# REBUILD CATALOG AND FOLDERS



## PENNSTATEMIKE (Jun 26, 2016)

Help - Yesterday I decided to remove all of my photos and existing folders from Lightroom 6 and start over with a structure that made more sense to me.  All photos on hard drive. When I click on the Folders tab it shows my Mac hard drive.  I then created a new folder and tried to add photos to it.  Then the fun starts as I immediately get beachball of death and it does not stop unless I manually shut down the computer.  I've no idea what I am doing wrong and would appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jun 26, 2016)

What do you mean with 'I then created a new folder and tried to add photos to it'? How did you try to do that? In Lightroom? In the Finder? That screenshot simply shows an empty Lightroom catalog, so that doesn't say much, except that you probably tried to do this in Lightroom somehow.

If you have an empty catalog anyway, I would do two things. First, I would delete this catallg and let Lightroom make a brand new one. Just in case something corrupted this one. Next, make your new folder structure in the Finder, don't try to do this in Lightroom. When you have done this, import the photos by use 'Add' to the catalog. Select the top folder and Lightroom should import them all in the hierarchy you just created.


----------



## PENNSTATEMIKE (Jun 26, 2016)

Hi Johan. That screen shot was from another attempt to import files with no new folders created.  To answer your question, I created the folder in Lightroom. Not exactly sure what you mean by creating the new folder structure in Finder.  I have photos in two places on my hard drive, in the Pictures folder and in a separate folder where I have them broken into subfolders.  I'll delete the existing LR catalog and starts another.  Should I do this by dragging the Lightroom folder that is in Pictures to the trash bin?


----------



## PENNSTATEMIKE (Jun 26, 2016)

Johan - thanks so much for the tip.  I deleted the empty catalog and now everything works as it should. Best regards.


----------

