one uses the script to extract previews with the resultant .jpg, when you re-import them you’ve lost your metadata and the are all the same create date. If i export missing files to dng files and then re-import them (with or without new previews generated) I now have my metadata and they import to folders where they ought to be. I now see the old missing preview and my new dng. From there I can remove the old previews and I’m back in biz, with dng/jpg.
It’a also my understanding that the jpg previews are embedded in a dng file and that’s what gets extracted. So why not just export to dng and re-import?
Also, if one is importing images with low ratio preview settings to improve performance? get a new graphics card or computer. If I’m correct about the DNG method then importing with 1:1 jpg previews is almost like having a built in sudo-backup?
That doesn’t resonate. A backup is made so if you lose the images / disk(s) you can recover. 1:1 can provide some recovery, but it’s JPG not original and if you hold the catalog on the same disk as the photos (poor practice) then you lose the lot.
Understood, it’s not a backup strategy but the redundancy is there. This thought is specific to the case where one has the previews but not your raw/negatives. If one is shooting in jpg it’s another story. Formal backup strategy requires three copies of the files before you even edit one with one of those copies on a disk circulating to an off-site location is required of pros and semi-pros but most people are not doing that. The steps I used worked for most of my current recovery and now I have discovered that there is a hole in my back-up bucket that needs to be found and fixed.
There’s a couple of details you’re missing:
1. Although the preview recovery script doesn’t include metadata, Jeffrey’s version can include metadata. If you happen to have current 1:1 size previews, they can provide full resolution, but obviously these are no longer raw.
2. If the originals are missing, the only available DNG export is a smart preview. These are only 2560px long edge, not full resolution.
Both options are good for disaster recovery, but both lose information compared to a true backup of the originals.
Thank, I’m going to use the Friedl plug-in and see how it works as I’m still mid-stream in recovery so I can compare these processes. I’ll try to remember to get back here with any observations of interest.
I I am attempting to transfer my lightroom catalogue from a UK Windows 7 laptop to a brand new US windows 10 laptop using an external hard drive. The catalogue structure has transferred but I have no images. Since the drive letter remains the same as it always haa I have not attempted reassigning a letter. I have followed your instructions regarding locating missing files with no success. What else can I do?
A screenshot might help Martin. You can post it on the forum easily. When you say no images, do you get grey squares where the thumbnails should be? Or simply nothing in the Folders panel?
Copied about 4000 images over to a external Hardrive that I keep all my lightroom catalogs on, When I go to reopen the catalog Image previews are showing but I cannot Edit them due to lightroom not being able to Locate them. I see the cr2 files on my harddrive but cant selct them all to find.
Sort of stuck =/
Have you followed the instructions above to reconnect them Alexander? Where are you getting stuck?
Hi Victoria,
I have one month that says the files cannot be found. However the file is right there with all the other files on my external hard drive. LR sees all the other files, just not this one month. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
The same instructions apply Paula, but only to that one month. I would guess there’s a minor difference like an extra file in a filename or something like that.
I’ve checked to make sure everything looks identical in my external hard drive and how it looks in LR. It’s got me stumped.
So what happens when you try reconnecting one of the photos?
Thank you – I’ve been working with Lightroom for a while now, but some aspects have baffled me! This was a huge help to not only fix a problem, but to see why it was occurring in the first place. I’m very grateful!
Hi Victoria, my friend has deleted all the photos from the “all my files” folder on MAC. Realizing the error, he took it from the Trash and brought it to the same position. Unfortunately, in this way he recovered all the originals but in fact moved them from all the Lightroom folders. Choosing the option you described in the post Lightroom should be find the position of the original but does not copy or move them to their previous folder. Is there any method or script that allows you to return the originals to the previous position? Sorry, I hope I explained the problem better. Thank you Alessandro
Hi Alessandro. Restoring from his backups, rather than the trash, would put them back where they were.
Otherwise, no, he’d need to reconnect them all any then drag them into a new folder structure. There’s a couple of posts that might help:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/reorganize-folders-panel/
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/rearrange-photos-dated-folders/
Thanks Victoria,
i will try this solution to my friend.
Alessandro
I had my current photograph selection of 43,000 photos on an external disk. I plugged this into the iMac and used Finder to copy all the folders to the iMac. Then went into Lightroom CC and used Import to bring all the files in from Pictures>Folders. Went perfectly, all photos there, complete with metadata and keywords.
