# Trouble copying photos and LR files over to new laptop?



## digital mikeon (May 6, 2012)

Hello everyone;
This is my first post as a forum member, and I come with a problem in hand as I am sure many of you first arrived here. Here's my problem, I have all my image files and LR files running on LR 3 on my PC, operating from a connected external hd. My PC is using Windows XP and is 32 bit version of Lightroom 3 from my disk. I have 230 gig of RAW images collected over the last few years in this drive and they have been edited extensively in Lightroom with next to no problems at all. I now have a new super laptop computer, Windows 7 Pro 64 bit OS, and have Lightroom 64 bit version loaded off of my disk. It opens just fine on my laptop, now to get my images and associated files moved onto this machine. My Lightroom manual " The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3" book by Martin Evening is my only resource guide other than the online help. Here is the process that I tried twice over from scratch and was unsuccessful in both attempts. First I opened LR on my pc, went to the "Catalog panel" and selected "all photographs". I then clicked "file", followed by "export as catalog". I want everything copied over so I checked all three boxes that were presented. I directed the files to be sent to a connected portable hd, and clicked the "export catalog" button. Now it took over four hours for this transfer onto the portable hd to be complete, but upon completion as far as I can tell all is well. I then moved the portable hd and connected it to my laptop. With LR open on my laptop, I then selected "file", then "open catalog", directed it to the file on the portable hd, and clicked "open". I got the relaunch Lightroom window and hit "relaunch" My images opened on LR, or at least the previews I would guess, because when I go to open an image I get "file is offline or missing" on my screen. I repeated this proccess twice over with the same negative effect. What am I doing wrong, and how do I correct this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.


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## Jim Wilde (May 6, 2012)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Although I maybe might have done the transfer a little differently, what you describe should have worked fine (the first obvious thought would have been differing drive letters on the two systems, but "Export as Catalog" should sort that out). Could you post a couple of screenshots, one of the Folders Panel in the Library module, with at least the top level folder(s) showing, and the other of an Explorer window showing the opened folder containing the catalog file? If you need help with the screenshots, have a look at this post.


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## digital mikeon (May 6, 2012)

went to the page you directed about screen shots. My PC is not an online computer so that I cannot directly access the internet from it. It is XP so I needed one of those screen shot programs. I think whatever I have succeeded in doing now has only made my problem far worse. Now I seem to have two external drives both with all my image files on them, plus they both have lrcat files on them (both same) and two computers, one pc and one laptop, both loaded with LR and neither willing to display my catalog on either machine. Now how am I going to reload these lrcat files into a new catalog on both machines and recognize where the image files are so that they will work together? I may have really fudged things up now I'm worried>


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## Jim Wilde (May 6, 2012)

Can I suggest that if you're not sure how to fix the problem then it's probably best to stop trying until we get a handle on the problem. 

Obviously ONE of your computers has access to the internet, right? If that's the Win7 system, simply connect the portable HD that you think holds the catalog and your image files and take those screenshots using the Snipping Tool....once we have those we can start working out what's happened and how to deal with it.


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## digital mikeon (May 6, 2012)

Hope I have done this correctly, lets see... I guess I am going to recquire a little more guidance here. I took the screen shots as directed and placed them on my desktop, where they are now. I click on the insert image icom and the "from computer" tab selected, but I don't get the little window with the browse button next to it showing in the tab?


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

Oh, that's a bit unusual. Can you maybe try with a different browser?

Alternatively you could try simply copying the image to the clipboard (open the image in something like Paint, select it, Copy it, then right-click in the thread reply box and select Paste). That seems to work also.


