If you need to move photos to another hard drive, perhaps because you’ve outgrown your existing hard drive, there are two main options. As a rule of thumb, you can use option one for moving a few photos/folders, but option two is safer when moving larger numbers of photos.
Option One—move the photos using Lightroom’s Folders panel
- If you can’t see the new folder in the Folders panel, go to Library menu > New Folder. Navigate to the new location and create a new folder, or select an existing folder where you plan to place the photos. (Existing folders can only be selected if they’re empty, or by importing one of the photos in that folder.)
- Within the Folders panel, drag the folders to their new location. One warning—don’t press the X in the Activity Center to cancel this move. There have been (rare!) reports of problems caused by canceling the transfer, so it’s best to let it complete uninterrupted.
- Check that the entire folder contents have copied correctly before deleting the originals. If you drag individual photos to the new location, rather than whole folders, remember that files that aren’t currently in the catalog (e.g. text files) won’t be copied as Lightroom doesn’t know that they exist.
Option Two—move in Explorer/Finder and update Lightroom’s links
If you’re moving a large number of files, I’d recommend using this option, as it tends to be faster and more reliable. It’s important to do ALL of the steps though, otherwise you’ll end up with missing photos.
- First follow these instructions to show the folder hierarchy. This makes it easy to relink the folders/ files that are marked as missing in the process.
- Close Lightroom and use Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac) or file synchronization software to copy the folders/files to the new drive.
- When the copy completes, rename the original folder (the one on the old hard drive) using Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac), or disconnect the old hard drive. This allows you to check everything is working correctly before deleting the files from the original location.
- Open Lightroom and right-click on the parent folder. Select Find Missing Folder or Update Folder Location from the list, depending on which option is available. Navigate to the new location and press Select Folder (Windows) / Choose (Mac). The folder disappears from the old volume (drive) in the Folders panel and reappears under the new volume bar.
- If you have more than one parent folder, repeat the process for any other parent folders until the question marks have disappeared from all the folders.
- Once you’ve confirmed that all the photos are available for editing within Lightroom, you can safely detach the old hard drive or delete the files from their original location using Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac).
Never Reimport!
Using these instructions to update the location in the catalog is essential. Don’t import the photos at the new location, or use Synchronize Folder to update the folder references, as you’ll lose all of the work you’ve done on them in Lightroom.
If you’re moving your photos as part of moving to a new computer, be sure to download the FREE eBook Moving Lightroom to a New Computer. This step-by-step guide takes you through not just moving your catalog and photos but all the preparation work, pitfalls to avoid, and any clean-up needed afterwards.
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 13 December 2014, updated for Lightroom Classic and earlier versions in 2019.
This is brilliant, thank you! I’m moving my library from hard drive onto the cloud (saves the cost of a big storage drive on a new desktop; more reliable backup; better redundancy), and this works really well.
HELP!! I am still stuck in Picasa hell and afraid to move all my photos (preferably to Lightroom). I’m getting a new laptop and need to move them over from my old desktop to my new laptop. I also have the majority of them backed up on 2 flash drives. How could I do that transfer and still keep all the folders that these photos are in? Is there software I need to purchase to move them? Any help would be appreciated. As it is, I can’t upload them or email the jpgs from Picasa as you know, they quit supporting it.
I’d focus on getting all of the photos out of Picasa into folders in the operating system, and then you have lots of choices on where to go next, including Lightroom.
I realize this page is 9 years old but, Victoria, maybe you’ll see this. Or get a notice? You say, “If you’re moving a large number of files, I’d recommend using this option…” What is a large number of files? I don’t have that many compared to many, I’m sure. I think about 80,000. Would that number be considered a large number. Should I use option 1 or 2?
Hi Ron
We updated the page in 2020. For that number, we’d suggest use ‘Option Two—move in Explorer/Finder and update Lightroom’s links’ – it will be far quicker and also avoids any issue should there be a computer problem during the transfer.
I moved my Lightroom Catalog and images to a new external drive and am running a new MacMini using Lightroom Classic. The new Lightroom Classic runs my previous Catalog but when I go from the Library module to the Develop module it tells me that it cannot locate the image. How do I get them together?
It sounds like you need to update the folder location(s) in Lightroom as the paths have changed. See Option Two above.
If you still have difficulties, please post on the Forums as you can then let us see screenshots and we can help further.
so i had all my photo folders (thousands) in a single folder:
2001-01-15
…
2023-01-15
unfortunately this makes accessing the folder list really slow and not even LR can scroll it towards the bottom of them all (cannot scroll lower than 2018 in my case).
so i wanted to move them into a yearly subfolder. it works (with occasional “unknown error occured” messages) but takes hours! while in explorer it would be done in seconds.
so i moved them in explorer because this is ridiculous.
now apparently it’s not possible to tell lightroom what the new folder structure is like and i have to start from scratch or relink every missing folder one by one?
If you moved folders outside of Lightroom, then yes, folders need to be relinked. Most that use date structures at least have dated folders under years, which of course makes it a lot simpler (and quicker) if relinking a high-level folder as the hierarchy under it is linked by the top-level change.
Lightroom Queen, thank you!
Now TERMINAL’s asking me TERMINAL asking me if want to terminate running processes in this window – Closing this window will terminate the running processes: Adobe Lightroom Helper (GPU), Adobe Lightroom Helper, Adobe Lightroom Classic, agcinvokerutility, AdobeCRDaemon.
Do I click – “Cancel” or “Terminate”?? !!!!!! HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Won’t allow me to open Lightroom until I answer!
Sorry I missed your comment. Hmmmm, I think I’d want to know what anyone’s been doing with terminal before guessing that one.
HELP. Adobe person helped me to move photos to my external G-Drive (Friday night, so not available now on Sunday). Once all photos successfully moved over (done within LR), I manually moved LR Catalogs to G-Drive too. Now can no longer see the G-Drive photo folders within LR, only HD showing folders w/ missing photos. Now showing “Error”. Then TERMINAL opening up showing this: “Terminal” would like to access files in your Documents folder. – asking “Don’t Allow” OR “OK”. Don’t know what to do now!