Older photographs are on a separate disk. I followed the same process, transferred from the disk to the iMac and then imported wits Lightroom. All good.
BUT. When I unplug the older disk from the iMac, all the photographs then have an exclamation mark in the top right corner. If I right click each folder and try to link to the corresponding folder in Pictures>Folders on the iMac, the photos are greyed out. I can’t link to them. So I have 33,000 photos that only work when the disk is plugged in.
The same problem doesn’t occur when I unplug the newer disk.
Can someone help please?
If I’m following you correctly, the photos are greyed out in the Find Missing Folder dialog because it wants you to select a folder not photos. So, say you have a folder called 2019, it wants you to select the 2019 folder itself.
Right, I am on a good path! Never change anything outside of LR… I am the lighting example. This is old stuff. After I got my drobo I have become far more organised… Still, this is a pain!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216866803855443&set=a.1083581742827&type=3&theater
Thanks again for all the help Victoria but I’m done with Lightroom Classic and CC. Too much stress for me. I have salvaged all of my photos on a hard drive so at least I can look at them thanks to my backup!
Victoria, When I attach the external drive to my HP Laptop I see “All Photographs 24,500” under Catalog including keywords. I click on Catalog and see 24,431 photos but no list folders. I right click on All Photographs and get 1) Import Photos and Video and 2) Import from another catalog.
It still sounds like your Folders panel is hidden Steve, but we’ll go in circles until you show us screenshots.
Victoria, Thanks so much!!! That was the problem and I have access to all of my photos. Out of curiosity, where are you now? Your reply is dated 2/23/2019 at 10:03 PM, much later than it is in Boise, Idaho.
We’re based in the UK, but the time stamps on the site are a bit wonky at the moment. We’re doing a big website upgrade shortly that should fix it.
Hi Victoria, I hate to keep bothering you, you are going to think I’m stupid! I invoke LR and see 23,409 photos but all are missing and I can’t see any folders. I did exactly as you told me; make sure I am in the Library module and go Window menu>Panels>Folders. You say I should see the folders in the Folders panel (I don’t) and follow the instructions further up this page to connect them with the new location. I never could find any instructions further up the page so can you please repeat the instructions?
Steve, this entire page is about fixing missing photos. Scroll to the top to start reading. If you need further specific instructions, post on the forum and include screenshots, as were just going in circles at the moment.
Thanks for your message Steve, and sorry to hear of your predicament. I’ve deleted the messages as requested.
A suggestion… have a look at Lightroom CC rather than Lightroom Classic. It’s a simpler interface without the complexities of file management. If you post screenshots on the forum, we can help solve your missing files and help you migrate to CC, but we’re working blind here.
Victoria, I also have a backup of all my Lightroom pictures. I copied Backup Lightroom (F:)>LIGHTROOM>LR4 Pictures>2006 (this is an example of all)>2006-05-28 Cuprum (this is an example of all). When I click on 2006-05-28 Cuprum I see 53 pictures.
That’s great that you have a backup.
You mentioned that you can’t see any folders, so let’s start there. Make sure you’re in the Library module and go to Window menu > Panels > Folders. Then you should be able to see the folders in the Folders panel and follow the instructions further up this page to connect them with the new location.
If you’re still stuck at that point, visit the forum (in the menubar) and create a thread with screenshots of what you can see so we can give you really specific instructions.
I have 24,000 photos on Lightroom 6 on an external drive on my original Toshiba laptop. I bought a HP laptop this weekend and I called Adobe Customer Support to help me download Lightroom 6. This lady did something to my database and when I hook up the external drive to my HP I get 23,000 photos but they are all listed as missing and I can’t see any of the folders. When I attach the same external drive to my Toshiba I can see all of the photos and folders. How can I resolve this issue?? Victoria, someone previously asked for a fee schedule. I would gladly pay you to fix my problem.
Have you tried following the instructions above Steve? You need to tell Lightroom where the photos are now. The drive letter is probably different in Windows on each laptop.
Victoria, I don’t see any “instructions above”. Please repeat the instructions.
Steve,
The actual Blog post that you’re replying to – they are instructions for when a photo is missing
Paul
Thanks Paul, I get 23,000 photos but they are all listed as missing and I can’t see any of the folders.