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

While I am trying to resolve the screen shot issue I want to explain what I have found out to date about what I have done here. Here is the full scenario.... purchased D200 and CS 3 same time after both had just been released, lots of camera/photography experience (film), not so much computer experience. Amassed 20k+ images managed through ACR and Bridge. January 2010 upgraded to CS 5 plus the addition of LR 3. Everything installed, upgraded onto my only PC running Windows XP with all images and lrcat files on both the "D" drive in it plus redundant copies of both onto a Lacie external hd of 1tb. From day one of switching to LR I have adopted it's file hierarchy of having files by dates. Over the last 16 months I have added 6k+ images to my collection, have extensively edited all of those images in LR, many digital copies and such, plus much LR editing of images that were initially done in ACR before swithing over to LR. All images both old and new were in tha same catalog, with all the images in the same folder on two drives. With sorting set to Z to A when viewed In LR all of my newer dated image files were topmost presented in the library module list. I acquire my first ever laptop recently and it is blazing fast compared to my PC, Windows 7 pro 64 bit, 16 gig RAM. Installed CS 5 and LR onto it no problem. Now my HD on my PC is smaller 225 gig or so and was full to the brim, couldn't fit even one more card of RAW images. Wanting to synchronize all of my files and images over my now two computers here is what I did. From LR I exported the whole catalog complete with lrcat files onto a small Lacie portable hd I purchased recently with the intent of importing that data into my new laptop and LR there. The file export seemed just fine as I saw the same files on this portable hd as are on my external hd from my PC, both images and the lrcat files. I then ( and here is where I believe that I really screwed up) I deleted everything on my "D" drive on my PC safe in the belief that I had everything safely backed up onto two seperate hd's. My intention was to have all images and lrcat data on both external drives plus copies of everything on my laptop and the only files that I was going to keep on my "D" drive in my PC were to be copies of the lrcat files. Now when I have opened LR on either my PC or my laptop from the files that are identical on both external hd's this is what I have noticed. All of the image files that were on my PC before switching to LR complete with all of the associated lrcat files and edits, and keywording done to them since beginning to use LR are still in the catalog and are accessible from LR. All of the images added since installing LR (5k or so) plus all of the extensive editing, keywording, digital copies etc. done to them with LR and filed under the dated file hierarchy that LR wants to use are greyed out with the little ? on the image previews. All RAW image files are in the same folder as always just not any lrcat files associated with any of the images taken over the last 16 months. I now fear that they have been lost for good. Does this sound about right to you? I have no idea where the missing lrcat files have gone to, always thought they were being stored in the lrcat file along with all of the other lrcat files built up on my previous image files imported into LR from the beginning. Any advice on how I might proceed would be greatly appreciated.


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

digital mikeon said:


> I have no idea where the missing lrcat files have gone to, always thought they were being stored in the lrcat file along with all of the other lrcat files built up on my previous image files imported into LR from the beginning. Any advice on how I might proceed would be greatly appreciated.



To be honest, I'm really not going to be able to help without those screenshots. From what I can understand from your narrative the catalog and image files *should* be safe on that portable HD, but I need to see those screenshots first.

I also don't understand what you mean in the part of your post that I have quoted, could you elaborate? 

Finally......a large block of text as you have posted is very difficult to properly assimilate (for me at least), could I ask that you try to break up your posts into paragraphs? It would make my old tired brain a lot happier. Thanks.


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

Sorry for my writing syle, or lack of it I would guess. I will get those screen shots up as soon as I can get that accomplished here. About the part you highlighted there... As far as I can see there are only three distinct files in my folder named Mike Hannam Photography. One file are the image files (230gig), one lrcat catalog file, and one lrcat preview file. I believed that all new LR catalog files since January 2011 (not 2010 as previously stated by me) were being added to that lrcat file that is showing in my HDD's, but apparently they are not there? I will add another post showing the screen shots as soon as I figure out how to do that correctly. I want to thank you for your patience in trying to aid me here with my problems, sorry if I come off as a dummie when it comes to working with computers when I step outside of the actual Photoshop or Lightroom programs


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

The other screen shot you asked for


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

Thanks for the screenshots, but can I ask you to retake the one of your Folders Panel with "my photographs" expanded so that I can see the levels below that (I'm looking to see if there are any '?' marks on the sub-folders').

