# Can't Find Imported Photos



## rogerm38 (Apr 13, 2015)

I had a couple of loose NEF files on my desktop that I wanted to import into Lightroom 5.7 for processing and adding to a collection. After hitting the import button, I have been unable to locate where these digital files have ended up. How do I go about locating them and putting them into a folder in Lightroom to process.


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## Rob_Cullen (Apr 14, 2015)

If you had selected "Add" above the import window, they would still be on the Desktop. You will need to look in the Folder panel of Lightroom and find 'Desktop'.
If you had selected "Move"  ....., they would have re-located to a folder defined in your Destination details of the Import dialog. This could be somewhere in your common folders where you keep your image files, maybe into a dated folder.
If you have not imported any images since the 'lost' couple of files, then Lightroom should show the images in 'Previous Import' in the Catalog Panel of LR. If you see them here you can right-click (or Mac equiv) and "Go to Folder in Library" or "Show in Finder"
Can you remember an image filename?- a search with Finder may find where LR imported the images to, or do a filename search in LR.
If you have imported them, they WILL already be in a folder in LR.
Your Import dialog may also give you a clue if to try another import of one file, and check the import destination- LR keeps the last options until changed.


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## rogerm38 (Apr 15, 2015)

Thank you for your helpful response. But I need a little more help. I must have selected "Add" above the import window, since the two files are still on my desktop. I have not been able to find them in any of my folders - at least in the 2015 folder. I assume that they have been imported somewhere in my catalog since they are "grayed out" when I try to import them a second or third time.
What puzzles me is that I'm not seeing the "Previous Import" on the Catalog Panel of LR that I usually see when I have imported from the camera card. I'm not familiar with importing from NEF files on my desktop, since virtually everything I import is from the camera card.


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## Rob_Cullen (Apr 15, 2015)

I am not a Mac user, but in Windows the desktop folder appears in explorer as-  C:\Users\My Name\Desktop.

In the folders panel of LR you should see header buttons for any connected or internal drive locations. The triangle at the far right end will open any folders containing images imported into LR. Here I have one image on my desktop-





Sometimes it can be necessary to right-click (cmd-click) a folder (eg.  to be able to "View the parent Folder" ) to see further up the folder hierarchy.
Can you post a screen clip of your folder panel ? (expanded to see sub-folders)


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