# Hoping there is a way to sort out the mess I've created.



## HMCA (Jan 3, 2021)

Hoping to present in bullet form the mess I've created.  I have no idea if this is salvageable but I've spent months organizing my LR (adding keywords) and hope that there might be something I could try.  I will order a new EHD because I believe my new one might be defective (it seems too warm to the touch).

Original organized EHD





New EHD to which I copied everything from the one above:




Trying to see what the folder structure would look like if I opened from PSCC:  Notice the folders are out of order




Opening the new EHD from PSCC




What I remember doing after the new EHD transfer was complete:
1.  Double clicked Helen's LR catalog on the new EHD thinking that would work as it did the last time I updated my EHD.  While it opened LR and showed all of my presets there were no picture folders.  I tried to rename the new EHD to the old EHD's name thinking that would help but it didn't.

Sadly, after that I don't know what I did to try to get Lightroom Picture Folders to show. 

Just a little added info. I have LR on my Mac computer but have my pictures and catalog and back-ups on the EHD. I will order a new EHD as I don't trust this new one.
My question is if there might be a way (that is fairly straight-forward....I find all the directions in the book which I did order confusing) to get my LR up and running again before I just abandoned it all together.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 4, 2021)

There is nothing to worry about. You can sort the view in different ways, by clicking on the header. In screenshots 3 and 4 you apparently clicked on 'Date Modified', so the folders are now sorted by modification date. Click on 'Name' to get them sorted as usual.


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## HMCA (Jan 4, 2021)

Thank you for your response.  I tried that and it does work.  So then my question would be:
If I order a new EHD and once again add my folders as they had been set up before I messed things up will there be a way to find the correct catalogue and get the catalog and my pictures to open in LR.  

Because now when I open LR it goes back to when I first started.  I had abandoned that set up when I opted to keep pictures and catalog on the EHD.  Anyway I think that is what is showing.



What I see when I exit LR:




So looking at the old EHD where everything HAD been working as it should will I be able to get the pictures and the correct catalog to open in LR?
I certainly hope



I hope I am correctly identifying the problem.  You have given me hope that things might eventually work out.  Thank you for taking the time to try to follow this.


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## clee01l (Jan 4, 2021)

HMCA said:


> So looking at the old EHD where everything HAD been working as it should will I be able to get the pictures and the correct catalog to open in LR?



If you name the new volume with the same name as the old volume and only connect the new volume, MacOS will consider the volumes to be the same and Lightroom will find your image folders as before.


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## HMCA (Jan 4, 2021)

I did try to name the new EHD (assuming that's what you mean by volume) the same name but my mac wouldn't let me.  Would it be worthwhile to see if I could get the old one to open correctly again?  Is there a way to do that?  Would that be a first step?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 5, 2021)

If MacOS doesn't let you name the disk (a volume is indeed another word for a disk) that way, then most likely it is not formatted correctly. Maybe it was formatted for Windows out of the box, and you didn't change that?


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## clee01l (Jan 5, 2021)

HMCA said:


> I did try to name the new EHD (assuming that's what you mean by volume) the same name but my mac wouldn't let me.  Would it be worthwhile to see if I could get the old one to open correctly again?  Is there a way to do that?  Would that be a first step?  View attachment 15830


Did you start with the part — 


clee01l said:


> only connect the new volume


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## HMCA (Jan 5, 2021)

Johan Elzenga said:


> If MacOS doesn't let you name the disk (a volume is indeed another word for a disk) that way, then most likely it is not formatted correctly. Maybe it was formatted for Windows out of the box, and you didn't change that?


I did not and I believe you are probably correct because I had never received a message like that on my mac before.  When I purchased the drive I did ask if it would need to be formatted for a mac and was told no........lesson learned.


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## HMCA (Jan 5, 2021)

clee01l said:


> Did you start with the part —


See my response above.  This brings me back to the question as to whether I would be able to get the old EHD that was set up correctly to open again in LR?  I think it might involve renaming the catalog, but I think I know which one would have to be renamed.  Would that be possible to do?  Once I got it to open correctly, I could begin again with moving to a new EHD.......correct?  Thanks for your help.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 5, 2021)

You can check what the formatting is by clicking *once* on the icon of the disk and then pressing Cmd-i. An info panel like this will come up:





If you disk is formatted for Windows, you could start again. Reformat it using Disk Utility, and choose Mac OS Extended Journaled. Then copy the images to this disk again and now it should be possible to rename the disk afterwards and give it the name of the old disk.