What I am seeing so far looks perfectly normal, but obviously you are not seeing what you expect to see, so I need to better understand that and some more screenshots would help.

_*"I believed that all new LR catalog files since January 2011 (not 2010 as  previously stated by me) were being added to that lrcat file that is  showing in my HDD's*_"......again I don't really understand what you mean by "all new catalogs". Do you mean the backup catalogs which are optionally created when you exit Lightroom? If so, they should be in that Backups sub-folder. If not that, again can you explain a bit more.


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

This better?


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

OK, thanks....now can you do the same for the same folder in Explorer?


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

See where all of my older files are all highlighted and LR data is active on those files


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

Do you see where all of my older image files still are active windows with all the LR data intact.


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

Think you may have missed my earlier post.....what I need you to do now is use Windows Explorer to see if you can locate one of the 'missing' folders on that F: drive, if you can see it can I have a screenshot of the Explorer window which shows that folder and the structure above it?


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

Okay I believe I see where the problem lay. I have moved all of the 2011 and 2012 images into the two folders marked 2011, 2012. I believe I made these moves in Bridge and not Lightroom, hence LR's inability to find the files. How do I now either bring all of those individual files back out of those two folders, or instruct LR to now see the images in either of those two folders?


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

OK, I was expecting/hoping that you had done something like that.

There are two ways you can resolve this:

1. With Lightroom shut down you can move all the 2011 and 2012 dated sub-folders back to the place in the hierarchy that they were in. Then restart Lightroom and they should all be 'seen' again.

2. Or if you want to keep the 2011 and 2012 'year' folders (I would, that's the way I have it), then you'll need to work down the Folders Panel list in Lightroom and 'relink' all those 'missing folders' to their new location. I count around 30 sub-folders to deal with, so should only take a few minutes. To do it this way, right-click on a missing folder and select 'Find Missing Folder' from the context menu. A file browser window opens, use this to navigate to and select the correct sub-folder on the F: drive (i.e. either in 2011 or 2012 folders), then click on OK and the ? mark will disappear. Repeat for all the others. Note that the first one you do, when you click OK the sub-folder will seem to be removed from the Folders Panel.....not actually so, if you look more closely you'll find the appropriate year folder has appeared, expand that and the sub-folder will be seen in its new position in the hierarchy.

Take it slow and steady, and it'll be fine. Let us know how you get on......and in future try to avoid moving image files around outside Lightroom, much better to have LR do it as it can then update its linkages.


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

Seems as though I'm not into the blue yet here. I have started making LR recognize where the files are in the 2011 folder. Now that 2011 folder is highlighted and when clicked on I see all of the previews of the images moved onto it, but the little question marks on each image are still there and the offline or missing title appears still?


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

second problem I see, when I have highlighted a 2011 file, ckick find missing folder, direct it to the 2011 folder where it is now, click ok a window appears and says Lightroom already contains that file do I want to merge these files yes or no. If I click on merge the file is recgnized in the 2011 folder but all of the separate files by date are now gone and I am building one large file called 2011 with all the images inside of it. Wish I had noticed this before moving in the first 600 images from like a dozen or so dated 2011 files. Have stopped doing anything more until I hear from you again.


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

When you clicked on, say, 2011 Apr 04, did you point Lightroom at the 2011 *folder*, or did you point it to the 2100 Apr 04 *sub-folder* inside 2011?


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

The 2011 folder not the exact sub-folder inside, my bad!


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

Okay by doing that on the next folder to find it solved both of my problems at one time. Now can I reverse what I did with the first 12 or so files that I lumped together?


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

Not easily, but not impossible either. Suggest you carry on with sorting out the rest, then give me a screenshot of the folders panel again (with the 2011 folder expanded). Before taking the screenshot, click on Library in the menu bar and ensure that "Show Photos in Subfolders" is *unchecked.*


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## digital mikeon (May 7, 2012)

Got that all done, here is the screen shot requested I think?


