# Upgrade from 5.3 to 5.4 Catalog problem



## mcjeannie11 (Apr 9, 2014)

Hi, I'm new to the forum and in fact was referred by Victoria, the Lightroom Queen. I have an unusual situation and I'm struggling to find help from Adobe with the 5.4 upgrade (from 5.3). Last night when I upgraded, after considerable installation issues (resolved with a tech via chat) I went to bed thinking all was well. Today, I discovered that 100s of my photos are listed as "Photo is Missing" and the Develop tools are "grayed out". Obviously, the photos, *which haven't been moved,* are in my Windows 7 Explorer, they're just listed as missing in my LR catalog. 

It's not the usual ?missing photo. Not at all. I've see that happen when I've reorganized files. That isn't the case here. When I d/l'd the upgrade, I had to search out my catalog and open it i.e. it didn't automatically come over in the new 5.4 version. Oddly, when it did open, it's looked normal, all of my file folders seemed to be there, however, some photos are accessible and edit-able. Some are not, though they do still appear in my catalog. 

How I first noticed the problem was when I went to edit a specific photo in Develop, I had no access (grayed out). Looking around the right side menu I noticed underneath the Histogram where it usually says Original photo, it said Photo is Missing. It's very strange. I'm now in the process of trying to figure out what's different about those files and comparing my catalog to the images in Explorer to ensure I actually do have the photos on my computer and didn't lose them somehow during the upgrade. Any suggestions about what I am to do about seeing the photos show up in my Catalog, but inaccessible to me for editing? Do I need to delete the shortcuts from the catalog and re-import them?

Also, I'm in the process of checking my Explorer files to determine if in fact all of the images in my LR catalog are still on the drive.  Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Jean McKenna


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 9, 2014)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

before you do anything else, let's try to verify that you opened the correct catalog after the upgrade.....if nothing has been moved, then logically you shouldn't have hundreds of missing files, so it sounds as though you maybe launched the wrong catalog. So in Lightroom, could you do File>Open Recent and tell me if there are any other catalogs listed there apart from the one that is currently opened?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 9, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> Hi, welcome to the forum.
> 
> before you do anything else, let's try to verify that you opened the correct catalog after the upgrade.....if nothing has been moved, then logically you shouldn't have hundreds of missing files, so it sounds as though you maybe launched the wrong catalog. So in Lightroom, could you do File>Open Recent and tell me if there are any other catalogs listed there apart from the one that is currently opened?



Thanks, yes there are a total of 4 files there. I selected the one that I know is what I was working on. I know this because it was a)the most up-to-date with imported photos and b) the most recent lrcat file in my Explorer.

Add'l info... while comparing photo folders and files I just noticed two lrdata files in Explorer. One with subfolders 0 thru F, the other with subfolder A.  I have no idea if they're supposed to be there or what they are.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 10, 2014)

The lrdata files are where the previews are stored, nothing to worry about there.

OK, if you're certain that you have the right catalog open, I need to understand the problem a bit more. You say you have hundreds of missing files, but what about folders? Do any of those have the missing "?" mark? Have you been able to match any missing file with the real original file on your hard drive? Is there anything common about the missing files, such as all being recent imports, or all in the same folder(s)?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 10, 2014)

I'm certain Jim.  

Make that thousands of files.  11K+ in 2013. Interesting images I had imported prior to that seem to be ok.  
None have the typical ? but I'm noticing that in the catalog, library view, on the bottom filmstrip there's an exclamation point (!) on the top right of the thumbnail. When I click on it it says "Image could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Then it gives the previous location path.... very similar to what occurs when there's a (?).  When I click Locate and try to find the file I come up empty, but when I go to explorer the file is there.  The exception I've noticed, is when it comes to some Canon Powershot photos I've uploaded. They seem to be gone. (I have a backup so I'm not that concerned, however, I'd like to know how it happened and I'd like to prevent it happening again).

In 2014 I notice something interesting. Four of the file folders (which are by date so easy to see) are duplicated. One of each of those pairs are edit-able, the other is not. That just seem weird to me. Coincidentally the one that is editable was renamed by me to include descriptive text after the date.

Hope that gives you something to go on.
Jean


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 10, 2014)

LR5 changed the "?" to the "!" to indicate a missing photo, but retained the "?" to indicate a missing Folder. Go figure.