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## HMCA (Jan 5, 2021)

You are correct.  I checked the format and it showed this



Being this EHD gets too warm, I don't want to take a chance and use it again.
What I would like to see if I can do is get LR to open with the old drive (That was working perfectly).   It really isn't terribly old and has a good amount of space on it but I wanted to move to a 4TB drive as I plan on adding older pictures to my LR library.  If I can get it to open correctly......then I will feel like I am moving in the right direction.  Do you think it would be possible to rename the old catalog and open LR from there?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 5, 2021)

I think you are confused. You do not need the rename the *catalog*. That accomplishes nothing. If you start Lightroom, it will open the last catalog. That is not the problem. If you want to open another catalog, then just do so via the ‘File - Open Catalog’ menu.

You wanted to start using a new *disk*, and the easiest way to do that is to rename that new disk so that Lightroom thinks it’s the old one. You can still do that, but you will have to reformat that disk first, then copy the images to that disk again, and then rename it. If you decide you want to keep using the old disk after all, then there should be nothing you need to do, except if you renamed that disk too.


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## HMCA (Jan 5, 2021)

Unfortunately LR does not open with the last good catalog.  When I was trying with the new setup it reverted to an older catalog.  I need to find which catalog  is the correct one before I proceed to create a new disk.  I thought if I renamed each one of those catalogs from Jan. 3  I might be able to get LR to eventually find the right one.  Would that be possible?
I have my LR set up so that my pictures and catalog and presets are all stored on the EHD (disk).
 I am not sure which was the last catalog that opened LR correctly from the old disk.  There is no point in copying the folders to a new disk if they aren't functional.  I am probably not explaining this correctly and I understand that you might need an extra helping of patience to try to work with me.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 6, 2021)

Almost certainly the correct catalog is 'Helen's Current Lightroom Catalog-2-2-v10.lrcat', but of course you are the only one who can really decide that. You can make Lightroom startup with this catalog by double clicking it in the Finder. You only have to do that once. From now on, Lightroom should remember this catalog and open it when you start it the normal way.


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## clee01l (Jan 6, 2021)

I agree with Johan.    'Helen's Current Lightroom Catalog-2-2-v10.lrcat' is the only catalog with  Sync data, Previews folder and Helper data.  It is the largest and has the most recent date.


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## HMCA (Jan 6, 2021)

@Johan Elzenga  and @clee01l ,  You are correct!!!   It took me awhile to realize what the problem was when I opened it.   I had forgotten I had a filter on and only two pictures showed up.  I am beyond thankful!  Today I will order a new EHD.....I can then copy the folders once again, rename the disk and I should be good to go.  Correct?  Hopefully you will not see me back here again in a week or so.  Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough to say, I am so grateful for your help.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 6, 2021)

HMCA said:


> Today I will order a new EHD.....I can then copy the folders once again, rename the disk and I should be good to go. Correct?


Correct, but don't forget to check the formatting first!


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## HMCA (Jan 6, 2021)

I ordered a G-Drive.....which comes formatted for Mac


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## clee01l (Jan 6, 2021)

HMCA said:


> I ordered a G-Drive.....which comes formatted for Mac


I like to use the MacOS Disk Utility and reformat all New drive that I purchase.   There are two Apple disk formats in current use. The older HFS+ was used for OS X and Apple improved their security and performance with  the APFS filesystem.  All disks running MacOS should be formatted APFS imo.   G-Technology most likely formats their Disks as HFS+ for compatibility with Apple OS before MacOS10.12


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## HMCA (Jan 6, 2021)

So if the drive that I will be copying from was formatted the old way,  and I format the new one as you suggest, will there be an issue copying the folders from a disk that was formatted one way to a disk that is formatted another way?  I am sure you realize by now that you are not talking to a tech savvy user.


