# Importing existing 'Photo' library



## C&J (May 28, 2016)

Just bought/installed LrCC on my Mac running latest OSX El Capitan.Having been relegated from Aperture to Photo I have an existing Photo library on my computer Drive in 'Pictures'.
I have been trying to populate the Lr catalogue with these photos without success.
The File>Plug in route is not for Photo and I have tried using the Lr Import pane, tracking through the drive>user>picture route.Oddly the Photo library does not appear on that list of contents.I am puzzled as it is there if I look using Finder and I can still use the library, so I don't understand why it isn't appearing via the Import pane in Lr.Any thoughts?
And how do I populate the catalogue?
AS I say ,whilst not technical, I am familiar with Aperture etc


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## Johan Elzenga (May 28, 2016)

As you noticed, the import plugin does not support a Photos library, only iPhoto or Aperture. The only thing you can do is run Photos, select all images and then use Export Original. I don't use Photos myself, so I don't know the exact menu names, but that is essentially what you must do: export the images from the Photos library into a folder, so Lightroom can import them from that folder.


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## clee01l (May 29, 2016)

Welcome to the forum.  Johan has nailed the problem – there is nt pluging to convert a Photos Library.  However if you look around, OS X probably created a Photos Library by converting the iPhotos Library.  If your iPhotos  Library is still around (you had to manually delete it if you did not want to keep it after the conversion), You can convert the old iPhotos Library and then you can Export the images added to the Photos Library since you converted the iPhoto Library to a Photos Library.


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## C&J (May 29, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> As you noticed, the import plugin does not support a Photos library, only iPhoto or Aperture. The only thing you can do is run Photos, select all images and then use Export Original. I don't use Photos myself, so I don't know the exact menu names, but that is essentially what you must do: export the images from the Photos library into a folder, so Lightroom can import them from that folder.


Johan, I assume that if I do this I will lose my folder structure , but even worse , I will lose all the adjustments/versions etc. There are over 30,000 photos.
Is this right?
Thanks for helping,if this is the only solution Lightroom is not for me I'm afraid.Unfortunately when Apple abandoned Aperture,I deleted the old library , not expecting to be able/need to ever use it again!


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## C&J (May 29, 2016)

clee01l said:


> Welcome to the forum.  Johan has nailed the problem – there is nt pluging to convert a Photos Library.  However if you look around, OS X probably created a Photos Library by converting the iPhotos Library.  If your iPhotos  Library is still around (you had to manually delete it if you did not want to keep it after the conversion), You can convert the old iPhotos Library and then you can Export the images added to the Photos Library since you converted the iPhoto Library to a Photos Library.


Cletus, thanks for your support.As you can see above, I no longer have the old library.


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## Johan Elzenga (May 29, 2016)

C&J said:


> Johan, I assume that if I do this I will lose my folder structure , but even worse , I will lose all the adjustments/versions etc. There are over 30,000 photos.
> Is this right?
> Thanks for helping,if this is the only solution Lightroom is not for me I'm afraid.Unfortunately when Apple abandoned Aperture,I deleted the old library , not expecting to be able/need to ever use it again!



That's right, but you can export folder by folder. You will loose the adjustments anyway, because the raw engines of Photos and Lightroom are not compatible. To only way to keep those is to export a version with the adjustments 'baked in', meaning a new file. I'm not sure what happens to keywords, but AFAIK Photos also doesn't support these, so they might have gone lost already when you converted your Aperture library to Photos.


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## C&J (May 29, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> That's right, but you can export folder by folder. You will loose the adjustments anyway, because the raw engines of Photos and Lightroom are not compatible. To only way to keep those is to export a version with the adjustments 'baked in', meaning a new file. I'm not sure what happens to keywords, but AFAIK Photos also doesn't support these, so they might have gone lost already when you converted your Aperture library to Photos.


Johan,I am grateful to you.
Not sure yet what I will do but first I will make up a trial folder so as not to disturb my current arrangements and try to export it. I will then know what will happen. I have tried exporting 1 photo and I can't get it from Photos to Lr in one move but it will move in 2 stages via the desktop.Keywords did not come through with it.


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## C&J (May 29, 2016)

Johan, I misinformed you. The keyword came through, being new to Lr I hadn't realised where to look.Not tried a folder yet but the process seems,at present to be to export folders via desktop to Lr. Hopefully Lr will receive images/metadata and keywords in existing folders. Not sure what format ,jpeg etc I can get or whether there is some way to move the originals and versions together.If I end up with only versions in jpeg it just limits future editing I think.But I can keep the originals/raw in Photos,(messy).
Regards
Colin


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## Rob_Cullen (May 29, 2016)

Some more info that may be helpful for getting images out of Mac Photos-
This info quoted uses the "Make Alias" method of making master images available to Lightroom-

_How do you import the new OS X Photos app to Adobe Lightroom?