Hello – I’m a new LRClassic user. I’m trying to move photos from one external HD to another, all within LRC. I’m not having success dragging and dropping a small test sub-folder, still within LRClassic.
I initially moved all my photos successfully to a 4TB hard drive. However, I discovered that my external drive is formatted ExFAT. It appears Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is preferred, and needed for Time Machine backups. Also, I’ll only work with Macs in the future. I thought it would be best to move my photos off my original HD, reformat this original HD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then move the photos back to the original HD. I have a brand new 4TB second HD to move the photos too. I’ve formatted this second drive to the Mac OS Extended. However, I’m trying to move just one small subfolder as a test, and having a problem.
I dragged & dropped this test sub-folder from the original HD to the new drive, but a new sub-folder doesn’t show on the second drive, and no photos. I tried dragging the folder again, but got this message from LR : “A folder named “41 Photos from Removable Media” already exists at this location”. In Finder, this new sub-folder does show under the Parent, but the folder is empty.
Any suggested next steps or ideas would be very helpful ! Why won’t drag and drop work? Thank you.
It sounds like there’s a permissions issue copying. Can you copy other files okay using Finder to the new disk?
I think you may have hit on my problem in LRC. Yes, on desktop I could drag 2 test files directly from my original HD to my new backup[ HD! In Finder, my original HD with photos transferred from Macintosh HD only has “You have custom access” under permissions. This is now my source HD for all original photos. There’s no pop-up menu and no lock icon. My back up HD disc which is my destination has “You can read & write” and the lock icon. I’ll do some more research. Thanks very much.
Ok here are the steps for COPYING not MOVING your Lightroom files and main catalog from one HD to a new HD.
1. backup the main catalog. (assuming you have only one catalog)
2. Copy the entire folders and files from HD1 to HD2. (use bridge or the OS explorer or finder)
3. Disconnect or eject the old HD1.
4. In Lightroom right click the old drive top header for a missing Location (will have a question mark), then point to the new HD top header and click enter, all files will be connected to the main catalog with all the edits and ratings.
5. copy the main catalog to the new HD, then change the catalog location in Lightroom catalog settings.
6. The catalog backup should be on a third external HD, make sure you update the location of the Hard drive.
Hi
Interesting, but of course not the point of the Blog post, which is to move (not copy) only the photos (not catalog).
Also, it isn’t always as simple as you mention. Step 4 assumes all photos on the drive to move are under one parent. As mentioned in this blog, there can be several, so it may be a repeated step.
Change the catalog location – there’s a little more to it:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/find-move-rename-catalog/
All backup procedures then need to be updated to ensure the photos and catalog files are being backed up (to a second external disk).
If this question belongs elsewhere, I apologize for the intrusion here.
I have LR 6. Over 40,000 pics. Only selective pics have been tweaked in LR. Otherwise all are cataloged and viewed throught he LR lens.
Originals (RAW and JPG) are downloaded and stored in a Canon or Sony program.
I’m interested (now) in the cloud based version(s) of LR to take over organization and edits.
HOWEVER, I am concerned about the future of my edited collection. I do not expect future family members to maintain a subscription to LR so they can view, organize, print, or re-tweak anything I’ve done over the past 50 years. Sooooo…. What can/should I do outside of the cloud based system to preserve any LR edits I’ve made, for future generations? Is it as simple as saving the edited photos to a hard drive? How? Thank you!
To ensure you have a copy complete with edits, you would need to export as JPEGs and store locally. It might be simplest to do this on a year-by-year basis, as a year (and the edits for it) are complete. Creating an album for each year and adding the year of photos to it may be a way of managing this ready for export.
My question is: what is the best way to back up my photos and catalog. Right now I have my catalog backed up to my iMac and I use an Ext 2 TB HD to store my photos. I bought another 4TB HD and want to copy my photos to it and store it off site. Moving forward I am not sure if I will have to import new photos to both HD separately or use a software to make sure that both HD are synced every so often? Can I keep the one catalog on my iMac or do I need another linked to the second HD? Also which software is best to sync between 2 HD? I am using LR6 stand alone.
Thanks!
Hi Shawn
Backups should be exactly that – a copy of the data (and catalog), not a duplication of import and catalog. The idea is then you have a reference point to restore from should you suffer a disk issue or catalog problem.
We suggest use some synchronization software to do that, so only additions and changes are copied. We both use Chronosync, but there’s a number of options out there.
Check out our free eBook for other files that you should be backing up regularly.
Thanks for your prompt reply! I will get on it ASAP.
Curious, do you use the express or full version of ChronoSync?
We both use the full version. One of the main reasons we prefer it (there are several additional features) is that it can verify the copy made. But I do know others use the Express version quite happily. There’s a trial version available to check it out,
Please help me, my Lightroom looks nothing like this. I’m using Lightroom 4.1 on a MacBook Air. All my searches show me this screen which looks nothing like my Lightroom. I’m trying to move photos to an external hard drive because my internal drive is full.
Lightroom 4.1 is the Desktop cloud version, Local store location can be set in Preferences. Feel free to ask the question on our Forums for additional assistance.
Amazing amount of support you’ve given in comments here!
I have multiple external USB drives. Each drive has its own lightroom catalogue. In the case of a few drives, 99% of the folders contain images of a similar nature, but 1% of folders contain subject matter that is unrelated. I’d like to pull those folders out and move them to a new drive. In your instructions, I get the impression you’re moving photos to a new folder – but they are still maintained within the same catalogue they always have been. How should I go about moving these folders to a new hard drive where it includes having a new catalogue on that new drive and ensuring all my edits, etc, are brought across into that new catalogue too?
TIA!
Hi Chris
This was covered in our Blog series on merging catalogs. Check the links here:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/tag/catalog-2020/
Hm.. I may have found the answer myself. Connect the existing and new hard drives. Start LR and create a new catalogue on the destination hard drive. From the File menu, import from another catalogue and navigate to the old catalogue. This lists all folders that had been imported to that catalogue. They are all selected by default. Deselect them all then just select the ones I want to move. Complete the import. The folders and images will now appear in LR but they will show a file path to the old hard drive (which is where they still are). Close LR. Use whatever system tool to copy the folders from the old to the new drive. Disconnect the old drive. Open LR and open that newly created catalogue. LR will say the folders can’t be found but you can right-click on each and choose an option to show LR where the folders now reside (on the new drive). I think that will do it!