Hi, being a newbie I’m not sure if this is where I say thanks. But THANK YOU Johan Elzenga for a rapid response to my first question and my 70K or image files are now slowly going home.
I’ll make sure he sees it!
Help! I’ve looked through most of the comments and I can’t find a solution. It shows that I can’t import photos into lightroom because they are already there but the folder says 0. I’ve already edited half of the folder (300+) and don’t want to do it again. How do I find my pictures?
The folder says 0? Could they be in another folder? I’d switch to All Photos view and scroll to that date.
Just wanted to say thank you for this article! My Mac crashed and I bought a PC as replacement. I had to use this information to reconnect my photos to my catalog. Thank you!
Forgive me if this has been asked above… lots of comments, but here’s my deal. It happened to me once and I thought it was just a one -time thing, but it just happened to me again. I shoot on a d700 and a d750. One has a CF card, the other SD card. (don’t think this has anything to do with it but just including in case).
When I upload one, I make a folder for it, then upload the other as it’s the same shoot. I leave all my images on the cards as I had a computer crash on me years ago and will never make that mistake again. All of a sudden when I go to edit, I notice that all the images from one card are lost. I try to re-download the card, and lightroom recognizes them at first, but then they all dispear. But I KNOW they are on the card. What gives?
Any help will be so welcomed. I was told to just upload them to a different hard drive and then transfer them, but that still doesn’t work either. HELP!!! TIA
> when I go to edit, I notice that all the images from one card are lost
As in, you can see them in Lightroom but when you go to Develop, it says they’re missing?
> I try to re-download the card, and lightroom recognizes them at first, but then they all dispear.
The import dialog won’t show them if the records are already in the catalog.
From what you’ve said so far, I’d bet you’ve got it set to ADD at the top of the import dialog, so it’s just adding them to the catalog but without copying them to the hard drive, so when you eject the card, Lightroom can’t find them any more. What you need to do is select COPY at the top of the import dialog, and let Lightroom copy the photos to the hard drive so they’re still available when you eject the card.
Uh oh, getting problems. I’m migrating from a mac to a PC. I have three issues with reconnecting in the hierarchy.
First issue: I try to reconnect the hierarcy that’s on a missing drive (because it’s all on a new drive as well as new computer), but when I reconnect one, the other folders all just vanish without being reconnected. That whole “missing drive”dissapears. So I’m left unable to reconnect more than jst one folder.
Second issue: Once I have reconnected some images to a new drive, I am unable to reconnect any more images to that drive. I get an error message: “An internal error has occurred: ?:0: attempt to index field ‘?’ (a nil value)”
Third issue: I don’t seem to have the same right-click options on my drives on my new Lightroom PC, i.e no hide/show parent folders. But only to active drives, i.e the missing drives I can still do that on.
Very weird. I didn’t expect this to be easy, but I didn’t expect it to be this much of a nightmare. Currently I can’t get my files working .
I found a solution, tricky, but it worked. I had to reconnect everything before starting the migration process, and adding parent folders that went all the way back to the root. I hope this gets easier in future.
Well done Jonathan. I’m not sure why you were having trouble, but now you have a hierarchy set up, any future moves should be simple.
Great info – but I am totally and utterly stumped…
Used lightroom for 10 years and never had this issue… I edited a set of images in the normal way, with the source files in ‘My Photos’. I then deleted the source files/folder to free up space on the laptop. A week later, I have copies the same source folder back into ‘My Photos’ (unchanged) and Lightroom CC cannot find the files… Ive tried all the tricks but it just cannot see them… Ive done this before and it’s never been an issue… can you shed any light onto this…? (Im also able to continue the edit in lightroom but it simply won’t let me export… )
I might need to see a screenshot or two to figure out that mystery. I’d guess a difference in capitalization somewhere perhaps, or a drive letter changed. Which OS? Post the screenshots and description of the problem on the forum and we’ll help you figure it out. Continuing to edit probably just means you have smart previews for those photos.
I’m having new and unexpected issues with Lightroom Classic. On my mac, I keep all of my photos on an external USB 3 drive. The catalog is on the mac in my library. This setup has always worked fine. Suddenly, the last couple of times I’ve plugged in the external drive and launched Lightroom, the library in Lightroom shows everything with question marks. The hard drive, which is named “Lightroom A” is seen in the Folders list as “Lightroom A2”. When I select a folder with the question mark and use find missing folder, and point to the folder on the external hard drive, my “Lightroom A” folder appears in the list and those files are moved to that folder in the list. I have to repeat this with al of the main folders. Once everything is back the way it should be, the “Lightroom A2” folder disappears. Is there a fix/explanation for this weird behavior? Thanks so much for any help you can provide!