I don't know of any import plugin for Lightroom to Photos app. However, it is possible to import from the Photos repository, just not that simple.
Photos.app copies all the photos it manages into a separate repository, called "Photos Library"._

_On your Mac, go to your Pictures folder, and look for something called Photos Library._
_Right click on it and choose 'Show Package Contents'. This will open up the repository into a folder view, showing lots of files, and a folder called "Masters". This folder contains all the unedited versions of your Photos in the Photos app. (because Photos is non-destructive, edits are stored outside of the image, just like Lightroom)._
_So, "Masters" is where your photos are stored. However, "Masters" isn't a folder, and Lightroom can not access it. What you need to do is trick Mac OSX into showing the repository contents as a folder. You will notice that "Masters" has no images within it, but instead, it contains only folders, by year. If you open these folders, you will see the images. We need these folders to be exposed...here is how:
OSX won't let us do this to the "Masters" folder, so you need to do this for every folder in "Masters"._

_Right-click a folder, say "2014", choose 'Make Alias'. A folder with an arrow will be created just below the "2014" folder._
_I recommend that you drag this alias folder to your desktop (or some other location), because this alias was created within the hidden Photos repository._
_Do this for every folder you want to import photos from._
_Open Lightroom, and click 'Import'. Navigate to the location where you put all the alias's. These will show as folders to Lightroom, containing all the photos from that year within Photos.app._
_Import away!_


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## Johan Elzenga (May 30, 2016)

This method will work too, but you will definitely lose any added metadata (keywords). For that reason, it may be better (and actually also easier) to use the export method. The only disadvantage is that you'll create copies, so you need the disk space to do that.


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## C&J (May 30, 2016)

I-See-Light said:


> Some more info that may be helpful for getting images out of Mac Photos-
> This info quoted uses the "Make Alias" method of making master images available to Lightroom-
> 
> _How do you import the new OS X Photos app to Adobe Lightroom?
> ...


Many thanks for this.I have found my way to the Masters years list.Before I go any further I obviously need to choose between the two very helpful suggestions for which I am grateful.As these are Masters I am assuming that Lr will receive the original photos,not only without the keywords but without the folder structure that currently is the framework for my Photos library.I think I can also assume that they will arrive in Raw or whatever not just jpeg, which is good. If you think I am being too cautious, I can only say you are proving how little I know about computers/software and these photos are important.It had not occurred to me that the transfer would be so complicated.


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## C&J (May 30, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> This method will work too, but you will definitely lose any added metadata (keywords). For that reason, it may be better (and actually also easier) to use the export method. The only disadvantage is that you'll create copies, so you need the disk space to do that.


Johan, thanks again. As far as I can tell I can use Photos to export the originals using your suggestion and lose the keywords but keep the Raw format.If I use the other Photos option to export photos I keep the keywords but the samples I have trialled all seem to have come through in jpeg.Perhaps not important as they have been edited and this will only limit any further editing in Lr.
Another thing I am encountering is that I have not been able to export folders only photos in the underlying albums.These will move to a folder I have created on the Desktop but not direct to Lr for some reason.I know that I am supposed to be able to move folder by folder.
Your latest point is also valid.I am going to need more storage as the copying across is going to use, maybe exceed, my present 1TB storage
Thanks again and if you have any more to add in reply I shall be grateful
Regards
Colin


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## Johan Elzenga (May 30, 2016)

I'm not sure I understand your remark about folders. AFAIK, Photos displays your photos by date. That means you can select all photos of a certain date or a certain month, and then export these photos to a folder you named for that date or month. Then you can simply import these photos into Lightroom by using the 'Add' option.

A faster alternative is to select all images in Photos and export them to a single folder. Then when you import them into Lightroom, you use 'Move'. That allows you to assign a new destination for the photos, and you can use the options in the Lightroom import dialog to create folders by date. This way your folder hierarchy will be created automatically.


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## C&J (May 30, 2016)

I was referring to your earlier comment that I could 'export folder by folder'.
Photos does list all photos in date order, I assume you are thinking of 'moments', and I have that. 
However since my Aperture days I have always imported my photos into Aperture,now Photos and then assigned those I liked to a 'Folder' named not numbered.I find it harder to identify things that occurred years ago simply by date, which is what' moments' does. For example there are main folders for 'Holidays' with sub folders for my holidays,perhaps'Scotland 2016'/childrens holidays etc The folder 'birthdays' has many subfolders,one for each member of the family containing albums for each birthday. There is a logic and it works for me. So I am trying to transfer it and not have to trawl through years of photos to recreate what I already have.I am currently assuming, and I think you are saying, that Lr will let me manually recreate this structure and import the photos belonging to each folder batch by batch from my existing 'Holiday' folders to their new equivalent in Lr.