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## clee01l (Jan 6, 2021)

HMCA said:


> So if the drive that I will be copying from was formatted the old way,  and I format the new one as you suggest, will there be an issue copying the folders from a disk that was formatted one way to a disk that is formatted another way?  I am sure you realize by now that you are not talking to a tech savvy user.


There are many File Systems.  NTFS (Windows), HFS+ and APFS (Mac),  ExFAT and FAT32 (Universal) ext, XFS, Reiser (LINUX)   It is your Operating system that determines which file systems it can read and write to.  Your MacOS can read but not write to NTFS.   It can Read AND Write to HFS+, APFS, exFAT & FAT32.   So if your source disk is formatted and HFS+, APFS, exFAT or FAT32, then the target disk can be any of the other listed formats (HFS+, APFS, exFAT & FAT32)


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## HMCA (Jan 6, 2021)

So this is what I see when I check the format.....


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## clee01l (Jan 6, 2021)

If the Disk is formatted APFS, it looks like this.  And when you enter the Disk Utility and choose to Erase the Disk you will be presented with several Filesystem options.  Choose APFS.  (FWIW, APFS is the only filesystem format available on BigSur:


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## HMCA (Jan 6, 2021)

But when mine says Mac Extended ..........that would be able to be copied over to a new disk formatted as you suggest?
I need this to be as simple as possible.  I am still using Mojave.


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## clee01l (Jan 6, 2021)

Mac Extended is a type of HFS+.  When you use the 'GetInfo' to investigate the disk, it will report Mac Extended when it is HFS+.   If I recall correctly The "Mac" (not extended) format was HFS and Mac Extended was HFS+.


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## HMCA (Jan 3, 2021)

Hoping to present in bullet form the mess I've created.  I have no idea if this is salvageable but I've spent months organizing my LR (adding keywords) and hope that there might be something I could try.  I will order a new EHD because I believe my new one might be defective (it seems too warm to the touch).

Original organized EHD





New EHD to which I copied everything from the one above:




Trying to see what the folder structure would look like if I opened from PSCC:  Notice the folders are out of order




Opening the new EHD from PSCC




What I remember doing after the new EHD transfer was complete:
1.  Double clicked Helen's LR catalog on the new EHD thinking that would work as it did the last time I updated my EHD.  While it opened LR and showed all of my presets there were no picture folders.  I tried to rename the new EHD to the old EHD's name thinking that would help but it didn't.

Sadly, after that I don't know what I did to try to get Lightroom Picture Folders to show. 

Just a little added info. I have LR on my Mac computer but have my pictures and catalog and back-ups on the EHD. I will order a new EHD as I don't trust this new one.
My question is if there might be a way (that is fairly straight-forward....I find all the directions in the book which I did order confusing) to get my LR up and running again before I just abandoned it all together.


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## HMCA (Jan 6, 2021)

Sorry, I am confused.   I will have to come back another day and see if I can understand all of this.


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## clee01l (Jan 6, 2021)

HMCA said:


> Sorry, I am confused.   I will have to come back another day and see if I can understand all of this.


We will be here.    A filesystem is how data gets structured on the physical disk.  There are many different filesystems.   If you have a EHD that is dedicated to one computer and one operation system,  you  will want to format the disk with a file system compatible and preferred by that Operating system.    For Modern Mac computers with the current Operation system at 10.12 or later, the preferred Filesystem is APFS.   To copy data from one disk to another, your Operating system needs to be able to read the source filesystem on the source disk and write to the target disk formatted with target file system. In the Mac Utility folder is a  utility call the Disk Utility.    The first step is to erase all of the data on the disk (if any) and lay down a structure compatible with the named target filesystem.   Once this is done, you copy data from home source to this target disk.


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## HMCA (Jan 15, 2021)

Soooo.....I formatted the new EHD( wasn't hard, thank you!) and renamed it to the name of the old one.   I can open LR via the catalog on this drive.     Additional questions:
1.  Can I delete the old catalogs?
2.  If I try to open LR from the icon on the desktop it opens only a few images from an old catalog.  While this isn't earth shattering, is there be something I could do that would allow me to open LR from the desktop?