Lightroom A2 or Lightroom A-2? The latter sounds like the OS is changing the mount point.
Could have been A-2….I’m wondering if connecting the external drive into a different USB port than last time could possibly be the issue. I’d think on a mac this would not make a difference, but who knows? Thank you for your help!
In theory it shouldn’t make a difference, but occasionally it does. This might help https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217665968-Apple-Duplicate-Mount-Point-In-Volumes-Error-i-e-Example-becomes-Example1-
Thanks so much – I enjoy your newsletter and website!
I have 2 computers – my main editing computer (Windows) with the LR catalog stored on a 4 disk eSATA raid array connected to it. I also have a MacBook Air which I want to use for editing on the go. Will there be compatibility issues with the MacBook accessing the windows created catalog or with syncing files back to the main catalog from the Mac?
Windows and Mac will both manage fine with the same catalog format, although the files will go “missing” (as per this post) each time you switch platforms. You might want to think about how you’ll use your catalog on either computer though: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-to-lightroom-catalog-multiple-computers/
Victoria – Your article is very helpful. I just upgraded to a new windows 10 computer. Prior computer was a Mac with 3 internal drives and a drobo attached. Approximately 300,000 photos. All drives were copied over to a single drive on the Windows computer. The old Mac drive name was replaced by that drive being put in a folder with the same name. For example Macintosh HD drive on the Mac became a folder named Macintosh HD on the windows E drive. All other Mac drive the same thing was done. Unfortunately I did not read your article prior to copying the files over. Should I start over by reorganizing all the files on the Mac under one file folder making sure they are linked in Lightroom and redo the export or is there another solution? The export took several days and if there is an easier solution that would be very helpful. Thank you in advance.
I’ve replied to your email Larry. It sounds like an easy enough fix, so don’t start over.
I have migrated LR5 to a new computer and am trying to re-link all of my photos from my LR catalog to the external hard drive where they are stored from a backup. My photo hierarchy is the year (2017) and the subfolders are the dates the photos were taken. I already relinked three subfolders to the external hard drive and now, I realize that I should have selected the parent folder. Now when I try to right click on the parent folder and relink properly, I am getting a message “The selected folder or one of its subfolders is already in LR. Do you want to combine these folders?” My options are to cancel or select ‘merge’. If I select merge, will it combine all of the images in the individual subfolders into one big folder (which I don’t want) or will it only combine or merge the images in the three folders that I have already re-linked?
It’s fine to say merge in that case. It’ll slip the existing 3 folders back into the folder hierarchy where they should be.
Hi Victoria, I’ve discussed this with Adobe once on the phone, and they were baffled.
Lightroom THINKS I’m missing photos which are exactly where they are supposed to be on my drive! I no longer automatically remove missing photos. I check quite a few of them and IGNORE the message I get when I’m syncing.
New problem: keeps thinking I need to import photos which are imported. Tells me I have # to import when syncing. Then when I tell it to sync, it tells me no photos to import. Repeatedly. When I change the name of the file, it imports! Then I change it back. SMH.
The false missing photos issue started at least a couple years ago.
The syncing issue of photos already correctly in the catalog started this weekend. I moved to a new iMac and most recent Classic CC. I always use the most recent version of LR, since v3.
So go figure.
I know how LR works. I understand databases. I know if I move files around on the desktop, usually when adding clip art, I need to re-sync again. I sync once usually just to see the images. I rename folders based on contents. So much faster via desktop than LR.
THIS is how I organize my files. I can’t be limited to only moving and renaming within LR cos it’s soooo slow! But I know to re-sync.
What doesn’t work is whether I move files within LR or outside of it, LR repeatedly indicate missing or need to import/sync files which are correctly imported.
Really slows down my workflow! No longer can I mindlessly remove so called “missing” files.
More bugs.
I wish instead of all those extra modules — does anyone use Print, Web, Slideshow, etc when we have so many other programs doing that and better? — they would improve the Library functions. Basic features we use repeatedly. Oh well.