I'm confused by your description of what happens when you try to locate a single missing file. When you click on the "!", you get a pop-up box telling you the file is missing and asking if you want to locate it, yes? In that box is the full path of where Lightroom thinks that image was located. Is that the same location that you use when you go find that file in Explorer? Can you post a screenshot of one of those boxes, then a screenshot of Explorer showing where you've located the file (make sure the path is included in the screenshot (top of the Explorer window). Thanks.

Can I also have a screenshot of the Folders Panel showing this 2024 problem.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 10, 2014)

Good morning from across the pond Jim.

Could the missing photos issue be a result of my workflow, which I changed at the beginning of 2014 to simplify? If so photos uploaded pre 2013 (not via LR) and post 2013 would be ok but not 2013. When I first began using LR, on import (directly from D600 camera) I created temporary folders before weeding out the photos I wished to remove. Then once I removed the unwanted photos I'd move the folder to a permanent place under Lightroom. Since beginning of 2014 I just import to permanent folder under LR and work from there.  That's the only thing I can think of that might result in missing photos but still it makes no sense because the catalog was what it was before I upgraded to 5.4 and I would have expected it to be the same after the upgrade.

As for the duplicate folders in 2014 - I've attached a screen shot. Note the following:
1. the dates the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 10th show duplicate folders where:
   a) I renamed the folder to something specific
   b) I removed photos from the folder in my "weeding" out process before renaming the folder.
2. Same workflow process on the 18th and 21st but no duplicate file.
3. The same is evident in Explorer. (now I'm totally confused) Note the folder without the description in each case is an empty folder. (Why would I be able to click on the filmstrip for that folder in LR and see images, albeit "missing" images?)












Also note the ? indicating a missing folder. I'll check into that and let you know if I need help re that one.

The thing is none of this, particularly the missing 2013 photos, was a problem before the upgrade. I was in the program the prior evening without any issues.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 10, 2014)

Jean, I think we need to focus on one problem at a time, else we'll start getting confused (or at least I will!). Let's start with the missing files from 2013....did you do what I suggested, i.e. pick one missing photo, click on the "!" icon, take a screenshot of the pop-up box which will tell us where Lightroom thinks that image is, then go find that image using Explorer and post a screenshot of that. Then we can compare the two, and try to figure out what's happened here. OK?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 10, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> Jean, I think we need to focus on one problem at a time, else we'll start getting confused (or at least I will!). Let's start with the missing files from 2013....did you do what I suggested, i.e. pick one missing photo, click on the "!" icon, take a screenshot of the pop-up box which will tell us where Lightroom thinks that image is, then go find that image using Explorer and post a screenshot of that. Then we can compare the two, and try to figure out what's happened here. OK?



Got it.. yes, I'm confused as well...sorry about that.

Ok here's what you asked for.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 10, 2014)

Sorry, no that's not quite what I asked for. Earlier on you said:



> When I click Locate and try to find the file I come up empty, but when I go to explorer *the file is there*.



But you've just shown me an empty folder in Explorer. If you know where the file is, can you show me that?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 10, 2014)




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## Jim Wilde (Apr 10, 2014)

OK, well as you can see there's a vast difference in file paths between what Lightroom thinks and what you've shown me actually exists. Can you do Start>Computer and give me a screenshot of the result please. It should look something like this:


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 10, 2014)




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## Jim Wilde (Apr 10, 2014)

Can you tell me what's on that Elements (F) drive? Those paths are so different I'm wondering if drive letters have been switched....


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 10, 2014)

I use it to back up my financials software and data.

Nothing else on it. I have another external on my network where I back up my all media including photos, but that one's password protected.

It seems to me that there are two "Lightroom" folders on my E: drive which is where I save my images.  How would that occur?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 10, 2014)

To be honest, I don't really know, though I suspect it's likely to be related to errors in assigning/selecting the Destination folder during import. Which also might explain some of the duplicate folders in 2014. But for now let's try to figure out how we get you out of this apparent mess. Can you start by collapsing that top Lightroom folder on the E drive, then giving me a screenshot of what's lower down....I want to try to match up what I see in Lightroom with what's on the disk. So a screenshot of the drive, plus a screenshot of the Folders Panel which shows the top level folders (if you could collapse the year folders for now, that'll be a big help).


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 11, 2014)

Not sure I understand what you're asking for. I assume you mean in Explorer for this





Then LR for this


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 11, 2014)

OK, that's fine.....I'm just trying to get a feel for what's on the drive physically so that I can match it to what Lightroom is showing. In Lightroom, can you right-click on the "Lightroom" folder and select "Show Parent Folder"....that should add "My Pictures" to the panel above "Lightroom". Does it? If yes, repeat on "My Pictures", which should then add "Our Photos". Then give me a new screenshot of the Folders Panel, still with the "Lightroom" folder expanded to show the year folders.

