# Help please, can't find photos in the gallery



## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi emesfa, welcome to the forum!

Let's just confirm some terms first, so we're all on the same page - when you say gallery, you mean the catalog?  I'm assuming you don't mean a web gallery?

So you opened the LR2 catalog in LR3 and it asked you to upgrade it, correct?  So if you look on your hard drive, can you find the missing photos - or have you deleted them from your hard drive, perhaps?  The upgrade won't have deleted photos, so we just need to find them.

What do you mean when you say you can't even import your photos - what does happen?


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi Victoria! thanks for your quick reply.

Yes... I meant catalog, sorry... now I mixed concepts.

I upgraded the catalog to L3, yes... and it worked then, with some of the pictures I was needing at that time. But now I'm trying to use older pictures (supposed to be in the same catalog, right? because I used them with L2.5 as well) but I can't see the folders they're in (in the library) and I can't import the photos because I try to but they look like grey and it doesn't let me to import. I deleted nothing.

I guess it's in some other catalog but I don't know where else to look...


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 10, 2010)

Yes, they're supposed to be in the same catalog.

They look grey... in the Import dialog or in the Library module?  Do they look plain grey or are they just faded?  What happens if you ignore the lack of previews and try to import them anyway?

Can you see the Folders panel ok in Library module?  What CAN you see there?  Do you know how to take a screenshot?  That would really help.


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

In the import dialogue they look faded and I can't import because the import button is like "off" (faded as well) In the library module I just can't find the folders any more... and some others are there with a "?" and can't open the folder (some), some others I can but the photos are plain grey. And when I try "find the folder missing" (sorry I don't know the exactly words in English, I have it in Spanish) I can't find that exactly folder...

what really annoys me is that it is looking for the photos at a hard disk while they are in another hard disk. Tried to change that but didn't succeed.

I don't know if I'm explaining myself very well... i tried so many things I'm completely lost now...


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 10, 2010)

It really would be a great help if you could post a screenshot of the Folders Panel so that we can get a better idea of the scale of the problem.

As far as the import problem is concerned, 'faded' previews and being unable to select them almost certainly means that Lightroom already thinks it has those pictures in the catalog. So probably no need to keep trying the import, let's first try to find out where Lightroom THINKS the pictures are, and  compare that to where they really are. Once we establish that we can probably work out what to do.

Try to get us that screenshot and we can take it from there....


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

sorry for this silly question but... how can I add the screenshots?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 10, 2010)

Take the screenshot and save it as a jpg/png. Then, when posting a reply, use the 'Go advanced' option, and there you'll see an 'add attachment' icon on the top toolbar. Click on that and it will open up a secondary window which will allow you to browse to, and add, your attachment.


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## b_gossweiler (Dec 10, 2010)

You can also use the "Insert Image" button in the Quick Reply dialog:

Beat


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

ok... needed to know how to attach a picture.

screenshot of the folders panel.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

Thanks for the screenshots.

What I see is a catalog with 11811 photos, 2510 of which are in a folder called 2010 in the C drive, although 922 of these photos in 9 dated sub-folders are missing (those with the ? mark). There are a few other photos also missing but I presume the main concern is those from the 2010 folder, is this correct?

I also see that you have 2434 photos on your G drive....so I guess the remaining 7000 photos in this catalog are somewhere on the offline D, J, and K drives, is that correct?

So the obvious question: where exactly are those 9 dated sub-folders on your system? Lightroom thinks they are on the C drive, within the 2020 folder, but they obviously aren't there....so where are they? Once you've tracked them down we should be able to help reconnect to them, but you need to have a search around your computer first. If you can't find them, do you have a backup of the sub-folders that you could restore?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

b_gossweiler said:


> You can also use the "Insert Image" button in the Quick Reply dialog:
> View attachment 10
> Beat



Thank you Beat (again!). Memo to self....open eyes!!


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

Thanks for your reply!

but the thing is that I don't know why Lightroom thinks they are on the C drive when I have no photos there... I always import them from the G drive. 

And... the missing photos I'm trying to find are not among that group... to be exact, it all started because I was looking for some pictures from april, therefore the "2010_04_..." folders... but they're not there!

I normally have all my photos together in the same folder where I import them from the camera... and then I import them to Lightroom from there.

(ok... I was thinking now... some time ago I used Lightroom to import the photos fro my camera... it did it by itself till I changed that option because I didn't like it... but can that be causing all this problems? I wouldn't understand it anyway because it wasn't a problem before... and I do have the folders when I look for it in the G drive... only thing I can't open it, they appear like "blank" (you know... not with the LR icon) anyway I can't remember if those photos were imported with Lr)


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

Can you take screenshots of the Explorer view of the folder setup on both your C drives and G drives, then post them here.

Some of the things you say are conflicting with what I see in your previous screenshots, so we need to clarify that. Also I don't understand what you mean by "they appear like "blank" (you know... not with the LR icon)". The screen shots will help, I'm sure.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't have pictures in my C drive... just a few folders but they're not the ones I want to use...

I attach a screenshot of what I'm telling you with the "blank" files, and in the other you can see all the other files. 

The annoying thing is that some of the folder I need they don't appear in the library and I can't import them because I already did and when I try to I see... (that other screenshot)


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

OK, I need you to make a few settings changes, then repeat some screenshots:

For the first screenshot of the 'blank' tiles, can you change your Explorer settings to show the file extensions? To do this, open Explorer then go to Tools>Folder Options, click on the View tab, then scroll down and UNCHECK the option to 'Hide extensions for known file types'. Then repeat that screenshot and I will be able to see what file types we are dealing with here (possibly raw files).

The middle screenshot is presumably your backup drive? What drive letter?

The final screenshot of your import screen....as we have said before, you cannot select those pictures of the 2010-03-08 folder because Lightroom thinks they are already in the catalog....we need to find out where. BTW, what is the source drive for that import? is it the same as the drive in the middle screenshot?

Can you open Lightroom and make the following changes:

In the Folders Panel, right-click on the bar for the C drive, and change the selection from 'Disk Space' to 'Photo Count'.
Next, right-click on the 2010 folder name listed under the C drive and select Add Parent Folder....this will show the next folder up in the folder hierarchy. Repeat the same command on the parent folder, and keep repeating until to get to the root of C. At that point we should be able to see the entire folder structure for the pictures which Lightroom thinks are on your C drive. I know you keep saying that there aren't any on that drive, but all indications say otherwise, and I'm just trying to help you figure this out.

Next, can you  click on the D, J and K drives in the Folders Panel so that the arrow to the right of them points down....this will open the drive list to reveal the folder structure (if any) that Lightroom knows about.

When you have done all that, can you repeat the screenshots of the expanded Folders Panel again? Many thanks.


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## b_gossweiler (Dec 11, 2010)

TNG said:


> Thank you Beat (again!). Memo to self....open eyes!!


 
I respond to the easy stuff, you'll do the real work 

Beat


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

ok... did the changes. 

But truly, I don't understand why those folders on the C drive... anyway... there are some folder and they are the ones I CAN see... but I have no idea how did the other end there.

On the other hand, I must say I used a hard drive ( it was J ) but it broke and I moved all the pictures to G I've ALWAYS imported my photos either from J (before) and from G (now) and I didn't imagine the problem was what I just said because the change happenned in september and I can see (and use) some of the folders. Plus... the problem appeared afterwards when I upgraded to L3.

Apart from all this... I want to recover all the 2009 folders (which don't appear in the folders panel as you can see) and all those missing, not only the ones "in grey" 

Could this be because they are on different catalogues?


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

oh! forgot to tell you... the drive for the middle screenshot (in the previous post) is G.

I also wanted to add: Thank you so much for all your help. Hope this has a solution


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

OK, let's recap to make sure that I fully understand:

1. You used to upload your pictures to your J drive, and import into Lightroom from there?
2. The J drive crashed, and you started to use the G drive instead? Did you restore all the contents of J to the G drive?
3. Because Lightroom still thinks that there are 6415 pictures on the J drive, I guess you didn't update Lighroom with the new location?
4. At some point you have also imported some 3000+ pictures into your Pictures folder on the C drive, although presumably you don't want them there?

So at this time you are 'missing' all of the pictures which used to be on the J drive, plus some folders that Lightroom can't find on the C drive?

OK, probably the best thing to do first is to take a screenshot of an Explorer view of the folder structure of your G drive.....let's see what is on there, hopefully some of the missing folders will be there. Please try to expand the view to show as much of the folder structure as possible in the left hand column. If neccessary take several screenshots to make sure we capture the folder hierarchy (though obviously I only want to see the picture folders). Thanks.

Also, you mentioned 'different catalogs'....does this mean you normally use more than one catalog? If so, how many? And what pictures do they contain?


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

ok... I'll do the screenshots now... I wanted to answer your questions first:

1. yes.
2. yes. And that happenned when I was still using the L2.5 and yes... I could move everything to the  G drive.
3. ok... how am I supposed to update lightroom with the new location? because it worked so far but maybe I didn't do it correctly.
4. it seems so but I don't know where this does come from.

yes... but all the pictures are supposed to be in the G drive now.

About the catalogues, I have some, yes... unconsciously. I mean... I had these first problems when upgraded from L2.5 so someone from this forum told me to open the catalogue from L2.5, convert it and import from that catalogue... and now since I couldn't see the photos I tried to do that several times and I ended having like 5 catalogues but they're the same... (I'll add another screenshot of this) I created them accidentally...

will add the screenshot in a moment


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

OK, will wait for the screenshots. 

Regarding the multiple catalogs, let's just concentrate on getting this one sorted out and when you are happy we can do a clean up and get rid of the 'unintentional' ones. 

If we can find all the missing folders we should be able to sort everything out, and in doing that you'll hopefully learn how you can keep Lightroom updated whenever you need to change drive locations.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

ok... I think I understoon why I see the folders I see... they happen to be in the Lightroom3 catalog folder, but I don't know why!

I add the screenshots you asked plus the catalog folder and the screenshot from lightroom with the mess of catalogues I created :blush:


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

and the one missing with the mess in lightroom.:blush:


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

I can't see the list of catalogs....can you repeat that for me?