Happy New Year! Hope 2018 is great for everyone!
Hi Jenny
My best guess is your folder path has changed capital letters somewhere at some stage. It most frequently happens when moving computers. Post it on the forum with some screenshots of your Folders panel and we’ll help you figure it out.
Before you carry on synchronizing folders, just have a read of this post, so you’ve had fair warning of the pitfalls! https://www.lightroomqueen.com/synchronize-folder/
I was wondering if you have any thoughts on this – I always add a new batch of photos from my DSLR into a new sub-folder under my main LR Photos folder ( on my mac) and run “Synchronize Folder” from within LR. It has worked fine until recently. The Synchronize option is now finding some missing photos ( which it asks to remove by default).
When I choose “Show Missing Photos” after I run the “Synchronize Folder” option, it creates a temporary collection of those photos (which LR thinks are missing), but now upon running Library->Find Missing Photos, it concludes there are NO missing photos and REMOVES that temporary collection.
When I go and try to Synchronize my folder again, it again finds the same missing photos (and I can either choose to remove them or have LR show them to me via a temporary collection….).
How do I fix this? This keeps happening whenever I try to synchronize my main LR photos folder. These falsely missing photos are NOT from the new sub folders I am trying to bring in. They are from previously added sub-folders. Its the same photos again and again.
As far as I remember, I have not moved photos around outside LR.
The photos do get located through Show in Finder as well.
My best guess would be a difference in capitalization, but post it at the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum at https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/new/add_details?topic%5B so the engineers can take a look.
Hello,
Your blog has been so helpful as I moved Lightroom from my MacBook (which was slowly dying) to a new Mac. I do have about 3000 photos missing though. Most of my raw files have been saved over three external hard drives. It isn’t picking up any photos from two of the hard drives. Do I need to save the catalogue on all hard drives? And then open the catalogue for each drive? Also some of the raw files were accidentally saved on to the old Mac. I have now transferred these to my main hard drive but when I try to select ‘find the missing folder’ and navigate to where the photos are now located it doesn’t work. No images appear. Thank you so much for any help you can offer.
No, you don’t need to copy the catalog on all drives, or copy the photos onto all of the drives. You’re on the right track with Find Missing Folder. What “doesn’t work” about it when you try? Have you confirmed the files have the same names as they do in Lightroom? It might be easier to spot the problem with a screenshot or two, so feel free to post it on the forum and we’ll work through it with you. https://www.lightroomforums.net
Hi Victoria, I was forced by my ISP to go to another provider and had to change my email address and forgot to inform you so have missed your newsletter for some time. it has probably been posted to my old address. Sorry about that.
Secondly I have had these issues about missing stuff on my LR6 standalone. One thing I did wrong I think I dragged and dropped all my image catalogues onto a new external hard drive. Was this wrong way to do the transfer ? Now I noticed that that in the in the keyword list for example Monochromes, the number of images against this keyword are only the images since the move to the external hard drive. A lot of Keyword I have not used recently are all zeroed despite the images with this keyword are on the drive. Is there a way to reapply they as they were before? Incidentally My Facebook export is not working despite I keep resetting it, I get a message saying there is an error despite the password is correct. Lastly my Flicker export plug-in is showing a lot of greyed out images and says LT can’t find them but when I go to the site they are all there. Any ideas the reason for these issues. Thanks and regards for your time
Hi Victor. Drop me an email with your old and new email addresses and I’ll fix your newsletter for you.
Did you drag and drop the photos in Lightroom or in Finder/Explorer? In Lightroom should have been ok, but it sounds like you did it outside or Lightroom. Did you then reimport the photos at the new location, or are they just there with question marks?
I can see you’re a Premium Member. Drop me an email with screenshots and details of what you did and we’ll figure it out.
Hi Victoria, am in the process of upgrading to a new MB Pro and will email you soon regarding my keyword issues. Sorry took so long to reply but been away.
Thanks and regards
Hi, Queen, I am using LR5.7 in a laptop (laptop x) which has only one C: drive. I store my photos in an external hard-disk which is recognised as E: Now, the laptop x is aging and prone to errors. I purchase a new laptop Y which has a different disk configuration: 256 SSD + 1 T hard disk. The SSD is partitioned into C: for program, D: for various drives and E: (the 1T hard disk) for data. Therefore the external hard disk cannot be have the letter E now. I am afraid that the saved catalogue will not be able to link with the photo containing external hard disk. Would you advise?