In Explorer. can you expand the "My Pictures" folder under "Our Photos" to show the "Lightroom" folder, then expand that "Lightroom" folder to show the year folders. Then give me a screenshot of the resulting display in Explorer.

Finally, still in Explorer, and still working in the "Our Photos" hierarchy, right-click on the 2013 folder under "Lightroom" and select "Properties". Wait for the resulting display to finalise (it will be counting the number of files and folders), then take a screenshot of it. Then we can compare the number of files that are actually in that 2013 year folder with the number that Lightroom thinks are in that year folder. The problem we are trying to address here goes back to your post #9 where you are showing an empty folder despite the fact that Lightroom thinks there are images in it. So how widespread is that problem. At this stage I have no idea why you have a version of that file in another folder in a different "Lightroom" folder on the same hard drive.

Let's see what your next set of screenshots show us and we can take it from there, OK?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 11, 2014)

Sounds like a good plan and that you have a handle on how to proceed. Thank goodness one of use isn't confused :hail:


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 11, 2014)

Oh, don't worry....I'm well confused as well!

Anyway, there's some promising news in those screenshots, in that we now know that the 2013 folder isn't empty, in fact there would seem to be more files in there than Lightroom knows about. So now we have to try to figure out why there are so many "missing files". So let's start there:

1. In Lightroom, run the Library>Find All Missing Photos command. Let me know how many there are.
2. Open the Catalog panel just below the Navigator and click on the "Missing Photographs" collection, make sure you are in Grid view.
3. Then open the Library Filter Bar, click on the Metadata filter type, and in the first column select "Date" (this will show us which year the missing files belong to). Take a screenshot of the result (and from your earlier posts I'm expecting most of the missing files to be in year 2013).

Get back to me on that, then we can get into Poirot mode to try to find the missing files.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 11, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> Oh, don't worry....I'm well confused as well!
> 
> 
> 1. In Lightroom, run the Library>Find All Missing Photos command. Let me know how many there are. 14096
> ...


  Feeling a bit more Clousseau-ish than Poirot-ish right now   Here ya go Jim.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 11, 2014)

Me too, but I couldn't spell that, so used Poirot instead.

I'm trying to work out the best way to proceed....let's try hunt down the contents of one of the 2013 sub-folders, and hope that gives us sufficient clues to help us figure out where all the rest might be hiding. Start by expanding the 2013 folder both in Lightroom's Folders Panel, and in Explorer.....you won't be able to fit the entire hierarchy in one screenshot, I think, so just make sure that the same top part of both hierarchies are showing when you take screenshots of them.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 11, 2014)

First I want to remind you there is another Lightroom folder in Explorer with photos in it.

Also, I should mention that I did not begin using LR until June 2013 when I discovered my new purchased D600 was not compatible with PS5.1 software. So any prior images were uploaded in Nikon software or via PS5.1.  That is why you wouldn't necessarily see all the 2013 folders you see in Explorer in LR. I don't know whether that means anything to you or not.

I wasn't sure if you wanted just the top portion of the 2013 folders so I gave you all of them. here they are... Lightroom first.














now the 8 explorer pages


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 11, 2014)

Thanks, I hadn't forgotten about that other Lightroom folder....I just don't know how it fits into the puzzle. Maybe in due course.....

Let's start with the "2013-06-24 Badlands and Devil's Tower" folder. In Lightroom, can you click on that folder and tell me if none/some/all 326 images are showing as "missing"? And in Explorer can you right-click>Properties on the folder and tell me how many files are in there? Screenshots of the top part of the Grid in Lightroom (can you change the view option to Expanded Cells and ensure you include the file-name in that view), and the folder list in Explorer (use the List view) would be good, as that will allow us to compare filenames.

At this stage I'm simply trying to get a handle on why you have so many missing files when the folder hierarchies look pretty consistent. I'm just hoping we don't have to go through each folder one by one, so perhaps this would be a good time to ask if you have an up-to-date backup (catalog AND image files)?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 11, 2014)

last b/u was around year's end on another external drive, so I'm not too concerned since I can see the 2014 files appear ok.

1st question - all photos missing in that folder.
2nd question - 1 file. 0 folders in the same folder in Explorer 
LR Expanded View - 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



In Explorer there's only 1 filename and that's a Thumbs.db file no list of files.