Also, go back to the G drive again and this time expand the 2009 folder, need to see if all those missing 2009 folders are in there. Can you post a screenshot of the expanded 2009 folder?

Got to go out for a while, so it'll be a few hours before I can respond (I also need a bit of time to properly analyze the screenshots). In the meantime just do the new screenshots, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible with some suggested actions to try to rectify the problem. I think we are making progress!


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

OK...I see the cataolgs. Do all of these have the same problems, or are any of them 'better' that the Catalog-5 that you are currently using?


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

ok, no problem!

thanks for all your help... I hope we're making progess!! 

need the latest screenshot? but THE SAME?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

No, I want you to repeat the screenshot of the folder structure of the G drive, but this time you can collapse the 2010 folder, but I want the 2009 folder expanded. You have already shown me where some of the 'missing' C drive folders are, but I now want to try to find the missing J drive pictures.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

they all are the same... I think...


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

ok, the 2009 folder expanded.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

oh! it seems that I have some of my photos in Lightroom repeated several times (3 copies) I think that is realted to the catalogues thing.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

Emma, thanks for the latest screenshots, although I have to say they have only increased my concern about our ability to sort things out without 'starting over'....I think we can both see that over time your folder structure has become disorganised with many pictures on drives you didn't want them to be, and as you say there is also some duplication. And certainly your catalog is in a bad way with many many missing folders.

To be honest, I'm not sure of the best way to proceed at this stage. I am happy to try to put some recovery steps in place, though am not confident that we will be able to easily resolve all the issues that I see in your setup. 

Could you just have a think about what you would prefer to do: attempt recovery of the existing catalog, or start over with a new one? Note that a new catalog would mean you would lose all the previous work (keywords,  collections, develop edits, etc.), so maybe you would prefer to try a recovery? You would have nothing to lose (apart from time wasted) as we would NOT be moving any files around until we had a 'better' catalog.

Let me know how you would like to proceed.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

thank you so much for your patience and your time, Jim (jim?) I really really appreciate it.

truly... I'd love to solve this the easiest way. I'm aware I have a completely mess in my folders and I have no idea how that ended like that... so... if it's a possible way to try a recovery that'd be great but if you think that is pretty impossible and that we'd solve it by starting over with a new catalog... 
I have so many catalogues and I don't even know where to start. 

(funny thing, I was going to write the first post saying "I'm gonna erase all my catalogues! stop me if you can!"... I was just kidding... but you can see how desperate I was with all this thing)

so... would you try the recovery?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

Ok, am happy to try the recovery, as I said we having nothing to lose other than some time!

Before we do that, however, it would perhaps be a good idea to take a backup of the -5 catalog and perhaps move it out of the Fotos folder (as that has contributed to some of the misplaced files, I think). We can discuss later where the best location for the catalog is (I would favour having it on a different drive than the photos for example), but for now why don't we move it a bit further up the hierarchy and out of the Fotos folder.

To do this, with Lightroom closed, use Explorer to browse to the G drive and click on the Emma folder to expand it. Then right-click on the Emma folder name and select New>Folder. In the new folder box that appears type Emma LR Catalogs and press enter. You should now have a folder named *Emma LR Catalogs *which will appear in the folder list below Emma but above Fotos.

Now scroll down the Fotos folder list until you find the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder, open this and locate the file _*Lightroom 3 Catalog-5.lrcat*_. Right-click on this file and select Copy, then go back up to the Emma LR Catalogs folder that you just created, right-click on the folder name and select Paste. You will now have a copy of your catalog in the new folder, and from now on we will use that as the main catalog (and so the old one will become the backup). Before starting to use this new catalog, however, let's rename it to make it a little bit more meaningful....right-click on the lrcat file in the Emma LR Catalogs folder and select Rename...in the filename box then type something like Emma LR3 Catalog.lrcat and press enter.

Double-click on this new file in the Emma LR Catalogs folder, and when Lightroom starts first change your preferences.....go to Edit>Preferences>General Tab, and ensure that the path to the new catalog file is entered in the box alongside "When starting up use this catalog:"....the correct path should be *G:\Emma\Emma LR Catalogs\Emma LR3 Catalog.lrcat*. Click OK and we will be good to start the recovery, now using a newly renamed and relocated copy of the existing catalog.

As it's getting a bit late, suggest we leave the start of the recovery until tomorrow. In the meantime let me know how you get on with copying and renaming the catalog.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

but then I can do this now?

tomorrow I won't be here the whole day :(


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

Sure, you can copy and rename the catalog now, no problem. Let me know when it's done, and tomorrow I'll start preparing some instructions for starting the recovery. It will probably take a lot of time as we'll have to go step by step, checking things as we go. No matter if you are not around tomorrow, I'll create the instructions for the first stage and you can do them when you can.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm sorry but I can't locate the catalog-5   ONLY the Lightroom 3 catalog


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

ok, found the clatalog-5, but it's in the drive C.... should I copy it then, as well?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 11, 2010)

Yes please....we need to start to get control of where these things are, so let's start with putting the catalog in aplace of our choosing so that we can always find it again easily.


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## emesfa (Dec 11, 2010)

ok done

all the catalog where in the drive C... i had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... I think these last 3 where the same. 

then... we leave it here till tomorrow?

I thank you so much for all the help...


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 12, 2010)

Ok, good. Just check one more time that when you start Lightroom again it is using the new 'Emma' catalog, and we can be confident that we will be using the correct catalog going forward. 

Talk to you again tomorrow. Don't worry if you are not around to respond, I'll leave instructions and you just let me know when you have been able to follow them.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 12, 2010)

Hello Emma, I think the best place to start would be to try to sort out your 2009 pictures. Most of the folders in the Folders Panel from 2009 are listed under the J drive, so we'll start with that:

1. Start Lightroom (check that you are using the Emma catalog). Expand the J drive in the Folders Panel so that you can see all the dated folders listed.
2. Right-click on any one of them and select 'Add Parent Folder'.....this should then show the 2009 Folder in the panel. *If it does NOT, do not go further with this instructions, just take a screenshot of the result and let me know.
*3. Assuming you CAN see the folder named 2009 listed under the J drive, right-click on it and select 'Find Missing Folder'.
4. A browser window should open, use this to browse to the G drive, open the Emma>Fotos>Canon folder until you see the 2009 folder. Click on this to select it, then click OK and something magic SHOULD happen in the Folders panel: the J drive should disappear, and the dated 2009 folders should appear listed under the G drive, and there should be no '?' marks against them.

If that all happens as planned, please take a screenshot of the expanded 2009 folder list under the G drive. Please try to include ALL the listed 2009 dated folders as I would like to compare this with the actual folders listed in Explorer.

If any of these instructions are not clear, do not proceed until you have checked back with me. OK?


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## emesfa (Dec 12, 2010)

Hi Jim!

could make it to check the forum and do what you asked. I was hoping to be lucky enough but I couldn't continue from the "add parent folder" instruction. I found myself with this:

(left the right-click dialog so you can see what it says: _Buscar carpeta que falta_ => *search missing folder*; _Quitar_ => *Remove*; _Exportar esta carpeta como catálogo_ => *Export this folder as a catalog*)
:hm:


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 12, 2010)

OK, no problem.....it just means that you might have to relocate each folder individually. Try this.....

On any one of the dated folders, right-click and select 'Buscar carpeta que falta' and then do what I said in step 4 in my last post. Do that and let me know what happens....


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## emesfa (Dec 12, 2010)

hi Jim!! I'm done with the 2009 folders, should I do the same with the 2010 folder in J? I can see the 2010 folder so I could move it as a block, right?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

emesfa said:


> hi Jim!! I'm done with the 2009 folders, should I do the same with the 2010 folder in J? I can see the 2010 folder so I could move it as a block, right?


 
Hi Emma, I didn't know there were some 2010 folders on J as well. Before you do anything further can you do a screenshot of the folders panel in Lightroom? If possible can you show what folders are still showing on J, and also can you show the 2009 folders which should now be on G? Thanks.


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

here they are.

I think I should leave it for tomorrow, I'm too tired.


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

I haven't done anything with the 2010, yet, because it asks me to combine the folders since they already exist, or something like that. But there are two different 2010 folders.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

emesfa said:


> I haven't done anything with the 2010, yet, because it asks me to combine the folders since they already exist, or something like that. But there are two different 2010 folders.


 
OK, I'll have a look into this tomorrow morning.


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

ok! I won't do anything with the 2010 folder then.

Thanks again. We'll talk tomorrow!


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

Hi Emma, thanks for the screenshots.....although I'm now even more uncertain about the folder organisation that I can see from them. There are so many 2010 top-level folders that worry me and I'll need to think about before we go rushing in. However, that's a problem for later.....let's concentrate on finishing the work on the J drive.

There are two 2010 folders that I see listed under J.....but the dated sub-folders below don't relate to them as they are at the same hierarchical level. Could you click on each of the two 2010 folders to expand them, then repeat the screenshot? In the meantime you can carry on relocating the 10 dated sub-folders shown in the list under J (2010_01_16 to 2010_03_09) as I can see those in the Explorer view of the G drive.

I will not be around so much during the day today, but will be able to spend some time this evening on the problem. Talk to you later.


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

Hi Jim,
so... should I "find missing folders" with those folders but not with the "2010" as a block?

Ok! I'll come back in the evening (8pm) as well, won't be around in the afternoon.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

Emma, you can do the 10 dated sub-folders which have the under-score (_), i.e. in the format 2010_MM_DD (starting with 2010_01_16 and ending with 2010_03_09)....BUT do these as individual locates, not as a block.

All the folders above that (the ones which have hyphens (-) in the format 2010-MM-DD, leave these for now as you will ned to do some investigation before we start on those as there are multiple copies of some of these on the G drive and we will need to be certain which one we are going to link Lightroom to. We will have to be careful here, so let me know when you have done the first 10 and later this evening we'll talk about the others.


