# Renamed Photos Folder Outside of LR by mistake and not sure how to sync the missing files to the folder



## dlcamba (Sep 7, 2018)

Hello, I'm new here and have been using LR for about a year but still somewhat of a newbie. I forgot that any changes to folder names must be done within LR.  I renamed the folder that I import images to via Lightroom that is saved on my external drive and now ALL my images are greyed out and have a question mark next to them in LR. I'm not sure if there's a safe way to sync the folders of how best to fix this.


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## johnbeardy (Sep 7, 2018)

In LR, click the folder and choose Update Folder Location.

Do not use Folder > Synchronize to resolve this.


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 7, 2018)

Update Folder Location can't be used in this situation John, only "Find Missing Folder" will be available. Same action though, i.e. do the right-click>Find Missing Folder on the folder than was renamed, and in the resulting file browser navigate to and select the renamed folder.


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## dlcamba (Sep 7, 2018)

Thanks. I just tried that Jim but it only let me select one folder and not all the subfolders within my master folder. I have subfolders for each day of the month/year. Is there anyway to sync all of them at once or do i have to go through each and every one? And for some reason when I did that, it made things worse. Now I can't even see many of my folders at all in LR. It looks like I replaced them all with the updated folder. I didn't sync anything though... :(


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 7, 2018)

Can you show us a screenshot of your Folders Panel?


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## dlcamba (Sep 7, 2018)

Yes. Please see attached. Is that what you wanted?


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 7, 2018)

Which is the folder that you renamed? Is that showing in that screenshot?


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## dlcamba (Sep 7, 2018)

The folder I renamed is now completely missing from my folders panel in LR. When i tried following the instructions, instead it ended up moving all the greyed out folders under the folder that says 2018-02-28. Ugh I seem to have made a mess of things. I cannot find the missing master folder in LR. It is called  2018 Photos Imported to Lightroom on my Lacie ED.


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 7, 2018)

To get out of this situation it might be better to revert to a catalog backup. When was the last time the catalog was backed up?

If that's not a viable solution, you need to recall exactly what you did: what was the name (in Lightroom) of the folder that you renamed outside Lightroom? What did you rename it to? What folder in Lightroom did you select for the "Find Missing Folder" procedure, and what folder on the hard drive did you select in the file browser?


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## dlcamba (Sep 8, 2018)

Yes, I do have a back-up the only thing is I've edited about 2 weeks of photos since I renamed the folder. If I revert to a the catalog prior to 2 weeks ago would there be any way to sync the images i edited over the last 2 weeks in the renamed folder?

Also, I've never reverted to a catalog back-up. Would you be able to give me the steps to do so? I don't want to do anything else wrong!


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 8, 2018)

Reverting to a catalog backup is easy enough, but before we get that far it would be better to try to undo the changes that you made, but to do that we need to figure out exactly what you did. Are you able to remember the sequence as per the second half of my last post?

Also, can you provide a screenshot of the Folders Panel showing everything that is listed under the Lacie drive, the last screenshot only showed the first few lines.


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## johnbeardy (Sep 8, 2018)

Jim Wilde said:


> Also, can you provide a screenshot of the Folders Panel showing everything that is listed under the Lacie drive, the last screenshot only showed the first few lines.



That's important in this situation. People often say they can't see the corrected folder location (thanks for the command name, Jim) but they aren't looking properly. Remember also the new filter box at the top of the Folders panel. It can help you find a folder easily.

Above all, I repeat my advice about not using Folder > Synchronize. It has its uses but it won't correct _this_ problem but make it worse.

John


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## dlcamba (Sep 8, 2018)

Jim Wilde said:


> Reverting to a catalog backup is easy enough, but before we get that far it would be better to try to undo the changes that you made, but to do that we need to figure out exactly what you did. Are you able to remember the sequence as per the second half of my last post?
> 
> Also, can you provide a screenshot of the Folders Panel showing everything that is listed under the Lacie drive, the last screenshot only showed the first few lines.


Hi Jim. As best I can remember this is what I did: I right clicked on one of the greyed out folders in the LR panel and then clicked on Find Missing Folder. When that window popped up (previous screenshot I attached), I navigated to one of the folders on my Lacie drive and then clicked "Choose". The folder that I chose from my Lacie drive was 2-28-18. That is now the folder that is appearing at the top of the LR panel and it looks like now all the missing folders from May through August are now greyed out under that folder. However the actual images from 2.28.18 and the rest of February - April are are not appearing in LR at all, not even greyed out.