It's a bit scary to know they were there and now they're not.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 9, 2014)

Hi, I'm new to the forum and in fact was referred by Victoria, the Lightroom Queen. I have an unusual situation and I'm struggling to find help from Adobe with the 5.4 upgrade (from 5.3). Last night when I upgraded, after considerable installation issues (resolved with a tech via chat) I went to bed thinking all was well. Today, I discovered that 100s of my photos are listed as "Photo is Missing" and the Develop tools are "grayed out". Obviously, the photos, *which haven't been moved,* are in my Windows 7 Explorer, they're just listed as missing in my LR catalog. 

It's not the usual ?missing photo. Not at all. I've see that happen when I've reorganized files. That isn't the case here. When I d/l'd the upgrade, I had to search out my catalog and open it i.e. it didn't automatically come over in the new 5.4 version. Oddly, when it did open, it's looked normal, all of my file folders seemed to be there, however, some photos are accessible and edit-able. Some are not, though they do still appear in my catalog. 

How I first noticed the problem was when I went to edit a specific photo in Develop, I had no access (grayed out). Looking around the right side menu I noticed underneath the Histogram where it usually says Original photo, it said Photo is Missing. It's very strange. I'm now in the process of trying to figure out what's different about those files and comparing my catalog to the images in Explorer to ensure I actually do have the photos on my computer and didn't lose them somehow during the upgrade. Any suggestions about what I am to do about seeing the photos show up in my Catalog, but inaccessible to me for editing? Do I need to delete the shortcuts from the catalog and re-import them?

Also, I'm in the process of checking my Explorer files to determine if in fact all of the images in my LR catalog are still on the drive.  Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Jean McKenna


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 11, 2014)

OK, yes it would be scary. Let's see if we can track them down. Start with the first file in the grid: DSC_1070.NEF, go into Explorer and click on the 2013 folder, then enter DSC_1070 in the Search box, is it found? If not, go up the hierarchy to "Lightroom", then "My Pictures", then "Our Photos", let me know if any of the searches turn up that file, and if so take a screenshot of the search results.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 11, 2014)

already tried that - here's what I found. Note the 1st and the 3rd both could be the original RAW file. Of course I have no way to view them b/c neither PS5.1 nor Windows PhotoViewer is compatible with D600 raw files ... grrrrr!

Jim, I'm able to view in Windows Live Photo Gallery and third one down is the same file








 -


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 11, 2014)

OK, let's have a listing of that 2013-06-24 Badlands SD folder.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 11, 2014)

ok file is the last one... how/why did/would it "move" during the upgrade? -jean

ok just went in and tried to locate the photo DSC_1070 ... went to Badlands SD folder and now in LR there are less files in the Badlands and Devil's Tower folder. here's the new screenprint:


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 11, 2014)

Jean, I know you think the upgrade did this, but I really don't think it did. It's far more likely that there's a problem in the way you've been renaming folders (which relates to the 2014 folders problems as well), which at some point we'll need to try to work out what's going wrong when you do that.

If you look down the Explorer folder list you'll notice quite a few folders with the same date but different descriptive names, one at least of which does not appear in the catalog, and it'll probably be that one that will contain some of the missing photos.

To be honest, my bigger concern right now is in working out how to proceed with fixing the problem. If you're in the habit of renaming folders as you go along then your backup will be of no use, so we'll have to basically unpick all the problems one by one....and that's just impossible doing it through the forum, it will take literally months of (part-time) effort. Using remote desktop software such as Teamviewer would be a little quicker, but not that much due to the need to check every tiny step along the way, even after trying to coordinate "free time" across a 5 hour time zone difference.....and right now I don't have enough free time.

Sorting this one folder seems easy enough, but repeating the process on hundreds of folders is quite some challenge. Let me think some more and I'll get back to you tomorrow.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 12, 2014)

Jean, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to help you fix this problem, but in the meantime can I ask you to NOT try any recovery actions of your own without checking with me first. I've just noticed that you attempted to relocate that single file last night, but that isn't the way I would have done it, and it just means that even sorting out that one folder might now be more troublesome than it could have been.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 12, 2014)

I understand and appreciate your assistance Jim. I will hold off trying to recover on my own. The problem is that now I am several days behind in my work and I'm hesitant to import the past couple of days' photos for fear I'll loose more images.  I hear what you're saying about importing and renaming may be my issue however, the fact is the files were whole and editable before I upgraded to 5.4.  I don't understand how something could be in one place one day and another the next. I'm also unable to locate many of the other files in Explorer and that's a concern as well.
I'll wait to hear from you with your next instructions.
Thanks for your help.
Jean


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 12, 2014)

Jean, it's still in the back of my mind that somehow you've picked up the wrong catalog. Can you do a system-wide search for "lrcat" and post the results?