Hi Victoria,
I used option 2 to move my photos from one external hard drive to another. I disconnected the original drive, relaunched LR and got an error that said it couldn’t locate the photos in the original drive (because I moved them). So I went to the original parent folder, chose to locate the new parent folder, selected the new parent folder on the new external hard drive. The new drive shows up in LR with the new parent and all the original folder structure. All seemed to go well. No question marks on any folders. Images opened up fine.
However, after quitting LR and relaunching, that same error pops up saying LR can’t find the folder on the original drive. Why is it still looking for the photos in that original drive? I still see the new drive and the new parent folder in LR. Quitting again and relaunching and it is still looking for my photos in the original drive.
I’m using Lightroom Classic 10.1 on Big Sur.
This is the error I keep getting: “Lightroom cannot write to the following directories. Until this problem is resolved, syncing from Lightroom may not function correctly.”
It keeps trying to write to the original drive where my photos were stored. I don’t see any question marks or errors on any folders or images in the Library view. And I can edit my photos in Develop.
Check Preferences > Lightroom Sync > Location – have you still got the old drive specified for Lightroom to try and write to there?
That was it, thank you!
I don’t know why this is so confusing for me. I have been using option 1, which is tedious with a track pad, to move folders from my hard drive to an external drive when I am low on space. I needed to replace that external old drive to a new one, since it was sometimes not mounting, so I got a new external (2 of them) and tried option 2 successfully.
But now I’m so confused about how to go forward.
I just now clicked a folder in on my hard drive, which has already been copied to my new external. I clicked “Update folder location” and selected my new hard drive.
The folder no longer shows on mac hard drive in lightroom, but it also doesn’t appear in lightroom on the new hard drive. How do I get this back?
What’s the procedure to do this easily?
Thanks for anything you can tell me.
Don
I’ve given up trying to figure out why that folder disappeared from Lightroom altogether. So I went back to the last backup before I did this, and used the trick of copying files from the Mac hard drive to a new folder, and then went through one at a time (September to December a folder for every day) and used the locate option.
But going forward it would be great to know, what the option “Update folder location” does.
What I thought I could do was to:
1) copy the files from mac hd to my external hd
2) go to the first folder on mac hd that was copied and right mouse click, choosing Update folder location
3) browse to the new location I just copied it to.
My expectation is that that process would remove the entry in LR for my mac hard drive, and have it show up on the LR view of the external HD.
I think I’ve made this more complex by not having top level folders that I can do them all in one fell swoop. Instead I have a flat folder system where I have
Hard Drive
2020-12-16
2020-12-15
2020-12-14
folders.
Your idea works, but you could make it simpler. You are correct this will be repetitious due to not having higher-level folders.
I would suggest creating a high-level folder in Lightroom (the + at the top of the Folders panel, add folder) which will then be visible in Lightroom. Then (in Lr) drag the folders you mention into it (you could create a more detailed structure with a top level then years within and even months within that if you wish).
Once done, you can then move the entire folder structure to the new disk and just re-point the top-level folder.
Hi guys,
I am still confused so I hope you can help me.
My old iMac is ready for recycling (10 y/old) and I am going to buy a new one.
My budget is relatively limited so, here I am asking you: would it be a right choice to get one with SSD only (as much as my budget would allow me to get…) and storing ALL my pics on 2 external HDD (one for backup) or this will slow down Lightroom?
Would you otherwise recommend me to store the most recent images (like the one’s of the current year for example) is the SSD and the rest on the external HDD?
I know for some of you these can be foolish questions but I would appreciate an answer 🙂
Thanks, Valerio
Yes, operating system and catalog on an SSD with the photos on external hard drive would be my choice.
Ok, If my 77yr old noggin is still working,I faintly remember there was a way to move a folder on a horizontal plan,by clicking on it and sliding it out to the panel. In this case to the left. I can not make it work or find it in the books.
Now to the real QUESTION, ? Can the same thing be done with COLLECTIONS ?
Thanks for any help you can offer- ED
Yes, for folders, highlight the folder and drag it to the new location in the folders panel. Collections you can do the same also.
Hi Victoria, I recently purchased a new external HD to expand my storage. I have read this tutorial and I am still kindnof in the dark about it. When I started using LR, I didn’t start out using the catalogs exactly the right way. When I import my.images, I have been using theb”add” instead of “copy” or “move.” As a result, I don’t have the folders inside LR that I should. How do I need to move my images so that I don’t lose my development settings in my catalogs? Since I don’t have the internal folders inside LR, I won’t have a folder to click on to find the parent folder for. I just won’t show that folder in my menu anymore.
Hi Paul
Add is fine – the Move doesn’t move the photos ‘into’ Lightroom, it just put them in whatever Destination Folder you specify on Import. So they will be wherever they were added from (Show Parent works whatever Import you used)
I actually don’t move them with LR. I move them thru Finder from my memory card to the drive and folder I normally store them in. Then when I import them to LR, their Parent Folder greys out. With this occurring, how can I reestablish their new parent folder after I move them to the new drive?
I’ve already moved the images. Now I just have to reallocate the new parent folders inside LR.
What’s the Parent folder? Is it a system-reserved one (like /user)? what OS? Might be best to open a thread on the Forums so we can see screenshots, etc.
I have my images stored in folders named by what camera the images were taken with first. Inside that, they are sorted in location and date. I am running the latest Mac OS on a 27″ iMac. Early 2018 model.
I think seeing some screenshots would be a logical next step
Hi,
Thanks for the valuable content here! I am a new user of Lightroom Classic and have a question about creating a new catalogue on a new computer, on my new lightroom program. (a bit overwhelming)
I have many years’ worth of photographs (from 2004 on) that i have moved from a few computers onto an external hard drive (and one for backup). They are mostly organized by year and month but also a bit of a disorganized mess with several duplicated images in odd folders.
