# i made  a mistake by  synching my file and lost all my pics. what can i do?



## algernon (Oct 24, 2017)

*Operating System:* 

*Lightroom Version:* 
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*Question or Description of Problem:*


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 24, 2017)

You have to give more information than that. Try to explain a little what you did. 'Synching my file' is not something you can do in Lightroom. You can use 'Synchronize Folder' but that does not normally make you lose pictures.


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## algernon (Nov 10, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> You have to give more information than that. Try to explain a little what you did. 'Synching my file' is not something you can do in Lightroom. You can use 'Synchronize Folder' but that does not normally make you lose pictures.


I think what I did was sync a folder. After doing that I was not able to see the balance of my photos. I had 1700 pics in that folder and now I can only view three of them and I cant figure out how to retrieve the rest. One other issue that I have is, when I upload a photo to develop ,I receive a message that says the file could not be found.


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 10, 2017)

Sounds like you used 'Synchronize Folder' and when Lightroom said that there were missing pictures, you told it to delete these. If that's true, then these pictures are gone from the catalog. Do you have a catalog backup from before you used 'Synchronize'?


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## algernon (Nov 17, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> Sounds like you used 'Synchronize Folder' and when Lightroom said that there were missing pictures, you told it to delete these. If that's true, then these pictures are gone from the catalog. Do you have a catalog backup from before you used 'Synchronize'?


No I did not ask to delete anything, and I did not have a back up of my pics. Still can’t develop pics in Lightroom. 
Folder not found, is the error message. 
Help if you can? Thanks


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 17, 2017)

You can't develop pictures if Lightroom doesn't know where these pictures are, and the 'Folder not found' message tells you that. So you will have to find the new location of that folder yourself. It could be moved, or it could be renamed (or both). If you know where it is, then you can 'reconnect' it in Lightroom in the following way. Go to the folder panel and look for the folder. It will be shown as 'missing' with a question mark, but it should still be there. Right-click on it and choose 'Find Missing Folder'. You will get an standard 'Open' dialog. Navigate to the new location of the folder and select it. Done.


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