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 12, 2014)

Hi Jean.  I've been watching quietly - too many cooks spoil the broth and Jim's doing a great job here - so I'll just throw in a couple of extra thoughts.

Reading through the thread, Jim's thought about opening the wrong catalog matches my first thought too.  

How long ago did you upgrade from LR4 to LR5?  

Do you have any vague recollection of when you last 'reorganized' files?  And do you remember whether you'd have organized them into the kind of hierarchy you can see in LR's Folders panel, or the hierarchy you can see in Explorer?

You mentioned you were helped via Adobe chat.  I don't suppose you happen to have the transcript of that conversation?  That might offer some extra clues.


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 12, 2014)

One more.  If you open each of the other catalogs in Open Recent in turn (and don't change anything!!!!), do any of those catalogs have the 2013 photos NOT marked as missing?  And what are the names of those catalogs?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 12, 2014)




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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 12, 2014)

Ugh Victoria, it sounds as if I'm my own worst enemy here :(.  Jim is doing a great job. He's quite patient.

Not sure when I upgraded to LR5 but typically I tend to do it as soon as I see the message pop up.

I tend to "organize" (apparently not well) as I go. It could be any time during the process.. typically related to when I have time to do so.  I hit the ground running with LR because as I explained to Jim, my D7000 auto focus broke a week before a big Yellowstone Park vacation and I purchased a D600 not realizing I would not be able to use my Adobe PS5.1 due to incompatibility.  So to say I sort of played with it until I thought I understood what I was doing is about right.  That was in late June of 2013. 

I was working on a large project... the365 day project at PVP & PVNC which I tried to import to LR according to  how I set it up in PS5.1

sometimes if I'm looking for a particular photo I may rename a folder, in the folders panel if I recognize everything in there is from one shoot.

Something big just came to me... I don't know how I forgot about it.  I purchase a 4T external network drive for media only. At that time I backed up my photos from my hard drive to the E:Seagate external drive (which I use as a working drive.. i.e. it's my default save drive for photos) and to the new network drive.  When the back up was complete I noted ALL of my LR files were in date order only, IOW there was no hierarchy as I had saved it pre-backup to the two externals.  Over time, I reorganized as much as I could into the current config.  At some point, I decided I would try only to rename the files so I knew what was in them but not relocate them.  That would have been some time in late 2013.

re the Adobe chat I do not but it was a pretty simple fix. She had me reset (start) Windows Installer and Modules Installer. The error was "32"

I hope this helps, I fear I've made a mess!

Never had LR 4, purchased LR5.1.


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 12, 2014)

The reason I asked about LR4 was you said you'd fixed question marks after you'd rearranged photos - and those switched to exclamation marks that you didn't recognize when LR5 came out.

When you decided to "try only to rename the files so I knew what was in them but not relocate them. That would have been some time in late 2013." - would that have been in Explorer or in Lightroom's Folders panel.

And when you bought your 4T external network drive, how did you back up the photos onto there?

Looking at your list of catalogs, there are 3 that stand out, 2 of which were buried in backup folders.  I'm wondering if you'd actually been working in one of those catalogs for the last few months.

At the top of your last screenshot, can you see there are 3 large files near the top.  One is the one you currently have open.  The others were last modified on the 8th of this month.  It would be useful to double click on each of those in turn to open in LR and check whether photos are marked as missing in those catalogs too.  BUT DON'T DO ANYTHING TO THEM!


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 12, 2014)

I just opened E:\Our Photos\My Pictures\2014-01-07 2211 and it looks correct. 

Is there a way to be certain? And if that resolves the problem, what do I do to ensure it doesn't happen again?

Suggested Tutorials?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 12, 2014)

Jean, thanks for the screenshot of the catalog search. From that it looks as though you looked at two other backup catalogs the night you did the LR5.4 upgrade (2013-11-01 and 2014-01-07), can you recall why you rejected those in favour of the main catalog in the Lightroom folder? Certainly, in looking at the respective sizes it would seem that you have the correct one, but I'm wondering what's the state of the 2013 hierarchy in those two. Perhaps it would be a good idea to just try opening each catalog in turn (and as Victoria says, don't change anything) and take a screenshot of the expanded 2013 hierarchy so that we can compare it to the actual hierarchy on disk.