How do you recommend that i proceed? I seem to be paralyzed with fear of doing it wrong.
I think i should:
-Create a new catalogue in Lightroom Classic on my laptop (it’s a Mac)
-Connect the hard drive with all my photos
-Import all the various photos in the folders as they are currently “organized”
-Use Lightroom on my mac to further organize , cull photos, and create collections (I guess while connected to the hard drive so LR knows where they are?)
-When i want to import new photos from my camera , they should be imported onto the hard drive into a folder and then into Lightroom Classic on my laptop from there.
-When i want to edit photos, i will need to connect my hard drive.
Does that sound right?
Help!
And thank you 🙂
Feel free to post on the forum (link on the menu) where we can talk the possibilities through in more detail. But yes, at that level, sounds fine. There are probably ways to optimize it further, like letting Lightroom organize them into dated folders during import and using “Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates” while importing to reduce the number of duplicates you need to clean up.
Thank you! i will look into the forum for more details. It is helpful to get some confirmation with this so I can move forward though, so thank you.
Hi Victoria!
I have a question as I really have a big problem in Lightroom!
Recently we have moved all our files on our drive to another drive, and that has caused some issues as the photos won’t link correctly now.
So I have been building up a new catalog with the new drive. And when I need to open and use a collection that was created with the old drive, then all the links for the photos will be missing ofc as it will think that they are on the old drive.
The problem is that when I will try to relink the photos to the new drive, it will say that the photo is already existing in the catalog, and then it will show a path to the old drive.
Basically, it won’t let me relink the photos to the new drive.
Please, do you have any advise?
Building a new catalog and importing will lose the edits you did that are held in the catalog (as well as Collections, etc) – is that what you mean by building a new catalog?
‘relink to the new drive’ – you’re talking the old catalog here, yes? As in the post, you need to change the location to the new drive, not try and import (which will give you the already existing error)
When you say wont let you relink – are you doing this at top folder level? What exact error message do you get? And this is with the current, not a new catalog?
Hi Victoria – you’ve really started something with this site. I have pictures and a LR catalog on a PC. However, I have most of my pictures and LR catalog on a Mac that has now died. I want to end up with a single catalog on my PC with all the pictures on an external SSD. I am thinking the logical steps are: 1. move my old Mac catalog and pictures to the PC; 2. consolidate into one catalog; 3. move the pictures to the external SSD. Does this seem like a sensible sequence? I see you have tutorials on how to do all of those steps.
Basically that sounds right. I’d suggest download the free eBook from our site on Moving Computers, it covers a lot of those steps and ones that can be overlooked.
Hello Victoria
I am new to your blog. I’m in a terrible jam and I’m hoping you can help me. I’m going to try to make a very long story short… I just had my old computer die and just after installing the old HD on my new computer I mistakenly formatted my main storage drive (2TB HD 85% FULL). Fortunately it was a “Quick Format” and I was able to recover the files using RECUVA Recovery software. I bought a new computer which has a 256GB SSD on the motherboard which runs the OS and Lightroom. I copied all of my recovered photos on a new 4TB Drive and have another 2TB drive which came with the new computer and has some files on it. I also have a couple 500TB HD’s (external HD’s) which have stored photos from few years back. I have re-installed LR5 on my new computer and I’m setting up the LR options.
Questions
#1 Is LR5 going to work OK on Windows 10 OS?
#2 Should I plan on putting ALL of my pictures on ONE HD or can I use multiple devices? (I heard LR likes to have everything on one drive.)
#3 LR options- Should when IMPORTING do I want my download to COPY to my “C:” to be available for fast processing AND a second copy to my secondary drive as a immediate backup? (Thinking about another 4TB for this purpose?
Hi OrchidsPhotography13, nice to meet you. Sorry to hear of your predicament.
Lightroom 5 will probably be ok. It’s obviously a lot older than the current OS releases and won’t have been tested extensively, but there are lots of Windows 10 users still using LR5 ok.
Lightroom won’t mind where you put the photos, so one drive or multiple is fine. Just make sure it’s easy to back up!
Rather than relying on the “second copy” option in the Import dialog, have a look for proper backup software that can automatically backup all of your files to another HD. That way you won’t have to worry about remembering, and it reduces the risk of user error.
Lightroom is notoriously glitchy for transferring large batches of files. For example, when transferring to a new drive. I have had real problems with errors. And rebuilding the hierarchy is very time consuming. Small batch transfers seems to be okay. But Adobe needs to fix the well documented problems with large batch transfers.
I can send a screen shot of the problem view, if that would help. (Couldn’t see how to upload it here.)
The blog doesn’t allow image uploads, but if you click on the forum on the menubar, you can start a thread there. It’s easier to troubleshoot in a forum thread anyway.
The images were plain gray boxes. No text or evidence about missing photos, although they displayed developed buttons like crop, or white balance adjustments. In the meantime, I found a solution. I linked to my most recent backup catalog file (which I backed up before moving), but I found that the sequence I did it in was crucial. Before, when I was trying it, I had first relocated my library, and then re-opened the back up catalog, producing the gray boxes of each image. Fail. So now I reversed it. I had to first open the backup catalog and then relocate the library. This sequence worked, and now the images populate the boxes.
Odd. We’d need to do a bit more troubleshooting to figure out what happened, but since it’s all working now, happy days!
In thinking about this, I should mention one other fact that may or may not be important. At the same time of moving the photos off my main drive, I also put in a new (larger) main drive, and so all my apps, including LR, and desktop etc, were copied onto this new drive (which also got upgraded to Mojave at the same time).
When you say they don’t show in Develop, is it plain gray or does it say that the photo is missing?
There’s a few potential issues here. A permissions problem on the previews is one suspect, or a corrupted monitor preview is often a prime suspect if the photos are found but just not visible.