That’s ok, you’ll just follow the instructions above to link the folders with the new drive letter. Easily done, honestly.
I got it. Your instructions are just wonderful. Thank you very much.
Whew… I had no idea why LR couldn’t find ANY of my folders. My situation/cause was not one listed. But, your solution was an easy fix. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Is there a way within Lightroom to look for all the files that are duplicates since I have messed up with some things imported a second time in different folders and I merged a LR catalog which I thought was all different photos but turned out to have some repeats.
Yes, the Teekesselchen plug-in will do it. http://www.bungenstock.de/teekesselchen/ I’m working on a blog post explaining the process, currently scheduled for 22 May, so you don’t have long to wait.
Victoria – All is well in the Lightroom folders panel. My concern is only with the mess within the Finder folder hierarchy. Or should I just not worry about that?
Whatever happens in the Folders panel is also reflected on the hard drive, so they should match. Why not start a thread on http://www.lightroomforums.net and include screenshots so we can double check for you?
Thanks for sharing lots of great tips and how to do’s! I still can’t figure out how to fix my problem, since I have rearranged, changed names and deleting files. I have learned a lot from video tuts and know now better how Lightroom works, but a bit too late… I have saved all my original photos and haven’t that many edits, so I really want to to start on scratch with lightroom. I even messed up where the default exports where put and so on, so when I try to export a edited photo, I have to pick a folder…
Is it possible to just start Lightroom all over from scratch, and how do I do it? Really hope you can help me out!
Yes, you can start over. I’d zip up a copy of the current catalog, just in case you want to go back to it in future. But then, File menu > New Catalog will give you a nice clean slate. You might also want to reset your preferences https://www.lightroomqueen.com/articles-page/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/
Thank you so much for your help! I will try that, and look forward to get to the next step in this learning process for sure 😉
Thank you so much! I will try that, and look forward to get to the next step in this learning process for sure 😉
Before you start a new catalogue, make sure you have a parent folder with all the other folders in it, rather than all your folder directly on the hard drive. I think this is essential for LR to be able to find everything. I hope Victoria agrees, if not, correct me please.
I have messed up and changed the names and deleted the folders that used to be the export files, the one that lightroom found automatically when I was finished editing… I really need to go back to scratch with everything… Hard to be a newbie, so I don’t know what to do next. I have saved all the edited photos, so nothing will be lost. Would love to have a tip or two how to fix… Is there any way to start fresh?
I have a slightly different problem. While my Lightroom catalog operates just fine (on my MacPro), for some reason the catalog structure has long been a bit odd. Most of the catalog’s folder is organized as you would expect – by year, then month, then day. But several of the photos long ago ended up in different folders, matching folder names I created within the catalog. Also, in some cases, there are extraneous “year” folders (with month and date sub-folders) in locations that seem quite random. Almost everything is inside the main Lightroom folder in the finder, with 4 of the extraneous “year” folders. at the same level as the Lightroom folder in the finder hierarchy.
My question – is there any simple way to get everything organized into a more coherent and consistent structure, without losing any of the name-labeling and photo editing I have already done?
Yes, putting all of the photos in a single folder hierarchy, rather than having them scattered all over the computer can definitely help with backups or moving to a new computer.
Mark, you can drag and drop the photos and folders around the Folders panel to reorganize them. As long as you’re doing it in Lightroom, your metadata and edits are all retained.
To fix the annoying habit that Windows has of allocating different drive letters, you can allocate a permanent drive letter, so it doesn’t matter which USB port you have it plugged into or how many devices you have on at that time. This will fix the path to your files.
http://www.howtogeek.com/96298/assign-a-static-drive-letter-to-a-usb-drive-in-windows-7/
Thanks for sharing that link Kathleen.
Thank you so much for these tutorials. You mentioned resync would potentially lose all of the work done in Lightroom; is this that potential edits would be lost or that everything (starring/keywords etc) would be lost?
Yes, you’d potentially lose everything, so it would definitely be a bad move.