I'm thinking that if we can find a catalog that has all pre-2014 correctly shown, that'll just mean sorting out 2014, which will be a much more manageable problem.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 12, 2014)

Lot of cross posting going on, but at least all singing from the same hymn sheet!


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 12, 2014)

Yippee, that's great news Jean!  Now who's going to answer how to move the catalog... do you want the satisfaction of finishing this one up Jim?  You've done all the hard work.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 12, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> Jean, thanks for the screenshot of the catalog search. From that it looks as though you looked at two other backup catalogs the night you did the LR5.4 upgrade (2013-11-01 and 2014-01-07), can you recall why you rejected those in favour of the main catalog in the Lightroom folder? I'm 62 and confused, I have no memory!   I think I looked at the date at the modified date at the time.  Also when I opened it there seemed to be more photos and my recent photos. Not that long ago (weeks) I went through my Yellowstone images and started weeding process.  I suspect the one that is the largest file size still has those deleted images in it.
> 
> Certainly, in looking at the respective sizes it would seem that you have the correct one, but I'm wondering what's the state of the 2013 hierarchy in those two. Perhaps it would be a good idea to just try opening each catalog in turn (and as Victoria says, don't change anything) and take a screenshot of the expanded 2013 hierarchy so that we can compare it to the actual hierarchy on disk. Will do.
> 
> I'm thinking that if we can find a catalog that has all pre-2014 correctly shown, that'll just mean sorting out 2014, which will be a much more manageable problem.


 Understand and agree.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 12, 2014)

Yes I think I did exactly what I said. I see in the 2014-01-07 2211 catalog there's a file that I just used in a contest last week. That HAS to be the correct catalog.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 12, 2014)

You guys are amazing, so patient and helpful!:hail:
Now what do I do to prevent a recurrence?... is it as simple as just opening up the right catalog? OMG did I just waste your time because I did that? Sorry about that, but you probably didn't have anything better to do right Jim? 
I think I will need some tutorials on how to import, name, rename and FIND THE RIGHT CATALOG when it inadvertently gets lost.

And I need to "move the catalog"???


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 12, 2014)

Jean, this all sounds good. One last check....with that 2014-01-07 catalog open, run that "Find all Missing Photos" command again and we'll keep our fingers crossed for a better result.

Don't worry about wasting my time, I'm blaming myself....look at my first post! I was thinking then "wrong catalog", so I should have followed my instincts from the start.

Anyway, let's do that (hopefully) final check and we'll take things from there.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 13, 2014)

there are still 237 missing photos, but a far cry better than what it was.
160 of the missings are from one file (a community theater shoot I did for the show Annie), which, if I remember correctly, I moved or copied to a DVD and deleted. 
But I'm not even searching for it... until you tell me to 
Jean

PS I lied... I went to the date of capture on each of the older remaining photos (which I had imported into LR in 2013, thus they were in the 2013 folders) and was able to find the originals in Explorer. I didn't do anything else.  I just wanted reassurance that they were not lost (particularly because one was an award-winning photo). They aren't.  Now I need to know what to do about that.

Do I remove the folder in LR and re-import it?  Do I somehow link the photos to the correct location?


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 13, 2014)

Well, 237 is a lot better that 11k!

Presumably that takes the heat off and you can get on with your work. Right now I'm a bit strapped for time, hopefully I'll get some during the week and I can then help you relink those missing images. In the meantime, you need to make sure you are always opening the correct catalog, so go to the General Tab of your Preferences and make sure that in the Default Catalog section you have that specific catalog specified.....don't have it set to "Load most recent catalog", as that often causes issues whenever a user needs to open a backup catalog for some reason. I'll try to get some instructions off to you in the week about moving your catalog out of the Backups folder that it's currently in.

Is there any specific reason why you have the catalog on an external drive? 

Also, suggest you try to avoid renaming or other reorganisations until we've worked out what's going wrong there, OK?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 13, 2014)

Yes it does! Jim, thanks a ton for your help.

I did go through a bunch of Adobe LR tutorials and discovered I am in fact moving and renaming correctly (inside LR). So, given that if I hadn't had an issue with the upgrade and chose the incorrect catalog,  most of what we talked about wouldn't have existed.

I just chose to keep my photo files on an external drive. Is that not the best way to go about it?