Hello Victoria,
I am on a Mac, with Lightroom Classic CC. I just copied my 270K photos onto a 8 TB external drive, keeping the same file structure. The old drive is disconnected. I clicked on “Update Location” for the top main folder to this new drive and LR shows the whole list of correct file names without question or exclamation marks, but LR is not displaying my images well. Mostly it shows just gray empty boxes for each image, although it also displays the star icons and icons in the corners showing that edits have been done. It does show some thumbnails in the grid view, but it won’t show any images in the Development mode. I thought maybe it need time to process (re-process?) them, but after sitting an hour, the empty boxes remain. Looking at the left Nav column it looks like LR is “normal” but the actual pictures aren’t showing up. Do you have any ideas? Thanks.
Hi! First of all, thank you for all the amazing tips.
I have a question regarding this external drive workflow:
When travelling, I usually import my photos with the “Copy as DNG” option in Lightroom. This started as a temporary solution while I figured out how to implement an external drive into the equation, but now it has filled up the 500Gb SSD my MacBook Pro has. Now I’m willing to move all the DNGs (but not the catalogue) to an external drive to free space from my MacBook, but I’m willing to know if after following your instructions I’ll be able to still import directly to my internal drive after new photoshoots, as I would like to edit my recent pictures anywhere without having to have the external drive plugged in.
I hope my question is more or less understandable… Thanks a lot for your help again!
Yes, that’s fine Diego. Lightroom can store photos on multiple different hard drives. When the external drive is disconnected, you won’t be able to edit photos stored on it (unless you’ve built smart previews) but you’ll still be able to add new photos to your internal drive and edit any stored on the internal drive. Then when you’re done, move them off to the external again, using the instructions above.
Hi! My question may likely be answered above, but I cannot understand any tech-y speak, so none of what I read resonates with me & I also don’t think my specific question was asked. Can you please talk to me like I’m a 5 year old?
• I am using LR6 on a late 2016 15″ MacBook Pro.
• I currently have all of my LR managed RAW files in one catalog on a 500gb external (FreeAgent) travel drive, which in addition to being the “home” of my RAW files, is also used to edit my images (unfortunately, this is how I was taught at ICP when I transitioned from a darkroom & an SLR to a DSLR). *** This FreeAgent travel drive is the only drive I have ever used (going back to 2009) to work on my photographs & the only place to which I have ever imported my files from my photo’s memory cards (they are not stored on my laptop’s hard drive).
• My 500gb external drive is almost full, so I just bought a Lacie Rugged 4TB external hard drive, which I want to use going forward in place of my FreeAgent drive, as I can’t import new images into my 500gb drive (because it’s almost full).
• The guy at Adorama who was unbelievably patient with me told me to drag and drop the “stuff” from my FreeAgent travel drive onto the new Lacie rugged drive (I’m even concerned about this process now, based on your suggestion in another post to use a software program to make sure the information is accurately copied). Also, I do NOT want to wipe my FreeAgent drive clean or remove anything from it, I just want the stuff that’s on it on a bigger drive, too. (Does this make any sense?)
• How do I CORRECTLY set the import destination to my new Lacie drive in LR6 so that I can start working seamlessly from the Lacie HD directly, as though I were still working from my FreeAgent drive (so that edits, metadata, copyright info, “picks”, keywords, etc. also transfer to the Lacie drive)?
Does this question even make sense to you? I honestly don’t know how to ask any other way. I hope you understand what I’m getting at & that you can reply in a way that I understand. I feel like I am losing my mind…
Thanks in advance for whatever reply you provide; I’m at my wit’s end right now.
Edit in 2nd bullet point — “from my CAMERA’S memory cards” (not my “photo’s memory cards” because that makes no sense. Overlooked error, even though I reread my post 6 times before hitting “post comment”…)
Hi Erin
Since you’re not wiping the previous drive, don’t worry about using other software to move the files. In fact, that makes it really safe to do, because if you mess it up, you can start over.
Just follow the steps in Option 1 above. If you need us to walk you through it in even more detail, post on the forum linked at the top of the page, but it’s really not complicated.
Then once it’s all moved, next time you import photos, make sure you pick the new Lacie HD in the Destination panel of the import dialog.
Hi Victoria,
I’m just about ready to copy all my photos (2TB) from one external drive to a new 6TB one. I downloaded that ChronoSync app, and am ready to use it, but I’m not sure which option. When I get the data from the old drive to the new drive, my plan is to just put the old drive away (as a sort of extra backup), but I don’t see using it for anything else. So I’m not sure if I should use the Folder Backup option, and then UNcheck the last options of archiving, or not? Any help on that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for providing such great help on your site!
Synchronize or Backup would work, and yes, you won’t need the Archive option if it’s a one-way move. Just look out for the Verified copied data checkbox in Options > Special File Handling section so it double checks the files copy safely.
Hi Victoria I have followed your process to move photos from iMac hard drive to external 4tb HD.
Copied Masters file from pictures which has subfolders from yrs 2010 -2018 took about 2hrs opened LR found my Masters folder highlighted and updated folder location been back to this several times but folder remains empty. LR is just not recognising that these folders are there and full of photos. Can you help as have now run out of C drive space. Many thanks Lawrence
Are you looking in the right spot? They’ll be showing in the Masters folder under the 4TB volume now, not under your iMac hard drive. That often trips people up, as it’s often collapsed in the Folders panel. If that’s not it, post screenshots of the Folders panel and the new location in Finder on the forum (in the menubar) and we should be able to spot what’s wrong.
Hi. Thank you for any help. My external hard drive died this morning while I was editing in Lightroom. I am now waiting on a 217 GB download zip file from backblaze where the restored images are being put on a new external hard drive that I just set up today. The download has my main folder with about ten folders of images within it. I have many hours to wait for the download, but I am curious of the best way to (hopefully) locating my images via my Lightroom catalog on the new external. Will this be possible?
Yes, that’ll be fine. Hopefully they’ll still be in the same folder structure. You’ll just need to “find missing folder” (https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/) on each parent folder, as you may not have set up the hierarchy. It may even let you show the folder hierarchy (https://www.lightroomqueen.com/articles-page/long-list-folders-can-change-show-folder-hierarchy/) while the photos are still missing, saving you some time relinking.
I have an interesting one.
I have stupidly exported my photos in to a sub folder in the same location as the originals. These now are showing up in the main view and cluttering up the catalogue.
Is there an easier way to move these to a new folder automatically whilst keeping the same folder structure but in a dedicated EXPORT root folder?