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## rob211 (May 30, 2016)

Not to be Mr. Obvious, but did you keep a backup of your old Aperture library? It might at least be available for a subset of your photos.

You could also try using a demo of Mylio to import the Photos Library. Although I'm not sure it'll work with that many (the free version only does 25k images I think, but maybe you could split up the Photos library with PowerPhotos by the iPhoto Library Manager folks). Mylio won't bring in Photos metadata or edits, but it does copy out the masters and bring them into Mylio by copying them to a Finder accessible folder. And it also imports albums. So you could assign keywords within Mylio to mimic the albums, and then import into Lr. Might help.

As you can see, Photos is a horrid little cul de sac and there isn't a whole lot one can do easily to get your info out of it. I assume all your projects/folders/albums got converted to Photos albums, right?


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## C&J (May 30, 2016)

rob211 said:


> Not to be Mr. Obvious, but did you keep a backup of your old Aperture library? It might at least be available for a subset of your photos.
> 
> You could also try using a demo of Mylio to import the Photos Library. Although I'm not sure it'll work with that many (the free version only does 25k images I think, but maybe you could split up the Photos library with PowerPhotos by the iPhoto Library Manager folks). Mylio won't bring in Photos metadata or edits, but it does copy out the masters and bring them into Mylio by copying them to a Finder accessible folder. And it also imports albums. So you could assign keywords within Mylio to mimic the albums, and then import into Lr. Might help.
> 
> As you can see, Photos is a horrid little cul de sac and there isn't a whole lot one can do easily to get your info out of it. I assume all your projects/folders/albums got converted to Photos albums, right?


Afraid not. I am fairly religious about backups to protect my photos and have more than one in 3 locations.However,naively it seems, I replaced Aperture backups with Photo over time.Being somewhat disappointed with Photos, and believing Lr is very similar I decided to switch.I had not seen anything to alert me to this, I am not especially interested in computers/software-only in using it as necessary.
I'll have a look at Mylio and thank you for your help.


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## Johan Elzenga (May 30, 2016)

C&J said:


> I was referring to your earlier comment that I could 'export folder by folder'.
> Photos does list all photos in date order, I assume you are thinking of 'moments', and I have that.
> However since my Aperture days I have always imported my photos into Aperture,now Photos and then assigned those I liked to a 'Folder' named not numbered.I find it harder to identify things that occurred years ago simply by date, which is what' moments' does. For example there are main folders for 'Holidays' with sub folders for my holidays,perhaps'Scotland 2016'/childrens holidays etc The folder 'birthdays' has many subfolders,one for each member of the family containing albums for each birthday. There is a logic and it works for me. So I am trying to transfer it and not have to trawl through years of photos to recreate what I already have.I am currently assuming, and I think you are saying, that Lr will let me manually recreate this structure and import the photos belonging to each folder batch by batch from my existing 'Holiday' folders to their new equivalent in Lr.



Unlike what you are used to from Aperture, folders in Lightroom are the real folders on your disk. If you import a folder that is called 'whatever', then that's how you it will be named in Lightroom. You should have a look at Collections however. Collections and Smart Collections are identical to Albums and Smart Albums in Aperture. They are much more flexible than folders, because an image can only be in one folder, but in multiple (smart) collections.


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## rob211 (May 30, 2016)

I would think that if you used Time Machine it would not have deleted the Aperture Library since it's different than the Photos Library. Unless you manually did so.


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## C&J (May 30, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> Unlike what you are used to from Aperture, folders in Lightroom are the real folders on your disk. If you import a folder that is called 'whatever', then that's how you it will be named in Lightroom. You should have a look at Collections however. Collections and Smart Collections are identical to Albums and Smart Albums in Aperture. They are much more flexible than folders, because an image can only be in one folder, but in multiple (smart) collections.


Johan, this is a steep learning curve so not got to collections(and many other things) yet.But I will before I make a move, thanks for mentioning it. I have set up a small, hierarchical folder structure on the desktop(similar to my Photo one only smaller) and this moves into Lr as set up on desktop provided there are photos in each folder and is as you say re 'whatever'. If this initial trial is typical then perhaps the hardest part may be the export from Photos to the desktop.To be safe I may set up the structure that will receive the Photo export in an external hard drive given the space needed may be too much for the internal drive to hold Photos,the intermediate folder, and Lr.Unless the intermediate structure can be eliminated.But this does not seem likely.
Interesting that Rob mentioned Time Machine I think the backup of Aperture must have gone, being overwritten by successive backups when the backup disc became full.Haven't checked but I used TM to back up my whole system and did manual backups of my photos in Aperture using Vaults which, like TM, did incremental backups.Since Photo does not do incremental I have been doing full manual backups and not keeping so many versions because of volumes.
There is a lot of Devil in the detail.