Jean


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 13, 2014)

Photos are one thing, the catalog is something else....bear in mind that your photos are not IN your catalog, just referenced by it, so you can quite happily have the catalog and photos on different drives if you wish. Generally speaking, Lightroom will perform better if you can have your catalog on a fast internal drive rather than a (potentially much slower) external drive (a lot depends on the interface type and the hard drive speed). It's less important from a performance perspective where your photos are stored.

If you have the space on your C drive, and you have no requirement to share that external drive with another computer, we could consider putting the catalog and previews on the C drive, leaving the photos (and your catalog backups) on the external drive. Something to think about, yes?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 9, 2014)

Hi, I'm new to the forum and in fact was referred by Victoria, the Lightroom Queen. I have an unusual situation and I'm struggling to find help from Adobe with the 5.4 upgrade (from 5.3). Last night when I upgraded, after considerable installation issues (resolved with a tech via chat) I went to bed thinking all was well. Today, I discovered that 100s of my photos are listed as "Photo is Missing" and the Develop tools are "grayed out". Obviously, the photos, *which haven't been moved,* are in my Windows 7 Explorer, they're just listed as missing in my LR catalog. 

It's not the usual ?missing photo. Not at all. I've see that happen when I've reorganized files. That isn't the case here. When I d/l'd the upgrade, I had to search out my catalog and open it i.e. it didn't automatically come over in the new 5.4 version. Oddly, when it did open, it's looked normal, all of my file folders seemed to be there, however, some photos are accessible and edit-able. Some are not, though they do still appear in my catalog. 

How I first noticed the problem was when I went to edit a specific photo in Develop, I had no access (grayed out). Looking around the right side menu I noticed underneath the Histogram where it usually says Original photo, it said Photo is Missing. It's very strange. I'm now in the process of trying to figure out what's different about those files and comparing my catalog to the images in Explorer to ensure I actually do have the photos on my computer and didn't lose them somehow during the upgrade. Any suggestions about what I am to do about seeing the photos show up in my Catalog, but inaccessible to me for editing? Do I need to delete the shortcuts from the catalog and re-import them?

Also, I'm in the process of checking my Explorer files to determine if in fact all of the images in my LR catalog are still on the drive.  Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Jean McKenna


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 13, 2014)

Yes I understand the photos are stand-alone and only referenced in LR.  
Given what you've said, I would like to move my catalog(s) onto my hard drive. Can you tell me how to do that? I'm sure I shouldn't just drag and drop it anywhere.

when you can, I'd appreciate your advice.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 13, 2014)

No, not drag and drop it anywhere, but it will be a case of drag and drop it somewhere. Before doing that, can you tell me how much free space is available on the C drive? Actually better still, right-click on the drive in Explorer, select Properties, then post a screenshot of the result. Thanks.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 14, 2014)

space shouldn't be a problem since I removed my photos to an external drive Jim


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 14, 2014)

OK, plenty of space indeed.

Now, the thing with the catalog is that Lightroom has a default naming scheme, and a default location, when setting up the first time. But they are defaults, which means they'll only be applied if the user accepts them and doesn't specify their own name and/or location.....this makes it possible for folks like me to try to help the many users who have no idea where their catalog is, or what it's called, because they just clicked through the dialog boxes during setup. 

The point of saying that is that they don't realise that the user has control over where to place the catalog (apart from on network drives), and what to call it. So, that means that before you move your catalog out of that Backups folder, you get to decide where you want to move it to. You could create a folder at root level on the C drive, then put your catalog and previews cache in there, or you could put it into the default location (folder called Lightroom in the Pictures folder in the User library area). Personally, I like to have my catalogs in root-level folders, not buried away in the Pictures library....but it's your choice.

So, first thing to do is create a new empty folder on the C drive in your preferred location. Then, with Lightroom closed, you will drag the catalog from out of it's dated sub-folder within Backups and drop it into that newly-created folder. Repeat for the associated Previews.lrdata folder, and the Smart Previews.lrdata if there is one. 

This would be a good time to rename the catalog if that's what you want to do, but if you do make sure you replicate the name change into the associated previews file(s). Now, because you are dragging from one drive to another, Windows will COPY, not MOVE those files....so they still exist in their old location, which means that when you start Lightroom normally it will still be using the old catalog on the E drive. So you can get around that by double-clicking *the catalog on the C drive* which will launch Lightroom with the newly-located (and perhaps renamed) catalog. As soon as Lightroom has started, go and change the "Default Catalog" setting on the General Tab to point to the new catalog.