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## digital mikeon (May 6, 2012)

Hello everyone;
This is my first post as a forum member, and I come with a problem in hand as I am sure many of you first arrived here. Here's my problem, I have all my image files and LR files running on LR 3 on my PC, operating from a connected external hd. My PC is using Windows XP and is 32 bit version of Lightroom 3 from my disk. I have 230 gig of RAW images collected over the last few years in this drive and they have been edited extensively in Lightroom with next to no problems at all. I now have a new super laptop computer, Windows 7 Pro 64 bit OS, and have Lightroom 64 bit version loaded off of my disk. It opens just fine on my laptop, now to get my images and associated files moved onto this machine. My Lightroom manual " The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3" book by Martin Evening is my only resource guide other than the online help. Here is the process that I tried twice over from scratch and was unsuccessful in both attempts. First I opened LR on my pc, went to the "Catalog panel" and selected "all photographs". I then clicked "file", followed by "export as catalog". I want everything copied over so I checked all three boxes that were presented. I directed the files to be sent to a connected portable hd, and clicked the "export catalog" button. Now it took over four hours for this transfer onto the portable hd to be complete, but upon completion as far as I can tell all is well. I then moved the portable hd and connected it to my laptop. With LR open on my laptop, I then selected "file", then "open catalog", directed it to the file on the portable hd, and clicked "open". I got the relaunch Lightroom window and hit "relaunch" My images opened on LR, or at least the previews I would guess, because when I go to open an image I get "file is offline or missing" on my screen. I repeated this proccess twice over with the same negative effect. What am I doing wrong, and how do I correct this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.


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## Jim Wilde (May 7, 2012)

OK, if you click on the 2011 folder in the Folders Panel, and make sure you're in grid view, you should find that all the 564 thumbnails in the grid will have the '?' mark to indicate that Lightroom thinks they are missing (because it doesn't know they are actually in sub-folders within the 2011 folder). If you make sure that the sort order is Capture Date, the first picture in the grid should be from Feb 26.

Assuming it is (get back to me if it isn't), click on the '?' mark on the thumbnail of that first image and you'll get a screen like this:




Obviously the file name will be different. Click on Locate and a file browser window like this will appear:



Note the bottom box, "Find nearby Missing Photos", make sure it is *checked.* Then browse to the *2011 Feb 26 sub-folder* under the 2011 folder, open it to list the contents, and you *should* see the correct file name listed. If you do, click it to highlight it, then click on the select button. That should relink that file to the correct sub-folder, and if you are lucky it will also relink the other 80 pictures in that sub-folder.

If that all works as hoped for, you'll need to repeat for the other 8 sub-folders.

If any of that is unclear, get back to me.....don't press on if you are uncertain.


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## digital mikeon (May 8, 2012)

, 
Okay so I followed your above procedure, and it retrieved almost everything except for two items. The first being the now 39 images contained in the Mike Hannam Photography file there at the top. Those images were 41, they belong in the first file which is 2012 Apr 23 Zac... I moved the first two of the 41 over but when I do the find file procedure and open the appropriate file to link to the image files have no corresponding numbers to match up the files with. All of the images are untitled, untitled 2 and so on down the line. Since I cannot see the images so there is no way I can match the numbered file to the proper untitled file? The other small problem is the 2012 Apr 28 file, 111 images, my last import. I see the 111 under the latest import window at the top of the screen. Same problem linking them to the proper files also as the images that I want to link the files to have also lost their file numbers, just like the other ones have.

Now since I have almost everything resolved here on my laptop using the portable hd, I have to go and synch these image and lrcat files over to the external hd on my desktop pc. Hope I get that resolved without any issues.


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## Jim Wilde (May 8, 2012)

Because the 2012 Apr 28 sub-folder is still 'missing', if you can find it on the portable HD you can try relinking the actual *sub-folder *rather than trying to relink individual images....