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## Johan Elzenga (May 30, 2016)

When you export the images from Photos, do so to the place where you want to keep them. As a test, it's OK to export to a folder on the desktop, but when you do it as 'the real thing', export to the final destination. Exporting from Photos to a folder is not more complicated than using 'Save as' in any other application. You should get a 'Save' dialog where you can pick the folder to export to.


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## rob211 (May 30, 2016)

Sad about doing manual backups of Aperture vaults rather than TM. It would have kept them.

It might be easiest to just go into the Photos library, the package. Go into Masters and just pluck out a month or a year; the folders therein are organized that way. They are nested several deep, like "2015/05/27/20152027-123456" but it's pretty easy to figure out. Copy that last folder out and you've got yourself halfway to date-based folder structure that isn't too different from what Lr uses by default at import.

And that's what I-See-Light was suggesting. By using an alias of Masters you trick Lr into being able to see those folders inside Masters and hence import them. I'd suggest using the "copy" option and then having Lr copy them into say it's date based structure, or whatever you choose. It doesn't help with the metadata or edited versions, but you could export those separately (and if you also put them into date-based folders they could wind up with the originals).


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## C&J (May 30, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> When you export the images from Photos, do so to the place where you want to keep them. As a test, it's OK to export to a folder on the desktop, but when you do it as 'the real thing', export to the final destination. Exporting from Photos to a folder is not more complicated than using 'Save as' in any other application. You should get a 'Save' dialog where you can pick the folder to export to.


Johan, thanks for confirming that.I used the desktop as a trial because it is convenient.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 3, 2016)

I-See-Light said:


> This info quoted uses the "Make Alias" method of making master images available to Lightroom-



I don't know about recommending Make Alias as a good solution.  Lots of people found their photos were suddenly marked as missing when iPhoto got upgraded to Photos.  If Apple decides to automatically rearrange their folder structure inside of the Photos package in future, there could be a huge mess to untangle.

If using the Make Alias method, I'd definitely go with Copy at the top of the Import dialog, rather than Add.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 3, 2016)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I don't know about recommending Make Alias as a good solution.  Lots of people found their photos were suddenly marked as missing when iPhoto got upgraded to Photos.  If Apple decides to automatically rearrange their folder structure inside of the Photos package in future, there could be a huge mess to untangle.
> 
> If using the Make Alias method, I'd definitely go with Copy at the top of the Import dialog, rather than Add.



I couldn't agree more. And as you are going to copy the images anyway in that case, I advice using Photos to do that, so you can save the metadata (keywords) as well. The 'alias method' makes you lose any keywords you may have in Photos.


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## Yana (Jun 4, 2016)

This thread is very helpful..I have almost the same problem only I used Lr before as well. 
I wonder when you edit pictures where Lr keeps them? If you haven't export them somewhere is there like history data of edited pictures.. I was in a middle of editing one big set and it looks like I will have to do it all over again which is very upsetting..


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## C&J (May 28, 2016)

Just bought/installed LrCC on my Mac running latest OSX El Capitan.Having been relegated from Aperture to Photo I have an existing Photo library on my computer Drive in 'Pictures'.
I have been trying to populate the Lr catalogue with these photos without success.
The File>Plug in route is not for Photo and I have tried using the Lr Import pane, tracking through the drive>user>picture route.Oddly the Photo library does not appear on that list of contents.I am puzzled as it is there if I look using Finder and I can still use the library, so I don't understand why it isn't appearing via the Import pane in Lr.Any thoughts?
And how do I populate the catalogue?
AS I say ,whilst not technical, I am familiar with Aperture etc


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 4, 2016)

Yana said:


> This thread is very helpful..I have almost the same problem only I used Lr before as well.
> I wonder when you edit pictures where Lr keeps them? If you haven't export them somewhere is there like history data of edited pictures.. I was in a middle of editing one big set and it looks like I will have to do it all over again which is very upsetting..



Lightroom is a 'parametric' editor. That means that Lightroom leaves the image where it is, and doesn't change it in any way. Instead, it keeps a list of your edits in a text file, called XMP. These lists are in the Lightroom catalog. When needed, for example when you print an image or export a copy, the edits are applied 'on the fly'.