Thanks
Yes and no. Not natively. There is a plug-in, but I haven’t tested to see if it’s still working with the most recent releases. http://photographers-toolbox.com/products/lrtreeexporter.php Personally I wouldn’t bother to add the exports to the catalog, even if you decide to put them in a subfolder of the original.
Hi Victoria, I am trying to “archive” photos from my laptop to 2 external HDs (one I carry with me and the other is a true backup (but not the only one)). I have done this many many times since I started with LR2, but for some reason, I’m either forgetting how I did it previously or something has changed. I only do this once or twice a year.
You say “never reimport.” Does this apply to DNG files? I convert all my RAW photos to DNG. This “update folder location” thing isn’t sounding familiar to me and I’m thinking I must have reimported the photos I copied to both HDs. But I’ve never noticed keywords or edits missing…
I am using LR CC 2015. Haven’t updated yet.
It’s possible to write much of the metadata into the DNG files, including keywords and edits. You’d be missing stuff like flags, virtual copies, collection membership – basically stuff that’s only stored in the catalog. It depends on when you’re converting to DNG – if you’re exporting the finished files to DNG format on the external drive, removing it from catalog, and you don’t care about that information, you’re probably ok. If you want to keep the information in the catalog, I’d still recommend doing it the way noted above.
I looked at the last folder I sent to my external drive and yes, I re-imported them. I convert all my raw files to DNG upon initial import, but on the re-imported photos, I’m still seeing my edits, keywords, crops. The only thing that I can see that I’m missing are the histories, which I never look at, so that’s why my method apparently has been working for me. But you’re right, I’m not seeing any flags, but that doesn’t mean I had any in this batch of photos. Not being a professional, I don’t flag or rate all of them. I do make the occasional virtual copes but if any of them are gone, I wouldn’t remember.
So here’s my experience (yesterday) with trying to update the folder location: in my 2016 folder on the external drive, my 1H2016 subfolder is already there, it’s the last one I imported. My 2H2016 subfolder has just been copied over and when I click on “2016” and “update folder location” it gives me a choice of 1H or 2H, so it recognizes that 2H is there. But if I select 2H, it replaces 1H in the catalog. If I go back and select 1H, it replaces 2H. So I must be doing something wrong. You mentioned renaming the original folders on the source drive. I haven’t done that, would it make a difference?
What are 1H and 2H? Different drives? If so, that’s fine. You wouldn’t want the photos in the catalog twice at two different locations. You just want links to one drive in the catalog, with the other drive mirrored.
No sorry, shorthand for the names of the subfolders. Parent folder=2016. 1H2016 and 2H2016 are subfolders. (1st half and 2nd half of 2016)
I’m not sure I can quite follow your workflow here. Might need a screenshot or two. I don’t think you can add screenshots here, but the forum would work.
Thanks for this article.
May I suggest using FreeFile Sync as an option for moving large quantities of data from/to different drives?
It’s an Open Source utility and free to use (www.freefilesync.org). You can use it to synchronize, mirror or update files and folders. It’s fast, reliable and easy to use. I’ve used it for several years now to back up my photos, and without a problem.
Great recommendation Gavin. I haven’t checked for a while – do they do a byte-for-byte or checksum comparison?
Please help! I followed your directions for Option One… well, except I wasn’t able to rename my original “Pictures” folder because I’m on Mac– so I hid it within another folder.
Anyway, when I attempt to “Update Folder Location” in Lightroom 4 I get the message: “The selected folder or one of its subfolders is already in Lightroom. Do you want to combine these folders?”
“Merge” and “Cancel” are the only options.
What will happen if I merge? Help!
Merge is fine. It’s worth having a catalog backup first, just in case you don’t get quite the result you expect, but it’s usually the right choice.
Thanks for the tip!
But will I be able to see at least some kind of low-res previews when the external drive is not connected?
If the catalog’s still on your internal drive, and you’ve built previews before you disconnect, then yes. To be sure, Library menu > Previews > Build Standard-Sized Previews. If you want to be able to edit without the drive attached, you’ll want Smart Previews as well, from the same menu.
Thanks Victoria.
Hi Victoria,
When moving up through the folder hierarchy in LR, I end up with:
C:
— Users
—User
—-Pictures
and beneath Pictures are all the folders that actually contain images, organized by Year, from 2014 to 2017.
Each of “Users”, “User”, and “Pictures” show 22809 files, so I believe “Pictures” is the actual parent folder.
What I really want to do is just move the older files to a new server, say years 2014 and 2015, leaving the more recent files on the laptop.
So the goal would look like this in Lightroom’s Folders list
C:
— Users
—User
—-Pictures
—-2016
—-2017
Z: <- the mapped network drive on the server
— PhotoArchive
—2014
—2015
Each year of course has its own subfolders.
So I'm not wanting to move a parent, per se, but to copy a year's worth of files using Explorer, following Option 1 in the article. Will I orphan files? Right now the laptop is full, only 2 gigs of space left.
Thank you for having a look at this.
– Miles Thompson
Seasons Photography, Enfield, Nova Scotia
That’s fine Miles, just go ahead and move the year’s photos, then right-click on the year folder in LR and go to Update Folder Location and reconnect it with the new location.
I downloaded pictures from my camera onto my hard drive, from there I imported them into lightroom, then somehow deleted only a few of these particular pictures. At this point I’m able to only find them in LR but of course it states that I cannot do anything with them because the originals cannot be located. I actually went as far as to restore everything in my trash file with no success at finding them. I do back up my files frequently but there was such a short time from original download to loss that I don’t think they were included in the backup. I have looked there as well and still don’t see them.
I’m so confused and frustrated at the fact that the pictures, whether original or not are right there, right in front of me on LR, yet I cannot have them, I cannot save them export them….NOTHING….Is there any hope?