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

ok, done with those 10, and they disappear from the J panel like the 2009 ones did. 

I'll wait for your instructions.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

Ok, that's good. While I'm thinking about the next step, if you have a few minutes why not just check out those newly relocated folders in the Library module....just click on a folder name in the Folders Panel and make sure that there are no question marks against individual photos in the Grid view. You might find that all the thumbnails are grey because you probably haven't got preview data, in which case Ctrl+A to select all the pictures in the folder and then go to Library>Previews>Render standard-size previews.

Let me know if everything looks OK (or not!).


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

ok! checked all the folders in G. I only had one problem: folder "2009_08_17" is empty and LR tells me there're 412 photos, but I don't find them anywhere. Had to recover some folders I discovered I had at another drive (which I used when had the problems with J before buying what is G. but they happenned not to be in LR library anyway (as many other folders) )

Besides, there're some folders with the photos repeated till 5 times or so. 

Need any screenshot?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

Am not too worried about all the folders that you have that are not yet in Lightroom, we can sort all that out later by synchronising the top level year folders (2008, 2009, 2010, etc). But first we need to sort out the catalog by resolving all the missing folders. Once we have a 'clean' catalog we can then get the rest of the folders imported if that's what you want.

So, are you saying that  all the pictures that are supposed to be in 2009_08_17 are now lost? And where did you find that folder on the G drive, as I could not see it on the Explorer screenshots that you did of the 2009 folders on G?

What do you mean when you say that "there are some folders with the photos repeated 5 times or so"? Can you give me a screenshot of that?


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

ok, so it was one of the folders I moved from the other drive (the J drive, I can still recover some things), but I'm checking and it is empty there as well... empty folder.

About the photos that are repeated within the same folder, here you have an example. Funny thing is that as you can see, those first photos are the same (in 50 you can see a small 3 as well as in 53) but from the "selected" one (they look like "selected" although I clicked nowhere) they're not repeated any more.

(ok... it seems I exceeded the maximum size of attachments... will need to erase some to continue adding screenshots)


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

is there any way to remove the attached files so I can gain some more room?


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

ok, now another folder has question marks in its photos. I don't remember seeing them before. This time I have the folder and there're photos in it.

is there any other way to attach documents? how can I attach them from a URL? where should I upload them to?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

Try the basic attachment method that Beat described (back on page 1). Use the "Quick Reply" option and press the "Insert Image" Icon. Try that.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

Re the attachments problem....we are on new forum software so we will need Victoria to answer that one! She's offline at the moment so we'll just have to wait for her to catch up with us.

In the meantime, let's get back to sorting out the problems with the J drive......

Looking as the group of 8 folders listed under the first 2010 parent folder, I see the following problems:

1. The first 4 folders (2010-03-11, 2010-03-14, 2010-03-17, and 2010-03-20) do NOT appear in the G drive folder list screenshots that you previously posted. Can you have a look around to see if you can find them anywhere, or can you try to recover them from J into the G:\emma\fotos\canon\2010 folder? If you CAN find them, check the number of images actually in the folder and compare it with the numbers that Lightroom *thinks* are in there (25,14,78,16). If you are happy that the folders match, go ahead and do the 'Find Missing Folder' process on them to relink from J to G drive.

Because it's taking me a while to get the instructions typed, I'll post the next set of instructions in another post....that will give you chance to look into the first 4 folders.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

OK, dealing with the next 4 folders now:

a) 2010-04-15....In the G drive list, main 2010 folder, I can see a folder named 2010_04_15 (note it is a different name bacuse of the underscores, not hyphens). So, is the the same folder? Lightroom thinks there is only one picture in it, so can you look into the folder on the G drive and see how many pictures are in there? We need to know that before we decide what to do.
b) 2010-04-16....same as a)....there is a 2010_04_16 folder on G. *But, this one is already in the LR catalog, but with a higher number of pictures (69 in this, only 23 in the folder on J).* So, you need to examine these two folders (click on each in turn in Lightroom to check the filenames) to see if *the 23 pictures that are in the J folder are some of the 69 pictures in the G drive folder.
*c) The next two folders, 2010-04-17 and 2010-04-18, have the same issue as the 2010-04-15 folder, i.e. there is a corresponding folder on G but with underscores in the name. Again, please compare these J drive folders with the G drive counterpart so that we can decide what to do.


Will leave it at that for now, as the next 5 folders are even more complicated....lets deal with the first 8 and move on from there.


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

a) yes, there's only one picture in that folder.

b)they are different files names in 2010_04_16 and 2010-04-16. BUT: both folders I have named either -/_ the files names are those like the ones I find in J in LR ( from 6287 to 6309), and they are 23. It's really strange because the files names in LR G are from 7508 to 7578 but the ones I find in G drive correspond to the mentiones before.

c) for the "17" in J drive there 323 files and in G drive there're 324 files. In none of them there're just 78.
"18"... in J drive there are 93 files and in the G drive there're 94 files. 

More complicated? I'm already getting crazy seeing I lost some of my folders... I can't find those first 4 folders... NOwhere... and I'm mad at myself I have part of them spread all over different drives... but the thing when J cracked was that I couldn't move "big blocks" from one drive to another.

Ok... so I'll try to find those first 4 and you'll tell me what to do with this second block of 4.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

a) In explorer, right-click on the folder 2010_04_15 in the G drive, and select "Rename". You will see the folder name change to have a small box around it and the name will be 'selected', that is it will have a blue background. Simply type in the new name 2010-04-15 and press enter and the folder will be renamed. In Lightroom you can then right-click on the folder name in the J panel and select 'Find Missing Folder' and point to the folder on the G drive.
c) You can do the same for the folders "17" and "18"....rename to use '-' instead of '_' and repeat the "find Missing Folder" actions. The fact that both folders on G have one more file should not be a problem.....if its a picture we'll pick that up when we synchronise at the end, although it's quite possible that it is a system-generated "thumbs.db" file. 
b) I'm not sure I fully understand what you are saying, but I *think* you are saying that the 23 pictures that Lightroom thinks are on J are also part of the 69 that Lightroom has on G, even though they may have different filenames. Is that correct? If so I think you can safely 'remove' the "16" folder from J (right-click in Lightroom and select "Delete"). When that has been done, also in Lightroom go to the 2010_04_16 folder on G, right-click and select "Rename". Type in the new name 2010-04-16....that will keep it in the same order as the others. Eventually, when we have finally got the clean catalog, I would suggest that we spend a little time getting all the folder names using the same system, i.e. - instead of _ as this will keep all the folders properly listed in order.

Let me know how you get on with that....


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

ok... but since the camera downloading program names all the folders with "_" rather than with "-" shouldn't it be better to name it that way? because it'll keep naming them that way in the future.

and what I was saying about the "16" folder is that I don't think the 23 pictures LR thinks are on J are part of the 69 since they're named differently and, to be honest, I wouldn't guess why LR is renaming my pictures on its own, now. 

Sorry if I'm not making myself very clear, I'm very tired and all this thing is getting me really upset and my English is being affected.

Ok, if you tell me renaming the folder as "-" is better, I'll proceed


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

Emma, a possible solution to the attachments problem:

Click on "Forum Actions" in the top menu bar of the forum page, select General Settings. Down at the bottom of the left-hand column under Miscellaneous you will see "Attachments". Click on that and you will get a display of all your previous attachments in the right-hand column from where you can select them individually (tick the small selection box) and then use 'Delete Selected'....do this and it should then let you upload some more. Try it.


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

ok done...


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

emesfa said:


> ok... but since the camera downloading program names all the folders with "_" rather than with "-" shouldn't it be better to name it that way? because it'll keep naming them that way in the future.
> 
> and what I was saying about the "16" folder is that I don't think the 23 pictures LR thinks are on J are part of the 69 since they're named differently and, to be honest, I wouldn't guess why LR is renaming my pictures on its own, now.
> 
> ...



Don't worry about long term renaming issues....we just need to rename "15", "17" and "18" *now* so that we can get the relocation from J to G within Lightroom. You can always rename them back again later, if that is what you prefer. The problem is that, if you look at your folder lists in G you have a mixture of both types, and it might be easier long term to have them all done the same way. A lot will depend upon how your import workflow works, but we can discuss that all later.

For now, you do need to do the renames to help sort out the J drive.

If you are tired, then you should do no more this evening. I do understand that this is upsetting for you, especially losing some folders, and I wish I could find an easier way to deal with the issues. Sadly I cannot, so if you still want to try to recover as much as we can then I don't see that we have any alternative other than to carry on. But whenever it gets too tiring, then just say 'enough for now' and we'll carry on whenever you're ready.

Finally, the "16" folder....am really not sure what we can do about this. If you can find the 'missing' 23 pictures that would be great, but if not I think we will simply have to delete it from the J drive. Let me know what you can find out.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 13, 2010)

emesfa said:


> ok done...



What is 'done'? Which of my posts were you responding to, the one about attachments, or the one about the 4 folders on J?


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## emesfa (Dec 13, 2010)

haha, sorry... "done" was to tell you I could delete the attachments so I can upload more screenshots whenever you see you need it...

to begin with... about the "16" folder... I just discovered that those 69 pictures from that folder in the G panel in LR, actually, if I click on any of them I see that the picture was taken the 16th of *june (06) not april (04)* although the folder was named as "04" (I hadn't see that before). 

and about the "17" and "18" I'm done as well...

I'm gonna try keep trying this but I won't deny I thought about starting over... but well... if you're ok with this, will keep trying.

Is the next step very long or difficult or something like that? Should we leave it for tomorrow (I'll be here "early" in the morning and in the afternoon) it's an hour later here.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 14, 2010)

Well, if you have the attachments sorted out, you could perhaps post the screenshots that you referred to in post number #58. You were also going to post, I think, a screenshot in relation to another folder with missing photos?

About the "16" folder.....if all the pictures in this are actually 06-16 pictures, what is in the folder 2010_06_16 on the G drive? Have a look, if they are also 06-16 pictures you could merge the two folders into one....but that means that the J drive 2010-04-16 is another missing folder.