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## clee01l (Jan 15, 2021)

The file named “Hellen’s Current Lightroom Catalog-V10.lrcat”. Appears from the list to be the master catalog Double click on that in the file list above and Lightroom should start with the proper catalog. In the list above, the other three files that have the extension “lrcat” are probably old catalogs. Instead of deleting them, move them into the Backups folder. 

The icon on the desktop is probably an old catalog file.   If it has only a few images, then it was either a false start or an old catalog that has been converted to LrC v10.  You can move the Icon on the desktop to the Backups folder.   By moving these catalogs to the backups folder, we are not deleting anything and don’t need to delete anything until we have your one Master catalog file in the Lightroom folder where it should be and it as reference to ALL of your image files.

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## HMCA (Jan 15, 2021)

Yes,  that catalog opens LR.  I will move the other catalogs to a backup folder as you suggest.   I then set the preferences to always open that catalog and can now open from the LR icon on my desktop.   I now get this message about the phone which I won't be using.  How can I stop this message from appearing all the time?


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## HMCA (Jan 22, 2021)

I appreciate the help that I have been given in this thread.   My LR EHD was formatted APFS and renamed Starting Fresh 2016.  All seemed to be working well.  I have been going through old pictures from years past and added them to my Lightroom Pictures Folder.  They open up in LR as expected.  However, yesterday I did a back-up using Time Machine.  That drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).   When I check the back-up folder for Starting Fresh 2016 I don't see the new folders that I've added.    Is this because the Time Machine can't back-up the new drive that is formatted APFS?


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## clee01l (Jan 22, 2021)

Time Machine will back up any filesystem that Apple can read and write to. You probably need to add the volume named “Starting Fresh 2016” to the list of volumes included in your TimeMachine Backup. By default Time Machine will backup “MacIntosh HD” and exclude all others volumes. You nee to manually add the volumes or just the folders that you want included in your Time Machine backup. 

Your Backup volume needs to be large enough to hold ALL of the files in ALL of the volumes included in your Backup. 


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## HMCA (Jan 22, 2021)

I am finding this screen confusing.  It seems to me that if I click Starting Fresh 2016 it will be excluded from the back-up.  Could it be that it is not recognizing the new EHD that is now named the same as the old one?  The back-up on TM does not show the folders as they appear on the new Starting Fresh drive.  I believe I have enough storage space.  I think I have given you all the pertinent screenshots.


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## clee01l (Jan 22, 2021)

HMCA said:


> I am finding this screen confusing. It seems to me that if I click Starting Fresh 2016 it will be excluded from the back-up. Could it be that it is not recognizing the new EHD that is now named the same as the old one? The back-up on TM does not show the folders as they appear on the new Starting Fresh drive. I believe I have enough storage space. I think I have given you all the pertinent screenshots.



If you unlock TimeMachine for changes and select “Starting Fresh...” the (-) will be click able and you can remove “Starting Fresh...” from the exclude list. 


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## HMCA (Jan 22, 2021)

Thank you!  Just did that.  Running TM now and hopefully I won't be back with this issue again.  I don't suppose we can ask PSCC questions on this forum, can we?    I am having an issue that I can't seem to find a way to address.


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## clee01l (Jan 22, 2021)

HMCA said:


> Thank you! Just did that. Running TM now and hopefully I won't be back with this issue again. I don't suppose we can ask PSCC questions on this forum, can we? I am having an issue that I can't seem to find a way to address.



There is a section in the forum dedicated to PS questions


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## HMCA (Jan 22, 2021)

Thank you!  I will check it out.


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## HMCA (Jan 22, 2021)

clee01l said:


> If you unlock TimeMachine for changes and select “Starting Fresh...” the (-) will be click able and you can remove “Starting Fresh...” from the exclude list.


I did that......but Time Machine still doesn't include the new folders that have been added to Starting Fresh.   What am I doing wrong?


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## clee01l (Jan 23, 2021)

I thinkk the volume is included . Look at the estimated size of the Backup at 957.46 GB. Compared to the before total.

Switch to that volume in finder and look at the folders and files that are being backed up in TimeMachine. If you look at previous TM backups, it only shows you the relevant folder 


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## HMCA (Jan 23, 2021)

You are right again!   Thank you!!!!

Now to see if I can figure out how to explain my PSCC issues!


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