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## clee01l (Jun 4, 2016)

Yana said:


> This thread is very helpful..I have almost the same problem only I used Lr before as well.
> I wonder when you edit pictures where Lr keeps them? If you haven't export them somewhere is there like history data of edited pictures.. I was in a middle of editing one big set and it looks like I will have to do it all over again which is very upsetting..


Lightroom does not 'keep' edited images.  All of the edits adjustments that you make in the Develop module are stored as instructions in the database that is the LR catalog.  Each time you view an image in LR, LR will render that view by applying the develop adjustments (edits) to the original image data in the original image file.  Often it will store a transient and temporary copy of that adjusted image in the Previews folder for that size preview. Anytime you want to generate a print or export a derivative JPEG, LR will read the original image data from the original image file and make those adjustment to render a final image for print or export.


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## rob211 (Jun 4, 2016)

There is a history of any particular adjusted image; you can find it in one of the panes in the Develop module. It doesn't exist in the exported image (which is analogous to a print), but is stored in reference to the original in Lr. You can also take snapshots of where you are in an adjustment sequence, as well as create virtual copies at any point, like after making it BW but before cropping.


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## Yana (Jun 5, 2016)

I wonder if it is possible to somehow get that info from XMP..They (Lr creators) could make this option for cases like this 



rob211 said:


> There is a history of any particular adjusted image; you can find it in one of the panes in the Develop module. It doesn't exist in the exported image (which is analogous to a print), but is stored in reference to the original in Lr. You can also take snapshots of where you are in an adjustment sequence, as well as create virtual copies at any point, like after making it BW but before cropping.



Thanks! It's a good idea! I often use History to come back to the point I like better or other purpose but didn't think of it in my case here.. It will help for sure to save my time and effort


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## rob211 (Jun 5, 2016)

I do not believe edit history is stored in the file's XMP. Maybe in Ps PSD files? There was a thread here or at Adobe about that recently. I'm not sure what "case" you're referring to since Lr stores edits all the time I believe. Normally Lr just stops when you stop adjusting, and you can always got back to where you were before. I suspect that if you lost that history you did something like delete the images, or took some other action to erase it. Normally you don't have to start over when resuming work in Lr since it always saves what you're doing.


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## Yana (Jun 7, 2016)

rob211 said:


> I do not believe edit history is stored in the file's XMP. Maybe in Ps PSD files? There was a thread here or at Adobe about that recently. I'm not sure what "case" you're referring to since Lr stores edits all the time I believe. Normally Lr just stops when you stop adjusting, and you can always got back to where you were before. I suspect that if you lost that history you did something like delete the images, or took some other action to erase it. Normally you don't have to start over when resuming work in Lr since it always saves what you're doing.




Here was my question ("case") 
_I had to upgrade my Safari (on Mac) yesterday and when upgrade was over I found that iPhoto was replaced with new program Photos. But main "surprise" I found in Lightroom when I saw that all my photos are online or missing. With a friend's help I managed to import one folder back in Lr but all data was lost.. so like 20 pictures I edited was gone and I have to start it all over again..Plus it did import ALL pictures even those I deleted..so like 370..I downsized to 107..and now have to do it again. 
May be there is easiest way to do it all at once? I mean to connect folders from Photos (where they are now, must be automatically migrated from iPhoto) to Lr..and preferably without loosing my editing.._

So it's not a history which is gone..all my pictures in Lr are Offline or missing.. I imported one folder back to Lr and started to recover my adjustments one by one looking at the history (thanks to your suggestion) of ones which were done before.
I'll better explain like this: So I had a folder (with key word) say XX1 where I deleted all I wanted and started to do my editing..Then THIS (my case) happened  and for now I managed to export raw fotos to LR to folder (keyword) XX1-1. All the pictures. So I had to write down all numbers of pictures I saved and deleted the rest. And now I switch between two folders with same pictures to see my previous adjustments and to do the same in folder with raw pictures which I exported again.... Uff..I hope that does make sense..

 I still don't see this as a perfect solution.. It seems that there should be a way to do it more simple.. Just do something that all my Offline or Missing pictures became visible and workable again.. (getting folders out on a desk didn't do a trick..)


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 7, 2016)

Next time Lightroom is telling you it's missing pictures, don't ask that friend to help you. Ask us. Re-importing missing pictures is not the way to handle this.


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## rob211 (Jun 7, 2016)

Your "friend" hosed you. Ouch.

Did you have a backup?

I am assuming that by trying to upgraded Safari you actually upgraded the system software. Hence you got the new Photos.