:^(
Sorry to hear that Brandi. Might they still be on your memory card? Even if you’ve reformatted it, recovery software might be able to retrieve them. If you really can’t find the originals anywhere, it may be possible to extract Lightroom’s previews: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/articles-page/accidentally-deleted-photos-hard-drive-dont-backups-can-create-jpegs-lightrooms-previews/
I wanted to copy the contents of one small external drive and the contents of another folder on a second external drive to a new third external drive. Unfortunately I used Synchronize folder after moving the files in Explorer. As you say I lost all the lightroom keywords, flags, Development History, and had a bunch of baked (LR treated) files. I moved these files on 2 different dates. In my catalog backups I have one before the first external drive moved and another about 2 weeks later right before the second move. I was so happy after the first move was completed and the pictures showed up I didn’t realize all the missing information. It wasn’t until I made the second move I searched the web and found your ” Synchronize is not your friend”. I am wondering if I emptied drive 3 and started over if I could import from a later date catalog for the second drive without losing the changes from the first move. I am thinking it might be better to leave things as they are while I still have the photos. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thank you, rick
If you have catalog backups that contain the metadata/edits, then it’s fixable, don’t worry. Have you done much work since that first backup, that you’d be upset to lose?
If not, your easiest fix would be to create a copy of that 1st backup catalog, which will become your new working catalog, then open it up and simply reconnect the missing photos to their new location on the third external drive. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/
If you’ve done additional work or imported new photos since that first backup, it’s still fixable in the same way, but you then might need to do a little more juggling to get those edits/new photos into your new working catalog too. If that’s the case, post the story on the forum at https://www.lightroomforums.net with more detail, and we’ll help you from there. Using the forum software just means it’s easier to communicate and we can share screenshots more easily than in blog comments too.
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I have done quite a bit of work since the first move, combined with a lot more mucking about over the weekend. I was unable to sleep at all this last night, and tried drawing pictures on the computer of last nights photos to get my mind off of Lightroom. When I wake up again I will try heading over to the forum. Thanks again
Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Worst case scenario, I do offer live support (under the Shop menu) but it may well be something we can figure out by forum posts for free. It’s certainly not the biggest mess we’ve dealt with… at least you had backups!!
Victoria, A friend copied Lightroom CC from a Windows laptop to a new Windows laptop everything seems fine except my Lightroom mobile.
When I tried to sync my LR mobile on the new machine it told me I could only sync one catalogue, would I like to sync this catalogue instead, when I pressed yes I got a message saying another catalogue was syncing ir cat, switching between catalogues wasnt recomended.
The catalogue are on both internal C drives, should I put them on an external drive to use between computers, I dont want to loose all my current LR mobile photos on my iPad, but need to use the new computer for them in future. Can you give me some advice or a link to do this.
Love the way you explain LR, thanks you so much for all the information you provide.
Liz.
Hi Liz
Ok, a couple of questions…
1. Is this a one-way move, or will you continue to use Lightroom on both computers?
2. Are you certain that she copied the catalog, and didn’t just import the photos into a new catalog? The reason I ask is just moving the catalog shouldn’t ask whether to switch.
3. Is everything safely uploaded from your iPad to the cloud and back down to your computer?
Hi Victoria,
I moved my images to a new, larger internal hard drive using Lightroom. However, I made the mistake of opening the complete image folder, selecting all images and dragging them into the new folder on the big hard drive. all the images transferred, but the year/date folders that they were in disappeared and they’re all in one giant folder without dates. Is there any easy way of getting the images back into day folders?
Thanks.
Not an easy way Michael. If you have a backup of the folders in their old folder structure and a backup of the catalog too, you’d be best just to restore the backups and try again. Beyond that, you can use the metadata filters to select a year or month’s photos at a time and manually recreate a folder structure. I wouldn’t bother to go all the way down by day – month folders inside year folders is plenty for most people, and fairly quick to set up and drop the images into. There’s a post coming up on this very subject… currently scheduled for around 8th May.
Hi
I’m a complete novice. I eas running out of memory on my cpu. The kid at best buy said to just get an external hard drive, and click and drag. Si I hot 10,000 pics moved to the E drive, and I don’t think I lost anything?
My question is: how do I link my desktop, screensaver pics to the picture files on the E drive?
Thanks
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “how do I link my desktop, screensaver pics to the picture files” – are these photos that are cataloged in Lightroom (in which case you’ll use these instructions) or something else?
Hi Victoria, thanks for the quick reply and sorry for the delay my end – this project got overtaken by the holidays. My overall objective is to move my library and catalogue to a hard drive which I can share between my desktop and laptop. At the moment all my photos are stored on my iMac internal hard rive. I was trying to rename the Pictures folders on my hard drive following Step 3 of your instructions above. I take it from your reply that I can just jump to Step 4 and tell LR to look at the copy versions on the new external drive, not the originals in the Pictures folder? Sorry to be stupid but I’m terrified of messing this up! Thanks Nigel
Yep, you’ve got it. Back your catalog up first just as a safety net, then you need not worry about messing it up.
Hi Victoria. I have been trying to follow your instructions to set up LR so I can access my photos on an external hard drive from both my desktop and laptop. I have copied my Pictures folder onto an external hard drive but now I cannot rename the Pictures folder on my desk top because its ‘hardwired’ by OS X . What should I do? I think LR automatically puts imported photos into the Pictures folders doesn’t it so this must be a common situation – therefore I must have done something wrong! Thanks
I don’t quite understand why you’re trying to rename the Pictures folder on the desktop, when you’ve just said you’ve copied the photos to the external drive. If Lightroom is updated to look for the photos on the external drive now, then it won’t be looking in the internal Pictures folder at all. For new imports, just select the external drive’s folder in the Destination panel of the Import dialog, rather than the default Pictures folder.
When selecting an external drive for photos does it need to not be encrypted? I started copying folders to an encrypted drive that I been using as a Time Machine backup but it’s asking for the password every time I copy a folder on it. I assume it will ask for the password every time I edit an image in the future? Not good.
I don’t generally make my external encrypted, and yes, I imagine that would be very frustrating!
Thanks for the info. Very helpful website!
Hi Victoria,
I used your method to back up my catalog to an external drive, but now I’m having an issue opening it on a second computer. When I attempt to open it as a catalog, I get an error message stating that I can’t open a catalog from an external drive. Do you know why this would be happening? Thanks!