Leave everything tonight, I'm getting tired also. Tomorrow we need to look for the missing folders and make some decisions about them if they cannot be found. Also we can start on the 5 folders in the second of the J drive 2010 top level folders....the complication about these is that they seem to exist in two or more places on the G drive! We'll investigate tomorrow.

I'm happy to carry on if you are....I just don't want you getting too stressed over this!


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## emesfa (Dec 14, 2010)

woow... I'm so happy I don't know how I did it (or how I didn't before) but I just found those first 4 folders I was missing and couldn't find... I guess I'm not seeing anything any more... but the good thing is that I found them, they match and I moved them to G drive. so from that "block" of 2010 in J there's only the "16" folder left, the one I just realized it belongs to "06" not "04".


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 14, 2010)

Great! But where were they, as I couldn't see them either?


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## emesfa (Dec 14, 2010)

a)the screenshot with the repeated pictures. I was telling you some of them are repeated and some (from the ones that seem selected, though I didn't click anywhere) are not. (but this is related to "2010_08" folders so we may look at it later on?)

b) those folders missing were in a 2010 folder within another 2010 folder within another 2010 folder I don't know who (or what or how) had created in J (up to 5 different 2010 folders)... so probably that's why I hadn't moved them to G when moved everything. (i'll check everything out tomorrow)

c) the other screenshot I was refering to: an empty folder "2009_08_17" that LR was telling me contained 412 files is in G but it only has 216 files which don't match (names) with those 412 LR is telling me about. But I don't know which screenshot to do now so we may leave it and continue tomorrow?

thanks thanks thanks... you can't imagine how much I appreciate your help


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## emesfa (Dec 14, 2010)

oh! and checked with another program the pictures in "2010_04_16" and the pictures in "2010_06_16" and, truly, I don't mind not recovering the ones from "04" and the others, the ones originally from "06" are already in the correct folder in drive G.

so, see you tomorrow?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 14, 2010)

Good Morning!

It's probably a good idea to clear up some of the outstanding issues from last night before we move on to the rest of the J drive issues. So:

1. All I see in the last screenshot is a lot of Virtual Copies (the thumbnails with the curled-up corner bottom left). They are copies of an original file which you can have Lightroom make, but the copy does not exist physically on your hard drive, it is contained only inside the Lightroom catalog. If you can't remember why you created them, and want to get rid of them, you can easily do so. Just make sure you have actually selected a copy (check the filename above the filmstrip and it will include the word "Copy"), right-click and select 'Delete Photo'....a box will pop up with the option to "Remove the selected Virtual Copy". Click on Remove to get rid of it. Don't rush into this though, you may remember in time why these were created....

2. The missing folders that you found on J....did you copy them to G before 'finding' them again in Lightroom? Can I have a new screenshot of the J panel in Lightroom?

3. I have made a note about 2009_08_17....we will make a decision about that later.

4. 2010-04-16....if you cannot find this folder anywhere, and are happy to remove it, right-click on it in the J folder panel and select 'Delete'. What do you want to do with the 2010_04_16 folder on G, that contains photos from June, not April? Do you want to merge that with the 'correct' 2010_06_16 folder which is not yet in Lightroom? Again, we can make a note to do this later if you would prefer?

Check back with me on these few things and I'll start typing a note about the next set of folders in the J panel.


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 14, 2010)

TNG said:


> Re the attachments problem....we are on new forum software so we will need Victoria to answer that one! She's offline at the moment so we'll just have to wait for her to catch up with us.


 
Sorry, timezones...   I've just increased the attachments limits, both in individual size and disc space limits, so you should be fine now.


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## emesfa (Dec 14, 2010)

Morning Jim! 

I'm running out of time so I can't do all that now. Will catch up this afternoon around 7.30pm (your 6.30pm) and I'll tell you what 

Have a good day!



Victoria Bampton said:


> Sorry, timezones...   I've just increased the attachments limits, both in individual size and disc space limits, so you should be fine now.


 
Thanks Victoria!


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## emesfa (Dec 14, 2010)

Hi Jim!! I'm gonna be around for some hours now, sorry couldn't come sooner.

a) I attach a screenshot of the J panel as I see it now. 

b) About the "2010-04-16" folder... the one in the J panel matches with the original pictures (which are in G drive as "2010_04_16"). So far so good.. The problem was with the "2010_04_16" folder in the G panel whose files where originally taken the "06_16"... and the correspondent folder, the "2010_06_16" exists in the G drive and the files' names match. 
I really don't mind losing the "04_16"... I checked them and they're some tests I forgot to erase so it's ok losing them if it's going to be hard recovering them.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 14, 2010)

Hi Emma, thatnks for the screenshot.

I'm sorry but I am still not understanding what you are telling me about the "16" folders. To help me understand, please do me a screenshot of the explorer view of the contents of both the 2010-04-16 and 2010-06-16 folders....change the display type to Details, and ensure that "Date Taken" is one of the column headings. See the attached screenshot for what I am looking for.


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## emesfa (Dec 14, 2010)

Hi Jim!

ok... it's being hard to explain but I'll try to suceed this time. 

In the explorer view of both folders everything is fine and in its right place. The problem comes when I try to go to the "2010_04_16" folder in the G panel in LR, the files are the ones belonging to the "2010_06_16". See the attached to make this clear. I'm not adding the screenshots you asked, sorry... but for some strange reason the "date taken" column is blank so it wouldn't be too useful, and the problem is not really in there... But if you still need it tell me, no problem  (as well as any other screenshot)

So... to sum up (and hoping to make things clear although I would explain this more easily speaking): 
a)the "2010-04-16" in J panel in LR (notice the "-") has the right photos. 
b)The "2010_04_16" (notice "_") in G panel in LR contains the files belonging to "2010_06_16" (which is not in G panel actually)... and...
c) BOTH folders, either "04_16" and "06_16" in G drive contain the right files. So the only problem would be in the G panel in LR.

I really appreciate you patience.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 14, 2010)

OK, I think I now understand, though I need to do some testing to make sure I can give you recovery instructions for this problem. While I am doing that, we can move onto dealing with the last five dated folders in the J panel:

  1.       2010-03-27 exists in two places on the G drive: in the ‘main’ 2010 folder, but also in the 2010 folder that is within the 2010-1 folder that is within the Canon folder. You need to compare these two folders to try to decide if they are indeed copies of each other, or if they contain different pictures. If it is apparent that the two folders are a partial copy of each other you may wish to merge them. For now though, just let me know how many pictures are in each of the two folders (so that we can compare the number with the J panel folder).
  2.       Repeat this for 2010-03-31 and 2010-04-06, as these also appear in both places on the G drive.
  3.       2010-04-09 only seems to exist in the main 2010 folder on G so you can go ahead and relocate that from J to G using the "Find Missing Folder" process.
  4.       2010-04-03 seems to exist in *three* places on G...the same two locations as the others, but also in a 2010 folder that is in the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder. Another complication is that the folder in the main 2010 folder has already been imported into Lightroom, though it contains only 4 pictures whereas the number in the J drive panel is 37. For now, just look in Explorer to tell me how many pictures are in each of the three “03” folders on the G drive.

Hope that is all clear. While you are doing that I'll be looking into the "04-16" issue.


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## emesfa (Dec 14, 2010)

OK... let's see...

1. both match. Same number of files, same name.

2. "2010_03_31" match (the same as before)
"2010_04_06" -> the 2010 "main" folder contains 38 files and the other folder within the 2010-1 has 17 files *less* but the one I find there match with the other. 

3. Done.

4. 2010-04-03: 
- 2010 -> contains 38 files 
- 2010-1 -> 37 files (so like the previous one, right?)
- LR Catalog's 2010 -> 4 files (which are within the other folders)

So far so good.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

OK, instructions to resolve these issues:

1. For 2010-03-27 in the J panel, use "Find Missing Folder" to relocate to the same folder in the 'main' 2010 folder on the G drive.
2. Repeat for 2010-03-31.
3. Repeat for 2010-04-06
4. For 2010-04-03, I want you first to go to the folder in the G panel in Lightroom, right-click and select "Remove" to remove it from the catalog. This will NOT delete the folder from the hard drive, it will just take it out of the catalog.
5. Then go back to the 2010-04-03 folder in the J panel and repeat the same action as in 1, 2, and 3.

To avoid future confusion, I would suggest that you then create a new folder using explorer *outside* your Fotos folder (maybe on the same drive), but name it something like "Duplicate Fotos"....this will become a temporary depository for all the duplicate folders that we come across.....when all is sorted out, this folder can be deleted. When you have created this folder, can you 'drag' the 2010-1 folder out of the Fotos directory and into the new Duplicate Fotos directory?

Is all that OK and understood? If anything doesn't work the way you expect just stop what you are doing and post back.

Finally, instructions for the 2010-04-16 folder:


  1.       In Lightroom, go to the G panel folder entry for 2010_04_16, right-click on it and select “Update Folder Location”. A file browser window will open and I want you to browse to the 2010_06_16 folder on the G drive, select it and click OK.
  2.       This should remove 2010_04_16 from the Folders Panel, and add 2010_06_16. Click on this folder in the panel and tell me if the question marks (?) have disappeared from the thumbnails.
3. If that works, I then want to to go to the 2010-04-16 folder in the J panel, use "Find Missing Folder" and point to the 2010_04_16 folder in the main 2010 folder on the G drive. Check for missing pictures.

Let me know how you get on with that, but no problem if you want to leave until tomorrow as it's getting very late.


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

Perfect... I've done everything you told me and it all wen well. 

Created the "Dupliacte Fotos" folder and dragged the 2010-1 folder from the G drive. 

Regarding 2010_04_16 everything went as expected, it disappeared from the folders panel and the 06_16 appeared with no question marks. *But* SOME of the photos in 2010_04_16 in the G panel have exclamation mark. If it's not possible to recover them it's ok (or at least recover the edit information... I guess I wouldn't lose the photo itself, right?)