Then you're almost done. The next thing to do is to change the location of the catalog backups....again by default Lightroom will put catalog backups in a sub-folder (called Backups) within your Catalog folder. Not always a good idea, you really might want to have them on a different drive, so when you first take a catalog backup when using your new catalog, use the "Choose" option on the Catalog Backup dialog box and point to the Backups folder that you already have in the Pictures folder on the E drive. That change will "stick" until you elect to change it again.

Now all that's left is to clean up the catalogs from the E drive.....suggest you leave it a week or so, until you are sure you've got it all working OK, then go clean up some of the catalog data from the E drive....particularly that catalog and its Preview files that you were first using after your upgrade.

Then you're done.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 14, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> OK, plenty of space indeed.
> 
> This would be a good time to rename the catalog if that's what you want to do, but if you do make sure you replicate the name change into the associated previews file(s). Now, because you are dragging from one drive to another, Windows will COPY, not MOVE those files....so they still exist in their old location, which means that when you start Lightroom normally it will still be using the old catalog on the E drive. So you can get around that by double-clicking *the catalog on the C drive* which will launch Lightroom with the newly-located (and perhaps renamed) catalog. As soon as Lightroom has started, go and change the "Default Catalog" setting on the General Tab to point to the new catalog.
> .



Jim before going on to the next instruction, I want to clarify/confirm my actions.  Is it possible the new catalog would already be there? I named my folder on the C: drive Lightroom LRCAT files. This is what I found when I checked the General Tab.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



Am I in the right tab? wasn't in the right tab. I went to Edit/Preferences and found the General tab of which you spoke and made the change.


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 14, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> Then you're almost done. The next thing to do is to change the location of the catalog backups....again by default Lightroom will put catalog backups in a sub-folder (called Backups) within your Catalog folder. Not always a good idea, you really might want to have them on a different drive, so when you first take a catalog backup when using your new catalog, use the "Choose" option on the Catalog Backup dialog box and point to the Backups folder that you already have in the Pictures folder on the E drive. That change will "stick" until you elect to change it again.
> 
> Now all that's left is to clean up the catalogs from the E drive.....suggest you leave it a week or so, until you are sure you've got it all working OK, then go clean up some of the catalog data from the E drive....particularly that catalog and its Preview files that you were first using after your upgrade.
> 
> Then you're done.



So essentially, I continue to use the 2014-01-07 2211 file on my E: drive as my backup folder. Do i have that right?

Then in a week or so, go back and purge the other catalog files and back up files on my E drive (and anywhere else I might find them that isn't the new catalog file on the C: drive or the old backup file above.

I've learned some things from this Jim, for which I am grateful to you.  Not the least of which is how to recognize a catalog file and its associated previews and backup files.  That alone will go a long way toward preventing this mess from recurring. Thanks so much for your help! 

With kindest regards, Jean






 this is what I just did looks like. Good??


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 14, 2014)

mcjeannie11 said:


> So essentially, I continue to use the 2014-01-07 2211 file on my E: drive as my backup folder. Do i have that right?



Not quite....there should be a folder called simply "Backups" (there is, I've seen it in your screenshots) that was the target folder for Lightroom backups....then when you have Lightroom create a backup it generates a time/date-stamped sub-folder, i.e. the catalog you were using was in fact a backup catalog which was created at 22:11 on the 7th of January. Now, because that folder "Backups" is a bit lost amid all the other stuff in the Lightroom folder on the E drive, you could in fact do the same thing as you did for the catalog folder, i.e. create a root-level folder called "Lightroom LRCAT Backups" on the E drive, then when you next take a catalog backup you would select the "Choose" button on the dialog box and point Lightroom to that new folder. That then will become the target folder for all the future time-stamped backup sub-folders. That sound OK? 

Do that, then start taking your backups, then when you are certain that you've got everything working smoothly you could go and get rid of all the catalog and preview files in that Lightroom folder on the E drive.

Yes, that looks good now....at least you'll now always know where your catalog is, right?


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 14, 2014)

Got it and I like your idea, I don't think I'll forget where the files reside if I've created the location folder.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 14, 2014)

Exactly right, Jean. Lightroom let's you control all of this important stuff, but sadly too many users don't realise. Glad you've got it sorted now!


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## mcjeannie11 (Apr 14, 2014)

Couldn't have done it without your patience and help Jim. Thanks again!

jean


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