I am attaching multiple screenshots of what the LR panel shows for my Lacie Drive. I hope this helps.

Also, I am now not sure that reverted to a backed up catalog will work. I looked at my back-ups for the last several weeks and couple months and they are all shown the same thing in the LR panel, which doesn't make sense to me (all folders greyed out).


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## dlcamba (Sep 8, 2018)

dlcamba said:


> Hi Jim. As best I can remember this is what I did: I right clicked on one of the greyed out folders in the LR panel and then clicked on Find Missing Folder. When that window popped up (previous screenshot I attached), I navigated to one of the folders on my Lacie drive and then clicked "Choose". The folder that I chose from my Lacie drive was 2-28-18. That is now the folder that is appearing at the top of the LR panel and it looks like now all the missing folders from May through August are now greyed out under that folder. However the actual images from 2.28.18 and the rest of February - April are are not appearing in LR at all, not even greyed out.
> 
> I am attaching multiple screenshots of what the LR panel shows for my Lacie Drive. I hope this helps.
> 
> Also, I am now not sure that reverted to a backed up catalog will work. I looked at my back-ups for the last several weeks and couple months and they are all shown the same thing in the LR panel, which doesn't make sense to me (all folders greyed out).



Hi again,

I'm adding some more information because I may have discovered part of the issue. I completely forgot that I have only been using this particular Lacie drive for the past few months as my other ED, a Lacie Rugged was full with all my 2017 images and the first few months of 2018 images. I plugged in the Lacie Rugged and in fact it shows that my 2018 folder goes from 02.28.18 until 05.012.18.  It also shows all my 2017 images, which were missing. I did not know how to copy those files within LR to the new and larger Lacie drive that I currently have and someone had told me just to copy via the finder window, which I am guessing is why even though I copied those folders to the Lacie drive, they do not show up on the LR panel.

So I guess I've got multiple issues that I have to resolve that I believe stem from the following mistakes.

1st copying folders from a full Rugged Lacie ED to a new larger Lacie ED (back a few months ago).
2nd renaming my 2018 folder on my Lacie drive to "2018 Images Imported to Lightroom" outside of the LR panel.
3rd, attempting to update/link a greyed out folder to what I thought was one of the correct (but probably wasn't) folder on my Lacie drive. This last step I'm still not entirely sure what happened.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
debbie


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## Jim Wilde (Sep 9, 2018)

I still need to see that screenshot of the listing for the Lacie drive in the LR Folders Panel that I asked for. I can't do anything without that.

I assume that also in the Folders Panel the original Lacie drive will also be present, if so please expand that and take a screenshot of it.


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## dlcamba (Sep 9, 2018)

Jim Wilde said:


> I still need to see that screenshot of the listing for the Lacie drive in the LR Folders Panel that I asked for. I can't do anything without that.
> 
> I assume that also in the Folders Panel the original Lacie drive will also be present, if so please expand that and take a screenshot of it.


I had tried attaching several screenshots in the previous emails showing the LR folders panel but they didn't upload. I am attempting again to attach just one screen shot showing the Lacie drive in the panel but when I preview my response the screenshot image can't be viewed. I saved the file as a jpeg and tried again to attach but it won't attach.


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 9, 2018)

dlcamba said:


> I had tried attaching several screenshots in the previous emails showing the LR folders panel but they didn't upload. I am attempting again to attach just one screen shot showing the Lacie drive in the panel but when I preview my response the screenshot image can't be viewed. I saved the file as a jpeg and tried again to attach but it won't attach.


I assume from what you say that you follow this forum via email? Go here on the web, then you should be able to include screenshots.


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## dlcamba (Sep 9, 2018)

JohanElzenga said:


> I assume from what you say that you follow this forum via email? Go here on the web, then you should be able to include screenshots.


I  meant in my previous posts, not emails. I am logged into the forum but when I upload the attachment it shows the name of the screenshot crossed out and no image.


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## dlcamba (Sep 9, 2018)




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## Jim Wilde (Sep 11, 2018)

Now that the problem with uploading attachments has been fixed, can you try again? Remember, I need to see the entire Folders Panel in order to try to make sense of things.


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