Ok, we can leave it today if it's ok for you. I'll be around almost all day so I can check and continue throughtout the day.

again, thank you so much.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

OK, sounds good. Will talk tomorrow.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

Emma, could you give me a screenshot of one of the pictures in the 04_16 folder from within Lightroom? If indeed these are exclamation marks (!) and not question marks (?) I hope they will just indicate that the pictures were originally imported using Process Version 2003....if so this is not a problem and you can decide later what to do about them.

If you have finished with all the dated folders in the J panel, you should now be left with the three small folders (bn1, Boda Ruben..., and Varios)....a total of only 5 pictures. If you can find them on the G drive and want to keep them, then do the usual "Find Missing Folder" command. If you can't find then, then just right-click and select Remove (or Delete)....and when done the J drive should disappear!

Next, we should move onto the D and K drives....do these still exist?


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

Hi Jim!

It's not that I don't want to give you the screenshot but it seemed Lightroom decided to cooperate and there're no more exclamation marks anymore and I can see the pictures like normally. If you still need the screenshot tell me and I'll do it but there're no more problems with that folder (finally)

And I'm done with the remains of the J drive, I deleted those folders because they didn't exist in the G drive and I didn't mind deleting them.

D and K drives: I'm not sure which are those drives. I think D is a portable drive I used to download my photos before I bought G and J cracked but I'm not sured because it should have other folders as well... And K... I think is another "partition" in my computer. Anyway... those drives are not being used now and all those folders are in the G drive so I guess I could "find missing folder"?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

OK thanks, we'll forget about the screenshots.

Re D and K, yes go ahead and do the "Find Missing Folder" *but not for the 2009_01_31 folder on the K drive, which has zero pictures.* This folder is already in Lightroom in the G drive (with a lot of pictures) so in the K panel just right-click and select Remove/Delete.

Let me know when the D and K drives are complete, then we will do a little tidying up on the G drive, then we will tackle the C drive. 

More later.


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

Ok done!!

the 20x30 folder I'm going to delete it... I think I know what it is and I can't find it but I'm fine deleting it. 

go ahead!


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

OK, great.

In Lightroom, I want you to add some of the parent folders so that I can see exactly where everything now is. So:

On any one of the dated 2009 folders, right-click and select Add Parent Folder. This should add the main 2009 folder. Right-clcik on that 2009 main folder and repeat the Add Parent Folder, which should add the Canon folder name. 

Down at the bottom of the list are the 2010 dated folders which are in the 2010 folder within Lightroom 3 Catalog....add the parent folders here as well until the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder is showing.

Then take a screenshot of the complete folders panel for me, thanks. I will then be able to advise what to do next. To make it easier, you can collapse the main 2009 and 2010 folder lists (don't collapse Canon), but not the 2010 folder list within Lightroom 3 Catalog. Hope that makes sense!


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

here it is.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

Brilliant, thanks.

OK, let's start moving the dated 2010 sub-folders within Lightroom 3 Catalog into their correct place in the main 2010 folder under Canon. Leave the 2008 folder for now, we'll investigate that later. To do this move, we'll do this within the Lightroom folders panel so that the catalog will update itself as we progress.

To start, click and drag the first sub-folder (2010-02-20)....move it up the folders panel until it's over the main 2010 folder under Canon. Release the mouse and a warning box will appear asking you to confirm the move. OK this and the folder will disappear from the Lightroom 3 Catalog and will reappear the main 2010 folder. Check this if you like. Once you are happy, repeat this for all the other dated folders in the Lightroom 3 Catalog 2010 folder. Unfortunately you have to do this one by one, Lightroom will not let you select multiple folders for this 'drag and drop' action.

When complete, another screenshot please, but can you expand the 2008 folder so that we can see what's there? Thanks.


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

here it is!

I'm going to be off for about 30 minutes... you can leave the next instructions I'll catch up when I come back.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

OK, that looks good.

Right-click on the 2 x 2010 folders in the J panel and select Remove....that should get rid of the J drive completely.

In explorer, go to the 2008 folder under Canon, expand it to show the folders and take a screenshot, thanks, then we can decide what to do about the 2008 folder.


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

ok, the thing is that, some time ago,  I moved 2008 folder (and preceding) to another drive (well... a partition of that same drive, but it's another letter) since they were old photos. Just remembered, sorry... and anyway... I never edited photos from 2008 with lightroom, only that folder we have there. If you need to, I'll attach the screenshot but it's a list of empty folders (and actually I don't know why the whole 2008 folder didn't disappear from G drive in explorer.)
Should I then "find missing folder" with the folder in the other drive? (which is I: ) 

(I learnt the lesson, won't change folder locations anymore..)

and sorry for not adding the screenshot, there's no problem, just find it useless since it won't help you to understand, but if still need it, tell me, no problem.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

All I need to know is if the folder 2008-10-06 which is in 2008 in Lightroom 3 Catalog is *also *in folder 2008 within Canon on the G drive. If it is let me know....it it is NOT then in Lightroom, click on the *2008 *folder in LR3 Catalog (not the 2008-10-06 folder) and drag it over the *Canon *folder, then release. That should clear all the folders out of the Lightroom 3 Catalog.

Let me know when that is done, and could you then give me a complete picture of the whole of the Folders Panel?


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

OK... yes, the folder is in 2008 within Canon, though it's empty (moved to I) so as it wasn't.

But it is in the 2008 within Lightroom 3 Catalog and the files are there.

Is this what you were trying to find out?

Considering that having the folder "empty" was like not having it at all... dragged 2008 to Canon and a small window appeared saying a folder named 208 already exists there. I haven't accepted yet.

I don't know if it's being very clear, if need a screenshot just tell me.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

No, cancel that operation.....

Leave the 2008-10-06 folder where it is in the Lightroom 3 Catalog, then in explorer right-click on the empty 2008-10-06 folder and select 'Delete'.

Then also in explorer, right-clcik on the 2008-10-06 folder in Lightroom 3 Catalog and select 'copy'.....then go to the folder name 2008 under Canon, right-click and select 'Paste'....this will copy the dated folder from 2008 in LR 3 Catalog into 2008 within Canon.

When you have done that, go into the Folders Panel, right-click on the 2008-10-06 folder, select 'Update Folder Location' and point to the same folder but now in 2008 in Canon.

All OK?

Can I then have that screenshot of the full Folders Panel?


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

Perfect!

These are the two drives panels in LR.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

Great. Right-click on Lightroom 3 Catalog in the folders panel and select 'Remove' and that will be out of the way. While I remember, in explorer go find that 2008 folder which is still under the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder and drag it to your 'Duplicate Folders' folder for later deletion.

Then we need to start on your C drive, but before doing that can I ask if you have been taking catalog backups? If not, it would probably be a good time to take one now to protect all the changes we have made.....go to Edit>Catalog Settings>General Tab....at the bottom use the drop down list to select "When Lightroom Next Exits" against the catalog backup entry. Then close Lightroom, this will cause a backup to start. When it has run, start Lightroom again then give me a fully expanded folder view of the C drive, I need to see all folders expanded. Thanks.


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

Done.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

OK, you took a catalog backup, yes?

And I assume you want to get ALL you pictures back under the Canon folder on the G drive? Also yes?

Assuming Yes, looking at the 2010 folder in the C drive panel, there are 9 folders which seem OK, i.e. they do not have the missing folder question mark. These folders also exist on the G drive under 2010 already, although there they have the underscores (_) instead of the hyphens (-) which are in C. I expect that the ones in C are in fact copies of the ones in G, but you need to check the numbers of files in each to make sure.

If the folders in C are copies of the folders in G, then one by one in the folders panel right-click on the folder in C (e.g. 2010-08-03) and select Update Folder Location and point to the equivalent folder on G. Repeat for all nine folders (08-03,04,06,07,14,17,09-12,17.26).

Tell me when done.


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## emesfa (Dec 15, 2010)

OK.

a) first folder I check and C contains 10 files which are among the 489 in G... but, some of them in G are repeated. (see attachment) (and not all the repeated ones are the ones in C, I mean... C contains up to 9955 and you can see there's 9961 in G and it's repeated)

(ok... after writing this I proceeded to check the other and they were ok, they matched so I started to do what you told me but I made a mistake and did the ""update folder location" for this one too... checked the G panel and they are there although they have copies and while they should be 489 they appear to be 671. sorry... I just acted automatically...)

b) the others were ok and did the update. But, 2010-09-26 contains 1 file (LR says 3 but they're copies I should delete) and it has nothing to do with the files in G (579). I'm attaching a screenshot of the  C panel as I see it now.

Sorry for the delay.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

OK, am out in town at the moment, will have a look at the problem when I get back home.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 15, 2010)

Hi Emma, I'm back!

OK, so all the folders from 08-04 to 09-17 have now been moved back to the G drive, yes? With no problem?

09-26 has a problem which we need to decide what to do, yes?

With 08-03 I am again a little confused. According to the initial screenshot of the C drive folders panel, 08-03 has 671 images....but are you saying that there are ONLY 10 images in the folder in explorer on the C drive, and there are 489 images in the folder in explorer in the G drive?


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

Hi Jim!! I'm so sorry I wasn't here before nor yesterday.

OK... first two issues you mention are ok.

09-26 has a problem (two drives containing different files)

and with 08-03... yes... exactly what you say. G panel shows there're 671 images and in explorer on the C drive it only shows 10 whereas in the G drive it show 489 (and some files are repeated)


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

OK, let's work on 08-03 first. Can you first select the folder in Lightroom and look through the Grid view to see if there are lots of question marks (indicating missing files)?


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

Ok... there are several missing files. I haven't checked them all but they seem to be copies of the files that are not missing (like "0014_1") and there're not all the files in the panel... I mean... there's "0015_1" missing but there's no "0015" (while it is in the explorer view on G) 
G drive has all the files, some of them repeated (but the files repeated in G drive are from 9949 to 9999.) To make things clearer (if I can) files go from 9949 to 0431.

