# Importing photos and they aren't showing up?



## bobarue (Feb 2, 2012)

I started off with an existing folder with photos already imported in it. Then imported 7 additional photos into the same folder which LR3 indicated it was doing but, after they didn't show up in the catalog. So, I opened Windows explorer to look at the folder and the new photos were in the folder. Went back to LR and still no photos in LR. I decided to try and import them again from within the same folder and it worked. Funny thing is that LR recognized the files in the source folder but didn't in the library. Now LR sees them in the catalog. The only problem is that all of these 7 files now are duplicated in the folder and LR put a -2 behind each file name. How do I corretly remove the duplicate files now and how should I have originally handled this problem?

Thanks,


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## clee01l (Feb 2, 2012)

Bobarue, first make sure you are in the "All Photographs" collection in the Catalog panel.  Next toggle the filter bar on (toggle hotkey = \} if you need to. Select "None" from the filter bar to clear all filters. You should be seeing all of your imported images.


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## bobarue (Feb 2, 2012)

Thanks Cletus,

I don't think it's a filter problem. While in the library, develop or other modules and click on that folder all of the photos appear except for those new 7 I added. When I imported them a second time they appeared in the folder in LR. Now there are two sets in the folder of those 7 photos.


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## clee01l (Feb 2, 2012)

OK, you've imported them twice now.  If they are imported twice, both images should be showing up in the "All Photographs" collection in the Catalog panel.  Are they?  If they are not, then you either did not import them into this catalog or you did not import them where you thought you did.  There are two possible reasons for this.
You used the OS to copy them into the folder instead of using LR to import.
You imported them into this folder but you had another catalog open.
If you can't see both copies of your image in this catalog and you can't figure out which of the reasons caused this,  please post a screen shot of your expanded folder panel in LR and a screen shot of a view of the folder contents from Explorer that shows both copies of the images in question.


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## bobarue (Feb 3, 2012)

I have no way of getting a screen shot right now. LR is on a different computer at home. 
I’ll try to explain again what I seen and didn’t see with maybe a little more detail.
I have been moving photos into LR3 that were already on my computer on a different drive. When I installed LR I purchased 2 external drives to use and are dedicated to LR. I use to put my photos into folders by event with sub folders like NEFs, selects, culls, mods. So, on this particular import I had thought I had all of the files in the NEFs folder and selected it on the import page in LR and “copy” was selected and LR was to put them in a 2009 folder then into a subfolder “xxxx”. This was copying photos from my C drive to my H drive. LR completed that with no problems. All of those selected photos were in LR and I was able to view them. Then I double checked the other folders and I found that I had already selected 7 photos from the NEFs folder and had moved them to the selects folder. Then without changing anything I selected import again in LR and directed LR to that “selects” folder and those seven photos popped in the middle of the screen with check marks to be imported and then the destination remained the same , 2009 folder into sub folder “xxxx”. Clicked import, got the status bar on the top left of the screen and everything looked normal. When it was done I looked for those new photos and they weren’t with the others in “xxxx” in LR. So, wondering what happened to them I decided to open Windows explorer and look in that folder myself and there they were, right with the other files in 2009, “xxxx” folder. I went back to LR and still no new 7 photos. So, that was proof that LR copied them from the C drive to the H drive into the folder I wanted. They just didn’t show up to view. 

So I was wondering what to do. Then I thought well they are in the folder but maybe LR doesn’t know they are there so I decided to import them again from the H drive 2009, “xxxx” folder to the same folder. The funny thing is when I went and selected the new source location for the import LR could see and displayed these 7 photos in the import dialog but it couldn’t see that they existing in the folder in the Library module. Proof again, at least to me, that LR new the files were there is during the second try to import LR gave these files -2 on each file name like a second copy. Now, LR shows me these copies in the Library or Develop modules but still not the original. I look back at the folder using Windows explorer again and I can see the original seven files and there copies.
Maybe it won’t ever happen again but, I am now trying to figure out how to fix this. Those seven files are still on the C drive. Should I just delete them from LR in the H drive and try to re-import them again?


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## bobarue (Feb 3, 2012)

Maybe Victoria can help answer this?


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 3, 2012)

Ok, couple of questions:

1.  Are you still on 3.2 as per your profile, or have you updated?  Because updating to 3.6 would be my first suggestion if not.

2.  If you right-click on the folder, choose Synchronize Folder, and make sure 'show import dialog' so you can check that 'don't import suspected duplicates' is not checked, and just see if that'll let them import.  Sorry, that's a bit tangled, getting late here.  Do ask if I'm not making sense!!


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## bobarue (Feb 3, 2012)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Ok, couple of questions:
> 
> 1. Are you still on 3.2 as per your profile, or have you updated? Because updating to 3.6 would be my first suggestion if not.
> 
> 2. If you right-click on the folder, choose Synchronize Folder, and make sure 'show import dialog' so you can check that 'don't import suspected duplicates' is not checked, and just see if that'll let them import. Sorry, that's a bit tangled, getting late here. Do ask if I'm not making sense!!



1. YES, I'll dtry to get the update. (I know you're suggesting it may fix something but, I have learned over the years to not fix what isn't broken. So if this continues I'll update.)
2. So try to synchronize to see the original imported files before deleting the duplicates. 
**Thanks for responding and again you are always such a big help. I'll be leaving shortly for the weekend so I'll let you know on Monday how it went. Please check back, thanks.**


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 4, 2012)

No problem Bob, enjoy your weekend away.


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## bobarue (Feb 6, 2012)

Synchronize Folder didn't work.

My solution was that I copied the 7 files to a temp folder. I went into LR and deleted the files with the ****-2 name and then went into Windows explorer and deleted the other 7 files from the folder. Then, I had LR import those 7 files from the temp folder again and problem solved.

Still not sure what happened on the original import because everything looked normal but hopefully that was an isolated incident.

Thanks for your help!


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 6, 2012)

Let us know if it happens again then Bob, and we'll see what else we can figure out.  Very odd!


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