# are images in folders AND subfolders?



## tmenyc (Nov 3, 2017)

Operating System:
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):

I'm using LR Classic; switched over recently.  I have 14k photos in one HDD folder, distributed among 6 subfolders.  The actual folder does not have any photos; its complete contents are the subfolders.  
Now, in LR Classic, I am seeing the folder and subfolders, but the folder appears to contain all of the photos outside the subfolders, as well as the subfolders with their photos.  I checked my HDD and it's still as it was.  
My plan was to get the keywords all fixed in all of the subfolders (I imported all 14k photos from iphoto, happy to be out of there for good), then move all of the subfolder contents to the folder and delete the empty subfolders.  I won't need them anymore because of the keywords.  Or so I thought.  
Does LR Classic show all of the images in their subfolders?  If that is so, then the subfolders are already not necessary.

Hope this makes sense.

Tim


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 3, 2017)

That's an option that has existed in Lightroom forever. You can let Lightroom show images in subfolders, or not. Menu 'Library - Show photos in subfolders' if I'm not mistaken.


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## tmenyc (Nov 3, 2017)

interesting -- but it is just "show" images, not an additional copy of the images.  I can see how that would make my future steps unnecessary, but part of the exercise is to make the upload flow much easier:  all from the camera into one folder, then keyword, and it's done.  So I should find that preference and select to not show subfolder contents in the folder, if I understand correctly?
Many thanks.
Tim


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 4, 2017)

It's not a good idea to keep all your images in one single folder. It may make no difference as far as finding them (I keep the folder panel collapsed and only work with collections, smart collections and keywords), but if Lightroom needs to retrieve files inside one huge folder, that will slow down the application.


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## tmenyc (Nov 4, 2017)

That certainly makes sense, and I appreciate the advice.  I'll keep the subfolders.  Glad I brought it up before undoing them.

Many thanks.
Tim


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