Sorry I think I wasn't too clear with this explanation... need any screeshot?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

Well, if the files that are listed as 'missing' in Lightroom do NOT exist in the explorer view in the G drive folder, I think the best thing to do would be to right-click and delete them from within Lightroom. Do you agree? You can ctrl+click on each of the missings files, which will select them, then do a single delete (just make sure you are only selecting missing files!).

Let me know if you are happy to do that.


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

Ok... I'm going to do that. But, just wondering... If we do "update folder location" wouldn't that "delete" those missing files and then update the existing files in G drive but that don't appear in the panel?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

No I don't think so....you already did the 'update folder location'. You could do a "Synchronise Folder", that would bring in the existing files in the G drive folder which aren't already in the catalog....but these are possibly files which you previously deleted because you didn't like them? However, "Synchronise Folder" WILL give you the option to remove the missing files, so perhaps that is the best thing to do.

To do this, right-click on the folder name in the G panel and select "Synchronise Folder"....a dialog box will appear, like the attached screenshot.....look very carefully at the various numbers and if you are in ANY doubt just take a screenshot on the dialog box but do NOT click on the Synchronise button. But if you are happy with what you see, then go ahead.


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

ok, see the attached screenshot. I canceled but realized without accepting it was already synchronising...


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

That looks OK to me....a high number of 'missing files', but if they are missing there's nothing much we can do about it. Run the synchronise again, then when finished tell me number of pictures in the folder panel for this folder.


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

the panel shows 522 files in that folder.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

Well, that sounds OK.....if I remember, there are 489 actual files in the folder on G, so there are probably a few Virtual Copies in the catalog.

Next we have to get rid of the duplicates. However I have to go out now so will send some instructions through later today about how to deal with them. We'll also sort out that 09-26 folder.

While I'm out, why not look through the other folders that we relocated from C to see if they too have any missing files or duplicates.

Talk later..


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

OK! no problem.... I'll be out some time in the evening but will come back about 10 (your 9)

talk later!


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

Emma, I think the next thing to do is to delete those duplicates in the 2010_08_03 folder. As you know the file numbers, it would probably be quite quick to scroll through them in grid view and press the 'x' key on each duplicate to mark them as rejected. When done, simply go to Library>Delete Rejected Photos.....this will clear them out of the catalog and also (if you choose 'Delete From Disk') it will remove them from the G drive.

If you would rather not do it that way, we could set up a Smart Collection to group all the duplicates together.....let me know if you would like to know how to do that.

Regarding 2010-09-26....as well as transferring the 1 picture in this folder on the C drive, do you also want to import the 522 pictures in the 2010_09_26 folder on the G drive? If you do, proceed as follows:

1. In Lightroom, select the 2010-09-26 folder in the C panel. Right-click on the two duplicates that you do NOT want and select delete to remove them.
2. Then in Explorer, click on the folder on the C drive to open it, then right-click on the one remaining photo, select copy, then go to the 2010_09_26 folder in G, right-click on the folder name and select paste. This will copy the file to the folder on G.
3. Back in Explorer, right-click on the 2010-09-26 folder in the C panel, select 'Update Folder Location' and point to the 2010_09_26 folder on the G drive.
4. When that is done, 2010-09-26 will disappear from C panel, and 2010_09_26 will appear in G panel.
5. Then right-click on 2010_09_26 and select 'Synchronise Folder' which should give you the option to import the 522 files on G.

Let me know how you get on with that.


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

Hi Jim!

sorry, I'm really tired today and I'm going a little bit slowlier.

did everything you asked me above. The last thing, when synchronising, it says "import new pictures 578"... should I accept? I have 580 in that folder, already.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

Emma, if you want to get those pictures imported into Lightroom then yes you can go ahead and accept. If you are not sure yet then cancel the synchronise.

At some point you will be able to look at the folders that you have on G which are NOT yet in Lightroom and can decide which ones you want to import. This was just an easy way to get 09_26 imported, but you can leave it if you want to.

Let me know what you decide to do.

As you are very tired, I suggest we do no more this evening, tomorrow perhaps we can finish off the folders on C....that should not take very long.


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## emesfa (Dec 16, 2010)

Hi Jim. I synchronised the folder in the end, and I'm happy with the result.

And yes... I would ask you to leave it and continue tomorrow. I may be off the whole morning so if you see the next step very clear you can leave it here and I'll catch up as soon as I'm back. Is that ok for you?

thank you so much for your patience and dedication.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 16, 2010)

OK, will post tomorrow. Sleep well!


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

Emma, next step is to work on the missing folders in the C panel in Lightroom.

2010-04-11, 2010-07-12, 2010-07-23, and 2010-08-26: I cannot see these anywhere on your G drive so you need to hunt around for them. If you can't find them you will have to right-click and remove. However, if you CAN find them, copy them into the main 2010 folder on G using Explorer, then in Lightroom do the 'find missing folder' for them and point to the location on the G drive.

06-25, 07-04, 07-07, 07-10, 07-14, 08-22, 08-23: ALL of these seem to exist on the G drive (but with underscores (_))....so you should check the number of pictures in the folders on G using Explorer and compare with the number of pictures that Lightroom shows in the C panel. If they match, go ahead and 'find missing folder' in Lightroom and point to the folder on G drive.

One interesting thing: I see from an earlier screenshot that 2010_08_22 on G has one or more sub-folders. Can you expand that folder list in Explorer, as it may be that there's one of the missing folders hidden there. Let me know what you find there, thanks.

After you have done all that there are just a few odd folders which we need to investigate.


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## emesfa (Dec 17, 2010)

Hi Jim!

OK... I'm done with the first folders... and with the other group I didn't do the "find missing folder" because some of them don't match in files number (G contains more photos) but I found the folders ( at one of those drives I used for the moving) and the do match. Should I copy them to G or something? With the folders that match I'll proceed "finding missing folder"

AND... about that folder (named "Untitled Export" so it's created by LR) within 08_22 it contains the same files... but I can perfectly erase that folder, shouldn't be a problem.


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

With the ones that do not match, and you say the folders in G have more photos.....have a look at the file names in the folders that you found on the drive that you used for moving and see if these filenames also exist in the folder on G. If they DO exist in the folder on G, it perhaps would be better to go ahead with 'find missing folder', point to the G folder and when that is done do a 'Synchronise Folder' on the G folder to bring in the extra photos in G. Does that make sense?


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## emesfa (Dec 17, 2010)

ok, and if they don't exist should I copy and paste?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

Well, you could use copy and paste anyway, no need to check....if they exist in both folders you will get a warning with options to skip or overwrite, it they do not exist in both they will be copied.

So to clarify, copy the files FROM the folders on this other drive, and PASTE into the equivalent folder on the G drive....we do NOT want to create more folders with the same date (but with '-' instead of '_').

When the copy and paste is finished, go to C panel in Lightroom, select a missing folder, right-click to select 'Find Missing Folder', point to the same folder on G (with the '_'). When that is done, the G folder will appear in the G panel in Lightroom, right-click on it to select 'Synchronise Folder'. 

All clear?


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## emesfa (Dec 17, 2010)

OK... all clear and all done.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

Fantastic! Are there still a few missing folders in C panel to deal with?


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## emesfa (Dec 17, 2010)

just this:

(the FILM folder shouldn't be a problem, it doesn't exist in G although I may move it there but I guess I would only have to do as I've been doing these days? and the 2009_05_07's fil eis in G so... "find missing folder"? the same with 08_22

08_21 in G has 49 files, should I do the same as before?

Can't find 26, 27, 29, 31, though...

and I remembered the 2009_08_17... can't find it anywhere... (and lightroom says there should be 412 pictures)


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

You've managed to confuse me again!

08_21....yes, 'Find Missing Folder'.point to G, then 'Synchronise Folder'.

I don't see the 2009 folders in the C panel, can you expand the panel and give me a screenshot?

26,27,29,31....where are these in the panel?


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## emesfa (Dec 17, 2010)

sorry... I end up too tired these days and I'm making a bit difficult... sorry...


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

Don't worry, I am easily confused!!

OK, 2009-05-07, same as before.
BUT, I do NOT see 2009-08-22 in the 2009 folder in G....is it there or are you getting mixed up with 2010?

2010_08_16 appears in G, so 'find' then 'synchronise', yes?
Same with 2010-08-21, yes?

If you cannot find 2009_07_26,27,29,31 then I suggest you right-click and remove.


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## emesfa (Dec 17, 2010)

08_22... I may have copied it!! but it makes no sense because it was not dowloaded by my camera (the ones in the folder Canon) because it's film so I may have copied it there thinking "oh... this folder is missing in G!" sorry... my brain is too tired these days.

ok... done with the first ones.

But the files missing... if I remove them? will I be able to find them afterwards? the pictures, I mean. How could I lose a 412 files folder? I never erased it.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

If you remove the folders that are missing, then you will lose any changes you may have made. If you then find the folders you can re-import them but you will need to make your changes again. With the very small numbers of files left in the C panel, I don't think is much of a problem. However, with the 412 files in the 2009_08_17 it might be a good idea to leave than one in the G panel 2009 folder for a little while, just in case you eventually find it.

If you are tired, leave this until you feel able to deal with it....we are almost there on cleaning up your catalog, BUT we have to talk about how you progress from here to make sure that you do not end up in this situation again.

When you are ready, finish off the folders on the C panel and let me know and we can then talk about what to do next.


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## emesfa (Dec 17, 2010)

OK... so could we continue tomorrow? I'll be around in the morning and with a fresher head. And then I'll be able to face all those things.

Now, I still have a few folders in C, and I suspect I should remove them but I'll check tomorrow morning to have things clear.

thank you so much, Jim!!! talk tomorrow!!!


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 17, 2010)

Sure, no problem. Talk tomorrow.


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

Morning Jim!!

Perfect! I found 2009_08_17 and did the "update location"... see? I can see things much more clear, now 

I removed the empty folder in C panel and now there's only one folder with one picture, but I'm sure it's nothing too serious so I'm fine removing it. And the same with the "tratadas" folder. Should I proceed?

Now we can face the next step.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

Excellent! Did you move 08_17 to your G drive before doing the 'update location'?