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## digital mikeon (May 8, 2012)

Okay so I found and corrected the issue of 2012 Apr 28. The only thing left to move over is the 39 image files under the Mike Hannam Photography heading into the 2012 Apr 23 Zac... file where they belong. I can't seem to get this done because of the missing file numbers on the correct image files needed to be linked to. Since I have no thumbnails to view I cannot link the the proper two files together. Any ideas?


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## Jim Wilde (May 8, 2012)

Not sure I'm really understanding the issue with the last 39 images, can you try to clarify? All the 39 files have a file-name, right? Unless you have renamed the files outside Lightroom, you should be able to point Lightroom at the corresponding file in the Apr 13 sub-folder. As I said, I'm not understanding, so maybe a couple of screenshots might help....the list of the files as seen in Windows Explorer and a shot of the Grid with all the missing files showing (make sure in the View Options you have the filename as an option).


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## JimHess43 (May 8, 2012)

This question is for my own information, and not a suggestion.  But why wouldn't it be possible to put the catalog, the previews, and the entire folder structure for the images into a single folder on the new laptop (like you do when you want to make a portable catalog to move to an external hard drive) and then simply open that catalog on the new computer.  Wouldn't that work?  Really, I don't know.


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## Jim Wilde (May 8, 2012)

Yes Jim, that would have worked, and in fact that's what was done.....but unfortunately some folders got moved around AFTER the export as catalog to the new drive, but outside Lightroom. Hence why some folders went 'missing'.


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## digital mikeon (May 8, 2012)

Everything resolved here 100% I am a happy camper! Thank you Jim for your expertise, patience and time in helping me resolve my problems here. It has been a great learning experience, sorry it had to be at your expense, once again thanks ever so much. This forum certainly has a new member and fan here.

One last question as I proceed here. I am now moving all of my 2010 files up into a newly created 2010 folder. Can I only move one up at a time or can I move a number of highlighted files up into the new folder at one time?


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## Jim Wilde (May 8, 2012)

I hope you're doing that move within Lightroom!! Seriously, if you need to reorganise your folder structure, make sure you do it within Lightroom....you've just discovered what happens if you do it outside Lightroom. BTW, a lot of folks here would advise you not to spend too much time changing the folder structure.....folders are an inefficient means of 'organising', Lightroom offers much more powerful methods, so you might be more productive in the long term in leaving the folder structure as is and concentrating on setting up keywords, collections, etc. Just a thought....

By 'files' do you mean folders or individual image files? In LR3 you can only move one folder at a time (that changes in LR4), but if you are just moving individual files you can select multiple files at once and move them in one "drag and drop" operation. Note that when doing that you have to drag from the centre of an image, it won't work if you try to drag from the grey frame (possibly the most frequent 'gotcha' that we come across ).


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## digital mikeon (May 8, 2012)

I mean a folder at a time into a new 2010 folder, not single image files. Yes I am doing this on LR and it is working out just fine by moving one folder at a time. All of my images are pretty heavily keyworded already , just tidying up the way the list looks when lightroom is open. Thanks again.


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## clee01l (May 8, 2012)

digital mikeon said:


> I mean a folder at a time into a new 2010 folder, not single image files. Yes I am doing this on LR and it is working out just fine by moving one folder at a time. All of my images are pretty heavily keyworded already , just tidying up the way the list looks when lightroom is open. Thanks again.


While you can only move one folder at a time (per thread) in LR3, you can initiate many threads simultaneously (or nearly so). LR is multi threaded and can do more things at a time than you can. When I was in LR3, routinely I would move older folders from my local drive to my EHD. I would drag one folder at a time to the new location, As soon as I dropped a folder on the new location, I would repeat with the next folder before the first instance had a chance to complete I could stack up about 6-8 tasks on the top pane all executing at once.


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## Victoria Bampton (May 8, 2012)

Three cheers for Jim!  And welcome to the forum Mike!


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