Wow. I searched for missing photos and found that almost all of my nearly 60,000 photos are missing. I know why – I recently put a 2 TB SSD into my computer. I previously had a small SSD that held my Mac system and application files, plus a larger hard drive that held all documents, including the entire Lightroom photo library. The structure remains the same, except the path name now starts with a different root level drive name and a different user name. For some reason I can’t figure out, the Lightroom folders do not show a simple hierarchy as they should (and do in the finder), but instead provide a very long list of folders with no parent folder. Is there any simple way to fix this? To do it folder by folder would take FOREVER!
Hi Mark. Good news, it’s fairly easily fixed. If you’re using LRCC/6, you should be able to display the hierarchy using these instructions: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/articles-page/long-list-folders-can-change-show-folder-hierarchy/
I did things the wrong way around. I organized my photos (moved, renamed) in
windows (“My Pictures”) and now almost all the catalog items in Lightroom have the question mark. The Lightroom catalog bears no resemblance to the catalog on my C Drive. I want Lightroom to reflect the organization on my C Drive. I guess I don’t really care if my previous Lightroom edits are lost–I can always re-do them. How do I make a wholesale change in the Lightroom catalog to make it match the “My Photos” catalog? Thanks!
Oh boy, you do have a bit of a job on your hands. If you don’t care about your old edits, I’d just zip up your old catalog (in case you need to go back to it in future) and create a new one, then import the photos (set to Add at the top of the dialog).
Thanks, but how the heck do I “zip up the old catalog” and “create a new one”? Your book is very helpful for most LR issues, but this situation is not addressed (user error).
Hi Gary. No problem. It helps to know where to look! Try the box “A Clean Slate” on page 16. 😉
A new catalog is simply a case of going to File menu > New Catalog or holding down the Ctrl key when you open Lightroom. (Page 520)
Zipping up the old catalog is simply a case of finding it in Windows, right-clicking and choosing Send To > Compressed Folder (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/compress-uncompress-files-zip-files#1TC=windows-7).
If you’re not sure where your old catalog’s stored, open LR, go to Edit > Catalog Settings and it’ll tell you (page 482). Zipping it up just means you can’t open it by accident, and it takes up less space, but you could just move it to a backup folder if you prefer.
Thank you!
Okay I’ve followed the instructions and I really messed up my catalogs and folder hierarchy. Even though the hierarchy was by year e.g.: France 2012, France 2011, etc.. I have hundreds of images and individually re-linking will be a pain. What will happen if I delete the folder and then re-import?
You’d lose the work you’ve done in Lightroom, so let’s take a step back. WHY were the photos marked as missing in the first place? And why is it wanting you to relink them individually instead of being able to relink entire folders, if you moved them outside of Lightroom? Relinking missing files or folders can’t mess up a catalog that wasn’t already a mess, so there’s more going on here.
I think what happened is a mix up of the catalogs between the native LR and CC LR. There’s no differentiation in each icon on my Mac. Looks like I’ve got catalogs for the native, and catalogs for the CC version. Really dumb. I’d love to hire someone to get me organized. It’s a mess!
LR CC and LR6 are identical – it’s just a difference in licensing and some new options are hidden in LR6 for legal reasons – so catalogs created in one can be opened in the other. I can help with live support ) but it sounds like you just need to figure out which catalog you want to continue using them or merge multiple catalogs if settings are spread over multiple catalogs – all the instructions you need are in my book (https://www.lightroomqueen.com/shop/adobe-lightroom-cc6-missing-faq/).
Let’s do a session. Please email me your fee schedule. I’d really like to get this fixed.
Hi Victoria, Happy New Year! Your articles are sooooo useful!
This one reminds me that when I was updating my husband’s catalogue, before he moved (successfully, thanks to your articles) from Windows to Mac, when I syncd his master parent folder, on the Windows machine, it said there were something like 300 new images to import. But in the Import dialogue window, it found none. This was whether or not ‘Don’t import duplicates’ was ticked. I don’t understand this. Can you explain? Please.
Hi Ruth! The most likely causes are either bug, or they could be the jpegs from raw+jpeg pairs.
I encountered this same issue and believe to have found the reason for this “bug” of first showing a certain number of images to be imported/synced, but then showing no photos in the import dialogue (I am Mac user, no idea if this also applies to Windows): I used to use Picasa and when you make changes to pictures in Picasa, it saves the original version in a hidden folder called “.picasaoriginals” (starting with a dot). Unless you tweak your settings, this folder is invisible, but Lightroom initially references these pictures but then can not import them.