Lr keeps track of where your photos are. It's likely it temporarily lost the reference to those photos, including the ones you had been working on. If you open the catalog you had been working in, and the images in the grid show a little "?" then that's what's going on, or if it gives you a message they can't be found. All that edit info is still in Lr—it just doesn't know where the images are it needs to apply those edits to.

So you just help Lr find 'em again: How to find missing photos in Photoshop Lightroom

Instead, it looks like your friend had you re-import and start all over again. Bummer.

If you had a backup of the catalog from before you went on your Safari-update adventure and reopened it and then followed the instructions above to find the missing files you MIGHT be able to get back to square one.


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## Yana (Jun 10, 2016)

Err..Sorry, may be my explanations wasn't clear..English is my second language. 
There s nothing wrong with my friend  So I opened Lr after upgrading. Pictures there are Offline or missing. We tried to figure out how to make them normal again. She has a baby and was trying to find a solution while holding and attending it, not much time to really solve my problem.  Well, she showed how to import one of the folder back and it did't work the way we wanted (right, JoahnElzenga it is not the way I understand now). 
Also I understood that my pictures just need to be connected to a folder where they are (were) from iPhoto..and then Lr can see them, right?



rob211 said:


> I am assuming that by trying to upgraded Safari you actually upgraded the system software. Hence you got the new Photos.



That's exactly what happened. 

I re-imported only one folder to see what will happened (also thinking that everything with ? mark is lost). And didn't touch rest of it..(I slow as I have two little kids and only like 3-4 hours at night to work on a computer). 
I did backup before! Fingers crossed, I will use your link to try and find missing pictures! 

Oh, and my other idea was that folders are lost because there is no more iPhotos -> no more folders in iPhotos -> new Photos have different location and pictures can't be connected to Lr.. Hopefully, it is not right and I can find and link them back somehow..


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## Yana (Jun 11, 2016)

So I tried and tried..and have a few problems. 
When I choose to Locate missing photo for some folders(pictures) location opens in Pictures. There I could see folders named "2015", "2016" etc.. but not all of them there. For example in folder 2016 I found only 3 subfolders but it should be more. Where did the go? 

Another thing -I know how dumb it is but only now I realized that even tho I shoot raw I exported files to Lr in jpg.
Mac is different from PC and I had a hard time to figure out how to import pictures from camera to computer and then Lr.  I did it through iPhotos which turned on automatically when I plugged my camera. And iPhotos converted raw files to jpg and imported them to LR. 
So now I have jpg files in Lr which offline or missing and pictures in original folder are CR2. But it worked anyway..so no I have at least one saved folder. 
The question is where are others? Saved folder, say name D, are there. But it should be A, B, C and then E,F folders as well.. I did all the same importing.

But not always I do backups. Another question - when you do backup does it save only pictures you currently working on and were open in Develop mode or all the catalog? Sometimes I switch between different sets - do a little bit there and here..


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## rob211 (Jun 11, 2016)

I can't say where your subfolders went. You'll probably have to use search tools like Spotlight to find them.

Lr imports photos in exactly the same way on PCs as on Macs.

Don't use iPhotos. There's a preference in Photos, iPhotos, and Image Capture on the Mac to turn off automatic importing. Or just close the application when it pops up.

iPhotos doesn't import anything to Lr. You did that with Lr. If the raws are in a managed library in iPhotos you can export them as originals, and then use Lr to import them. Or you can copy them directly out of the Masters folder in the iPhoto library; it's a package so you can use a control click and "open package" to look inside. Messing about in there can break iPhotos, so be careful and have a backup.

Google "Time Machine" and learn how to use it. It can automatically back up everything on your Mac.


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## Yana (Jun 15, 2016)

Thanks, rob211!
I manually found them in iPhotos library..it didn't gone and I could Open content and there in Thumbnails folder was all the others..Now my question is - should I just move folders I need in Pictures out from iPhotos library so Lr can find them?  Will moving folders out of it break it or not?
It is certainly a good learning experience. I will now use only Lightroom to import pictures.


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## Yana (Jun 15, 2016)

Also can I rename folders in Lr after I link them to originals? They all have long numbers for names now (I guess it is how they were imported from iPhotos).. I hesitate to do it in case they will go offline or missing again as names won't match..


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## rob211 (Jun 15, 2016)

Don't move them; copy them. Once they are out in the Finder and in Lr you can do whatever you want with the folder names.

But you should also be able to use the iPhoto importer plugin in Lr; that's sort of what it does. I don't know whether you would end up with some duplicates in Lr and so on, but it's a lot easier to deal with that later in Lr. So look at using the importer first.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 15, 2016)

Just as a note: People are using the names 'iPhotos', 'Photos' and 'iPhoto' here. 'iPhotos' does not exist and never existed. Apple used to have an application called '*iPhoto*', that was replaced in MacOS X El Capitan by '*Photos*'. Lightroom does have a plug-in for the older iPhoto libraries, but not for the new Photos libraries.