Most likely a file permissions problem, that you don’t have permission to read/write to that drive.
I checked that, and I have permission to read and write to the drive. The error message says “Lightroom Catalogs can not be opened on network volumes, removable storage, or read only volumes”.
Victoria, I figured it out!! Thanks for all of your great blog posts. Keep up the good work.
Well done!
Victoria I have folders with images set up on my external hard drive. I would like to add images from my desk top to those already existing folders within my EHD, but LR is not showing those folders. How do I get LR to show those folders so I can move the images.
If the folders are empty, you still use Library menu > New Folder. If there are already photos in the folder, you’ll need to import one of the photos (even if you then remove it again).
Thanks Victoria I really appreciate your suggestion. If I would choose to copy the content to the new DR, then the old DR I could jut put it away and keep as a 3rd back up copy. Lastly, what would be the best way, should I name the master folder on the new DR as the old one, or a different name. What would be the consequences once I tell LR that I’m using a different DR
Naming the new drive the same as the old drives means you can skip most of the steps above, because Lightroom would find the photos at the same path. If you go for a different drive name, then you just have to follow the instructions above to relink the files once they’re on the new drive.
I’m in a pickle, I need help big time please. I’m using LR4 and have all my image files in an Ext. HD, but is now full. It has almost 1TB. I purchased (2) Ext Hd – 1-3TB 1-4TB. I already have (2) back up copies (one back up copy the Ext is also getting full.
My question is do I start using the new Ext HD empty or do I make a copy from the master and use the full Ext HD as extra back up copy. I have seen most people are suggesting to move, copy from Master to new Ext HD. What should I do? Also should I use the 3TB or 4 TB Ext HD
Either is fine Dave. Personally, I’d copy the existing photos to the new drive (using Option 1 above), because I don’t like having a whole queue of external hard drives lined up (too many plugs and cables!!) and it simplifies backup. But if you want to keep the old photos on the 1TB and put new ones on the new drive, that’ll be fine too.
Hi Victoria,
Noting the above, I’d like your advice regarding my LR catalog. I currently have one and use it exclusively on my desktop. As a results of this I now have over 150k images in the catalog and it is running very very slowly despite the high end specs on my PC. What I am considering doing is importing a new shoot (for example ‘Portrait shoot July 2016’ inot my catalog then exporting it as a sole catalog and opening that alone to cull and edit. I could store this ‘active’ catalog on my dropbox to enable me to work on my laptop when away (which i have never done). My questions are;
1) When done, can i simply import the catalog back into the master catalog and will it slot into place as it once was in the right area?
2) Can I work using the previews only exported with the catalog? I don;t want to copy all the images to my laptop too?
3) Will this actually speed up LR??
Thank you and look forward to hearing back from you.
Hi Victoria,
Noting the above, I’d like your advice regarding my LR catalog. I currently have one and use it exclusively on my desktop. As a results of this I now have over 150k images in the catalog and it is running very very slowly despite the high end specs on my PC. What I am considering doing is importing a new shoot (for example ‘Portrait shoot July 2016’ inot my catalog then exporting it as a sole catalog and opening that alone to cull and edit. I could store this ‘active’ catalog on my dropbox to enable me to work on my laptop when away (which i have never done). My questions are;
1) When done, can i simply import the catalog back into the master catalog and will it slot into place as it once was in the right area?
2) Can I work using the previews only exported with the catalog? I don;t want to copy all the images to my laptop too?
3) Will this actually speed up LR??
Thank you and look forward to hearing back from you.
I have my catalogue and raws on my desktop and am happy with it.
But what to do on vacation. I havr a laptop with me and will empty my camera card on that. Or on an external HDD, whichever wiuld be recommended.
I’d like to do some LR on these photos on the laptop, but i’d like to be able to import these raws and the adjustments and rankings on my desktop when i get home. I do setup with writing to xmp ON.
What would be the best way to accomplish that?
Sincerely
Adriaan
I’d start a new catalog on your laptop (or external drive) just for your holiday photos, and then use Import from Another Catalog to merge it into your desktop catalog when you get back.
Hi Victoria,
Is there any more complications having the catalogue and photos on an external drive if the two computers happen to be a Mac and a PC laptop?
Only the issue of having to relink the files when you switch platform. The full details are outlined here: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-to-lightroom-catalog-multiple-computers/
hi vctoria,
Thanks for this post. I am considering moving both my Images and my Catalog to a portable drive so that I can work on them from my iMac at home and from my MacBook when travelling. Please can you tell me:
a) whether there are any reasons why this is not a good idea, and
b) what is the best/safest way to achieve it (maybe following your instructions for moving Lightroom to a new computer?)
Hi David. Yes, that works fine. It’s the simplest way of using a catalog on both computers. (There’s a number of other options explained on pages 492-518 of my LRCC/6 book if you want to consider all options.)
Main thing to bear in mind is there’s a slightly higher risk of catalog corruption when the catalog’s on an external drive, simply because it can accidentally disconnected more easily, so just make sure you take regular backups.
To do so, use the instructions above to move the photos to the external drive and relink the files. Then quit Lightroom and move the catalog itself (along with its previews) onto the external drive too. Then double-click on the catalog file to open it into Lightroom, so that Lightroom knows where to find the catalog in future. When you plug the external drive into the other computer, double-click on the catalog on that machine too.
Mac’s are quite easy for regular switching as the drive name remains the same on each computer, so the photos don’t go missing when you switch.
If you use presets, you might also want to think about using the Store Presets with This Catalog checkbox in Preferences, so that they’re available on both machines, but you’ll need to copy the presets to the local folder on the external drive as that doesn’t happen automatically.
Thanks very much, Victoria. That’s brilliant.
Thank you It is about time some one showed this . One more thing i want to ask when bring raw files out of camera do you take the raw and put them in to a folder and then bring that folder in to LR . what I am trying to do Is keep my Raw files safe from LR . Putting them all in One place and hopeing to import them in to LR from a folder I have made out side of LR . can this be done are how do you do it . I hope I explaind this right .
I import them directly into Lightroom – you’ll find step-by-step instructions in my free Quick Start ebook. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/quickstart/