Yes, if there is now nothing left on C, simply right-click on the top level folder in C panel and select 'Remove'. You should also do the same for the J panel.

Then can I have a screenshot of your Lightroom Folders Panel? Thanks.


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

08_17 was a folder already in G but in another folder (1111), and I want to keep it there so I did the 'update location' and yes, LR created that new folder in G but it's ok for me... because I want it there.


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

and one more coming...


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

OK, thanks....that looks much better!

A couple of minor details:

1. If you ever wanted to put 2009_08_17 into the main 2009 folder, simply click on it in the Lightroom folders panel and drag it over the 2009 folder and release, Lightroom will move it for you.
2. Same applies if you want to move FILM from the C drive to the G drive, click and drag within Lightroom Folders and drop it onto 'Canon' in the G panel. I personally prefer to keep all my pictures on one drive as this make backup much easier.

However, you can do those changes at your convenience.

Before we proceed too much further (although there really may not be much more to do) it would probably be a good idea at this stage to see if there are any 'missing files' within any of your folders. To check this, go to Library>Find Missing Photos and Lightroom will put all missing photos into the grid and will also give you a total (at the bottom of the Catalog Panel just above the Folders Panel). Do this and let me know if any missing photos are reported and if so, how many.


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

OK... I did move the 08_17 and I'm happy to discover that doing that I can move files from drive to drive as well... didn't know that (that would have solved many problems, wouldn't it?)

there's only *one* missing file, which I can't recover. It was in a damaged part of the J drive I could never recover so some files from there are impossible to move to G. But it's ok.
I guess, the only thing I need to do is removing that file, right?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

Yes, moving files/folders around is much, much safer to do using Lightrooms Folders Panel.....you will often see advice on this forum about NEVER moving files or folders outside of Lightroom. However, there are occasions when it IS safe to do so....*but only when you are absolutely sure about how you would update Lightroom with those changes.*

OK, only ONE missing picture....that is great. Yes, go head and remove it if you feel you can't recover it.

Did you decide to move FILM or are you leaving it on C?

All the original folders that were on C are of course still there as we only told Lightroom to use the copy of the folder on G.....so it would probably be a good idea to move all the folders and files that WERE in Lightroom under Pictures on C to that Duplicate Fotos folder....I just like to keep things neat and tidy, and it is better not to leave unwanted duplicates lying around.

Get back to me when you have finished the above and we can then talk about the next step....


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

But, what should I do then? the only files on C panel are the ones in the FILM folder. I'm ok moving it  G but I don't want to move it to Canon since I differentiate Canon from FILM (digital photos taken with my canon camera and film photos taken with my analoge cameras) So I'd need to move FILM from C to Fotos folder in G but it doesn't appear in the panel. Should I add the parent folder, then?

and I don't understand... which files should I move to Duplicate Fotos folder? and what are we gonna do with those in it?

I'm going to do the same and start keeping things neat and tidy, but all this drives thing messed it all.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

OK, let's step back on the C drive.....don't do anything in Lightroom yet, but can you open in Explorer your Pictures folder and give me a screenshot? Some of the folders that we did an 'Update Folder Location' for should still be sitting on your C drive. Remember they existed in TWO locations, on C and on G, and we simply told Lightroom to stop using the one on C and to use the one on G in its place....this was fine BUT Lightroom doesn't delete the folders on C, they should still be there which you might find confusing in future should you stumble upon them.

The idea of moving them to the Duplicate Fotos folder was simply to keep all of these now-unused folders in one location until we are satisfied that we definitely no longer need them, at which point the folder can be deleted.....it's just me being overly cautious perhaps, but that's just the way I am!

Regarding FILM, you are absolutely correct! Right-click on Canon in the G panel, select Add Parent Folder and Fotos will appear. Then drag FILM to Fotos if you want to put them on the G drive.


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

ok... now I get it... I was thinking of LR and you were talking about the drive itself... then, yes... those pictures can be moved to the Duplicate Fotos folder.
because the other things I have in "pictures" are just non-important stuff. and I don't want to move them to G, they can stay in C.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

OK, suggest you do that and let me know when it's done and we will then be ready to talk about the next item on my list. 

What have you decided to do about FILM? It is no problem to leave it on C if you prefer, I just want to know what you decide so that I can update my mental picture of your Lightroom Folders Panel and physical folder layout.


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

About FILM... I may keep it there but I'm gonna move it to G as well but withing Fotos folder, not Canon. Then I should add parent folder, right?

and the moving to Duplicate fotos folder is done after me checking I really had all those folder in G... I'm cautious, too... don't worry... better that than losing them!


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

Yes, add parent folder for Canon will show Fotos....then you can drag from C panel to Fotos in G panel.

OK, next thing for you to think about is all the dated sub-folders in 2009 and 2010 which are NOT yet imported into Lightroom....there are a few from 2010, and quite a lot more for 2009. So the decision for you is: do you want to import them? If you do you can do it in a couple of big hits by using 'Synchronise Folder' on the main 2009 and 2010 folders, or you can do it a sub-folder at a time as and when you are ready.

Do you have any thoughts about this?


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

OK... then I'm going to synchronise both folders, 2009 and 2010.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

OK, remember that when you select that option you will get a dialog box which will tell you how many new pictures it finds. You can also choose to have it open the Import panel, where you can look at all the new pictures and you can deselect any that you don't want.

Let me know how you get on with it.....


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

ok... it took some time but I'm done with it


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

OK....can I have a screenshot of the Folders Panel again?

And can you take another Catalog backup....that would be a very good idea at this stage.

Are you pleased with the progress you have made now?


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

and 5 more coming...


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

In 30 min I'll have to be off for a few hours, but will come later. 

you can leave some intructions or we talk later if that is ok for you.

thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 18, 2010)

OK, no problem.

Next thing to do is to investigate the five 2009 sub-folders which appear to have some sub-folders of their own. So in the 2009 Folders Panel, click on 2009_01_31, 04_26, 05_03, 05_19 and 07_16 to see what's hiding there. Let me know and we can decide what to do.


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## emesfa (Dec 18, 2010)

it seems they are folders I created to classify other files... like photos that weren't taken by me but that they were taken that very same day... I'm ok leaving them there if that is possible...

and now I have to leave. will talk to you later? thanks!


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

Morning Jim! I won't be too much around from now on (luckily we almost finished!) but I still have a few hours today. 

So... I'm ready for the next step. I haven't imported anything these days but I wanted to ask you if I can import now and if I should do something different.

Also, I saw that when I want to develop a picture it appears an exclamation mark sayind "update currect process". Should I do something with that?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

Morning Emma,

Yes I think we are almost finished, although importing was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about....having got your catalog cleaned up I think it's now important that you develop a consistent importing system. Before we deal with that though, a couple of other things for you to consider:

1. Previews....because we didn't 'rescue' a preview folder, a lot of your images won't have previews so will initially appear as grey squares. This is not a problem, as soon as you click on one of the squares the preview will be built (a previews folder will already have been created alongside your catalog). If you prefer, you can select all photographs and then instruct Lightroom to build 'Standard Previews' for all your files. This would take many hours, so it's the sort of thing you could do by leaving it running either while you are out or overnight while you are asleep.

2. Backups: Do you have a backup of your pictures? If not you need to get another drive so that you can create a backup....preferably one that you can then take off-site.

3. The exclamation marks will appear on every picture that was first imported when you were using Lightroom 2.x. and the processing version in use at that time has now been name PV2003 (PV stands for Process Version). With Lightroom3, Adobe introduced a new 'processing engine' known as PV2010. So all that happens when you look at a picture that was first imported using 2.x is that it warns you via the exclamation mark that this is the case, and gives you options to deal with it. Depending upon how much and what type of developments you had previously done, updating to PV2010 can cause some issues....so I would generally advise people NOT to take the option to upgrade ALL the images in the catalog in one go. Instead try it on an individual basis, if you don't like the effect then simply use Undo or step back in the Develop History. You have nothing to lose by trying it, but as I say perhaps not on all at once.

4. Importing: Because I see the -/_ delimiters in your file names I guess you have been using a mixture of Lightroom and something else (EOS Utility?) to import. I would suggest you decide on ONE method only and use that from now on. I used EOS Utility for a little while, didn't particularly like it, so started manually uploading to my hard-drive using Explorer and importing into Lightroom from there. Eventually I realised I was wasting time and effort, now I import directly from CF card into Lightroom, and I have Lightroom take care of all the folder organisation for me. Once you understand the Lightroom import process it is a totally seamless activity....I insert the CF card into the card reader, Lightroom Import launches automatically, I select the files I want and all the rest is already set for me and away it goes. Simple as that and no danger that my folder organisation will go wrong.
I am more than happy to develop some guidance notes for you on the Lightroom Import Panel if you would like? Let me know, and if so all I need to know is whether you import from a card reader or directly from the camera via USB cable.

Let me know, OK?


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

OK, thanks!!

1. Previews.. I've noticed that... and noticed that if I click on one of the grey squares it shows the previews so... would I need to build "Standard Previews"? If it's not specially needed I'd rather keeping it like it is now.

2. That's my next step. Couldn't do it yet, I was recovering from the one I had been using so far and saw all this mess...  but now I can see it clearly and I'm going to do it. Any special way (recommendation) to do it?

3. I will have a look at that since I have not much time now... and I don't see it's too "important"?

4. Honestly... I need to know a better way to download and import my pictures. I use EOS utility but I don't know if LR is better... I always wanted EOS utility but LR activated itself a few times and I enver had the time to discover where LR was keeping my photographs... I know I should have acted differently but I didn't know where to start. My fault... Perhaps you can teach me a little bit to know how to act from now on... ? 
(and it's embarrassing... but I hate all this "computer side" of photography... so I guess that's why I end messing it all up...)

I have to go now... we can talk later this afternoon maybe? 

thank you for all your help! really... I'll never thank enough.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

1. Previews....yes you can leave things as they, although it might get a bit slow if you are scrolling through an old folder which has no previews, though you could just select all in that folder and render the previews.....but doing nothing is a very valid option if that's what you prefer.