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## Yana (Jun 17, 2016)

rob211 said:


> But you should also be able to use the iPhoto importer plugin in Lr; that's sort of what it does. I don't know whether you would end up with some duplicates in Lr and so on, but it's a lot easier to deal with that later in Lr. So look at using the importer first.



Not sure if I understood this part.. Do you mean to import pictures from my camera to Lr through iPhoto plug-in which is in Lr somewhere?  Or you meant to deal with ones I already have and which is offline -missing? Sorry if I'm too slow..it's all new things as I never really had time to learn Lr fully until now when I really need it.. 



JohanElzenga said:


> Just as a note: People are using the names 'iPhotos', 'Photos' and 'iPhoto' here. 'iPhotos' does not exist and never existed. Apple used to have an application called '*iPhoto*', that was replaced in MacOS X El Capitan by '*Photos*'. Lightroom does have a plug-in for the older iPhoto libraries, but not for the new Photos libraries.



That's me mixed up, sorry! 

May be I don't really understand what plug-in means.. Well, in future I was going to upload pictures from camera straight to Lr.. or do I need Photos? In sense of backing up-s and having it more simple, structured and safe (in case of anything happens..) ?? 

Thank you.


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## Yana (Jun 17, 2016)

I've tried to rename folders... and one I moved from iPhoto library (I moved that one not copied, others will copy) I did rename but same one in Lr I couldn't. And photos gone offline -missing so I had to link them again.. What's wrong?
Also some pictures shows up small in Lr and some are normal big size. I will attach screenshots..


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## Yana (Jun 17, 2016)

I can't attach second file - it is too big but it's the same only another picture and takes all working field -full size. I don't care much for those photos but don't want the same problem for some other sets I will bring back online..


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 17, 2016)

As you are using Lightroom 4, forget about the import plugin. That only works from Lightroom 5.7 onwards.

The problem is that you apparently imported images directly from the iPhoto library, that you opened by right-clicking and choosing 'Show Package Contents', but not the right way. That library does not only contain the original images, it also contains small previews and thumbnails. It looks like you imported some of those rather than the originals. That made a big mess, and quite frankly I think you should just start again from scratch. Make a new, empty catalog in Lightroom and import the images properly this time. Hopefully you didn't also screw up the iPhoto library by moving folders out of it... Did you make backups?...

If you can start all over again, then use these instructions.


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## Yana (Jun 18, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> The problem is that you apparently imported images directly from the iPhoto library, that you opened by right-clicking and choosing 'Show Package Contents', but not the right way. That library does not only contain the original images, it also contains small previews and thumbnails. It looks like you imported some of those rather than the originals. That made a big mess, and quite frankly I think you should just start again from scratch. Make a new, empty catalog in Lightroom and import the images properly this time. Hopefully you didn't also screw up the iPhoto library by moving folders out of it... Did you make backups?...
> 
> If you can start all over again, then use these instructions.



Yes, that's right, I did like you said.. oops.. I moved only one folder to try so hopefully it didn't mess anything much. 
By making a new empty catalog do you mean I have to delete all the folders from Lr with sign ? (offline-missing) ?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 18, 2016)

No, I mean you create a brand new catalog.


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## Yana (Jun 19, 2016)

Ok, I created a new catalog and was using that instructions to transfer my photos but got stuck again.. 
Folder Masters is 208Gb and I have left 32Gb on my disc (after I spend half a day cleaning it to increase space).. is there any other way to do it (properly)?
It helped to empty Trash in Photos library.. I never did it in iPhotos (just didn't know I need to) but now this library isn't active..Does it mean there are still all those photos in Trash which take space? 
I will google other ways to increase my space..may be reorganizing photos on disc (not ones in a Library) but it is still too much space needed to complete transfer this way..


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 19, 2016)

You will need an external disk for extra storage.


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## Yana (Jun 20, 2016)

I do have 1Tb external hard drive with all backups..but there is a thing.. I have photo-folder where I was exporting ready pictures and where were some originals, not many.. It takes only 13Gb of space.. 
Masters folder from iPhoto library - 208 Gb..but I can't move it to external hard drive.. and can't duplicate it as there is not enough space. 
I removed all the video files, big files (ones I could) , trash etc.. but still not enough. Looks like closed circle to me 
Instruction says duplicate .. is it really crucial to do it not just move? If I just move it should be ok with space unless I loose or brake something by doing it..


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## Yana (Jun 20, 2016)

Can I copy Masters to external hard drive and then delete one on a computer and then copy back to desk from external drive and do rest what instruction says..?


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## C&J (May 28, 2016)

Just bought/installed LrCC on my Mac running latest OSX El Capitan.Having been relegated from Aperture to Photo I have an existing Photo library on my computer Drive in 'Pictures'.
I have been trying to populate the Lr catalogue with these photos without success.
The File>Plug in route is not for Photo and I have tried using the Lr Import pane, tracking through the drive>user>picture route.Oddly the Photo library does not appear on that list of contents.I am puzzled as it is there if I look using Finder and I can still use the library, so I don't understand why it isn't appearing via the Import pane in Lr.Any thoughts?
And how do I populate the catalogue?
AS I say ,whilst not technical, I am familiar with Aperture etc


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 20, 2016)

Yana said:


> Can I copy Masters to external hard drive and then delete one on a computer and then copy back to desk from external drive and do rest what instruction says..?



Yes. Copy the Masters to an external disk, then delete the iPhoto library (if necessary to create more room). During import in Lightroom you can let Lightroom copy them back to the internal disk (that now should have enough room).


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## Yana (Jun 20, 2016)

So just to make it clear and no more mistakes: I should import Masters from external hd to Lr, right? 'Coz I was going to copy it back to the computer on my desk.. 

And another question for future work.. I have now like 84Gb free..which might fill very quick with raw photos.. How is it best to keep them, where? If on external HD then I will need it run all the time and when it was on yesterday everything was very very slow.. Or there is a way to clear -clean pictures after processing them? 
May there is a thread about it.. I can search later but may be answer is quick and simple.. 

Thank you!


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 21, 2016)

When you import images in Lightroom, you can tell Lightroom to *copy* or *move* them to another destination. That means you could import the images from the external disk, and let Lightroom copy them to the internal disk during import. In future, when you import images from a memory card, you can let Lightroom copy these from that card to the folder on your internal hard disk too.

However, because you only have 84 GB free, your internal disk would indeed fill up quickly if you did that. My advice therefor is to keep the external disk as your 'Photo Disk' and store all the images on that disk, not on your internal disk. The Lightroom catalog can remain on the internal disk, however. Because you already copied the iPhoto Masters folder to that disk, all you have to do is choose '*ADD*' at the top of the import dialog when you import these photos. If you use '*ADD*', Lightroom will not copy or move the images to another destination, but only add them to the catalog.

To clarify this: 'adding to the catalog' means that Lightroom adds a _reference_ to the images to the catalog. Images are never physically stored in the catalog (unlike iPhoto!). You can compare this to 'adding' a friend to your Contacts list. That friend is not physically moved inside your contact book, only their names and other details are added. The Lightroom catalog is just like such a list. It contains details about the image, the develop settings and stuff like that, but not the image itself. That's also why the Lightroom catalog can be on your internal disk, and the images on an external disk.


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## Yana (Jun 21, 2016)

Do I have to have external disk working all the time while I'm working in Lr?
I understand what do you mean by ADDing -references but does it mean then that images have to be "visible" all the time for Lr... and as soon as I turn external disk off they will go offline or missing?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 21, 2016)

Yana said:


> Do I have to have external disk working all the time while I'm working in Lr?
> I understand what do you mean by ADDing -references but does it mean then that images have to be "visible" all the time for Lr... and as soon as I turn external disk off they will go offline or missing?



Yes, the external disk has to be connected for Lightroom to have full access to your images. If not, Lightroom will show the 'missing' warning. However, Lightroom does not always need full access. If you want to add some keywords for example; you can still do that while the images are 'missing'. Another option is to generate Smart Previews for those images that you may want to work on even when the external disk is not available. A smart preview takes about 1 MB, so that is not that much. You can generate smart previews for a subset of your best images (that's what I do), but you could even decide to make smart previews for all of them (and check that option at import for new images).


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## Yana (Jun 22, 2016)

I did it! Of course I lost my adjustments but good thing is that there wasn't much unfinished ones and now they are all CR2 not jpg! I ADD them and good thing I can add one folder at a time so it is more organized. I'm glad I learned something new and useful. 
Also I have my computer a bit tidier ) but funny thing - when I copied my 208 GB Masters and then deleted it for some reason there was only 187 GB on my computer left.. what takes rest of space is a mystery. But I bought a new 1T external hard drive for Mac and it works nice and doesn't slow my computer as much as other one. So I will use it and will look at those Smart Previews -how to make them and use. 
It's a great forum, I will look what else on this website to help me to improve my skills! 
Thank you so much!


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 22, 2016)

Good to hear!


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