2. Backups....there are plenty of backup programs available, some more comprehensive than others. I use Microsoft's own free SyncToy2.1 utilty, as do a few others here. It's not the most comprehensive, but it does do exactly what I want and once it has been setup is extremely easy to use. But there are others....you just need to make sure you get one and use it!

3. Very much 'not important' at this stage.

4. As I said, I'm happy to talk you through Lightroom's Import process if that is what you would like.....but first I need to know if you use a card reader or import directly from the camera.


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

Hi Jim... 

OK, so...

1. Backups... then I have to use a program? I even didn't imagine...

2. I'm more than happy if you can do that. I use a card reader.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

Emma, with backups you don't *have to *use a backup utility....you can take care of it yourself using Explorer. BUT a dedicated utility will be much easier as they will usually offer an 'incremental backup' capability. What this means is that once the first big backup has been taken, subsequent runs will ONLY backup any changes since the last run. Doing it manually means you have to either keep repeating the full backup (very time-consuming), OR you have to try to work out for yourself what has changed since the last run and apply just those changes yourself (which is of course very prone to error).

I think you'll find that the majority of people here (certainly the more experienced) will probably use such a utility. Believe me, I've done it both ways and the utility is MUCH easier and more accurate.

Regarding Import, I'll start working on some notes for you later this evening and hopefully will be able to post them tomorrow. Can you wait until then before starting to import?


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

Ok... I'll try with the utility then... after my capability to mess things up I trust you on this 

And yes, I can wait some more, although as I told you I won't be around too much from tomorrow onwards but it's ok for me. 

Anything else that you want to tell me about? Are we going to change the folders' names like from "-" to "_" or we're gonna keep them like they are now?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

Well, before you can start running a backup utility, you need to make sure you have a backup drive available. Let me know when you have and I'll talk you through setting up a regular backup routine.

Renaming existing folders is one of those things that you can save for a rainy day....there is absolutely no need to do the renames as Lightroom really doesn't care at all what the folders are called. Having said that, it it was my PC I probably would go ahead and rename, simply because I like to see things neat and tidy and having those folders with the different delimiters would bother me more than it should.

However, before you rush into that, you should consider that if you are going to use Lightroom for importing, all the date-based systems that it uses contain hyphens (-), NOT underscores (_).....so it is all the folders in the format YYYY_MM_DD that will need to be changed to YYYY-MM-DD. *Also, please ensure that any renames you decide to carry out are done using the Lightroom Folders Panel, and NOT Explorer.*


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

Yes, I have a backup drive available, but I won't be able to do the backup at least in the next few days. But is you can leave the instructions and I'll follow them as soon as I have the time to do it. 

And, regaring the renaming of the folders... (sorry but I'm confused with the "unsure") you mean I should do it on Lightroom panel "change name", right? I'll do it as soon as I can, too... it's a bit annoying the way they are now with hyphens and underscores. And yes... I'll probably start using Lightroom for importing.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

*I**mporting Using Lightroom:

*Before getting into the details, we need to ensure your system is properly setup. For a start, in Lightroom go to Edit>Preferences>General Tab and make sure that the first item under Import Options ("Show Import Dialog when a memory card is detected") is CHECKED.

Then close Lightroom and insert a CF card into the card reader to see if Lightroom is automatically started with the Import Panel displayed. Let me know if this does NOT happen and we can investigate.

However, assuming Lightroom DOES start, there are two variants of the Import Panel. There is a full-screen version, which is the one we want, and there is a much smaller version which will be in the centre of your screen and will look like the attached screenshot. If this shows, simply click on the small down-arrow at the bottom left-hand corner of the Import dialog and this will convert the dialog to full-screen. *For now, though, cancel the import screen (Cancel button bottom right-hand corner) until you have read and (hopefully) understood all the guidance notes....*

OK, rather than try to cover all the features on one post, I'm going to break it up into sections, working from left to right in the Import screen. Starting on the next post.....


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

emesfa said:


> .. (sorry but I'm confused with the "unsure") you mean I should do it on Lightroom panel "change name", right?



Sorry, my typing mistake, the word should have been "ensure".....

Yes, in the Folders Panel you can right-click on a folder and select "Rename", a dialog box pops up and you simply type in the new name.....*but take care when doing this!*


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

OK... it went well and automatically showed the full-screen version... (I gues that is the one with the pictures previews)


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

Good, but don't import anything yet! Cancel the import and wait until I finish all the notes (tomorrow hopefully!).


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

OK... perfect. 

I was about to tell you that I should leave to sleep... tomorrow is going to be a very stressful day but hopefully I'll be here in the evening so we can talk then? 

I hope this is not taking you too much time... I really appreciate your help.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 19, 2010)

No problem.....I'll just post the notes as I prepare them, and when you have the time you can have a go at importing.


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## emesfa (Dec 19, 2010)

Great... thanks so much. So I'll catch up tomorrow evening and I'll tell you how I'm doing.

thanks! and have a good day tomorrow!


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 20, 2010)

*IMPORT Screen, Left Hand Panel

*The import screen is split into three main areas, similar to the Library module. Narrow left and right-hand panels, with a large centre panel which can display previews in either grid or loupe view.

Starting with the left-hand panel, this is the area where you set the "Source" for the import, i.e. here you will inform Lightroom where it is to look for the images that you want importing. If you use the insertion of your CF card to launch Lightroom, which we tested yesterday, the Source will automatically be set to read from the card reader. See the attached screenshot, you will see that the selected drive is my CF card reader.

However, if you wanted to import from a different location, for example a folder on your hard drive, you can use the file browser below the card reader to locate and select the particular folder. As you change the source, the main "Source" identifier at the top of the panel will also update to reflect the current source location. Confusingly, you could also click on the two small arrows at the side of this location and a different file browser will appear. Hopefully, that is something you need not concern yourself with.

So to recap, with the CF card inserted you should find the source location will be set automatically by Lightroom so there is nothing for you to do (apart from checking!). Only if you want a different location will you need to use the file browser in this part of the import screen.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 20, 2010)

*IMPORT Screen, Centre Panel

*This has two distinct sections. The first (see the first screenshot, inside the red box), is the place that you tell Lightroom what you want done with the pictures that you are importing, and your choices are:

1. *Copy as DNG*. Allows you to convert your images to DNG on import and *copy* them to a location of your choosing (which is set in the right-hand panel, see later). As you don't convert to DNG, you can ignore this option.
2. *Copy.* This is the default option when you are importing from a removeable device such as your card reader. The photos are left on the device and copied to the hard drive location of your choosing (see later). *When importing from CF card, this is the option that you must use, so check every time!
*3. *Move. *This option is primarily designed for importing from a device such as a hard drive, where you want the final destination to be on a different drive *and you want the files on the original location to be removed after import.* Remembering those folders on your C drive, if these had not already been in your catalog you could have used this option to import them and transfer them to G drive in one operation. It is unlikely you will need to use this now that you are properly organised!
4. *Add.* This option is used when you want to import photos from a device such as your hard drive and you are happy with that as the proper location. All those extra folders that you imported by using the "Synchronise Folder" option could almost as easily have been imported in place using this "Add" option.

Just remember to check that you have the correct option set here.



The second (largest) section of the centre panel is where you will see the thumbnails of the images, and where you can make choices about which to import. You can also switch between Grid view and Loupe view. At the top of the section you can choose between New Photos, All Photos, Destination Folder.

*New Photos* will show you ONLY those pictures on the import device that have NOT already been imported to Lightroom. Care with this when importing from a card....if for example on Day 1 you import some photos and after import you decide to delete a few from the catalog, and then the next day you shoot some more using the same card *which still has the shots from the previous shoot on it, *you will be surprised when you come to import Day 2's pictures to find that some of Day 1's are showing in the Import Panel as 'New Photos'....these will be the ones that you previously imported and then deleted. Lightroom will not know that you did that and will therefore see them as 'New'. Not a problem really, but it can cause a little confusion (well, it confused me the first time!). 
With 'New Photos', all thumbnails will be bright and the selection box will be 'ticked'....you can click on this tick-box to deselect pictures if you decide not to import them.

*All Photos*

Using this option, ALL photos in the folder/card will be included. However, some of them MAY be 'dimmed' and not-selectable (see the second screenshot). This happens *IF *some of the pictures have already been imported *AND *the option in the right-hand panel "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates" is *CHECKED*. In that situation, you cannot import the duplicates.
However, IF that option is UNCHECKED then ALL the pictures can be selected and imported....*in this situation the imported file-names for duplicates will have the -1 suffix applied to them, which you have already seen.
*I would strongly suggest that the option "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates" is always CHECKED.

*Destination Folders

*This shows how the imported pictures will be organised in the destination folder(s) after import. Useful if you are using date-based folders and have multiple days pictures on the card.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 20, 2010)

OK...onto the final part(s)....

*IMPORT Screen, Right-hand Panel: Part 1

*This panel has two distinct sections.....the top half where optional import actions can be applied, and the lower half where the Import Destination is set for the *Copy as DNF, Copy, or Move *selection (obviously no destination is needed to be set for *Add*).

Looking at the top half there is a "File Handling" section where you can optionally decide to:
a) *Render Previews* on Import - various options are available from Minimal up to full 1:1 previews. Obviously the better the preview, the slower the import process can take overall.
b) Choose to select or not the "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates"...as discussed already,* better to leave this option CHECKED* in my opinion.
c) Have Lightroom *Make a Second Copy* to a different destination on Import. This can be useful as a safeguard until your imports have been picked up by the regular backup process, but as it is not possible to have this second copy created using exactly the same folder structure as the prime copy, it's effectiveness as a true 'backup' is limited. I use this option, but only to act as that temporary safeguard....every so often I will delete the older copies, keeping only the last couple of months.

The next section deals with *File Renaming* options. On import you can have your files renamed using a variety of different naming templates. See the attatched screenshot, you will see that I do rename on Import, but only to add the capture date in the format YYYYMMDD to the front of the existing filename. To be honest the ONLY reason I do this is because I have a couple of different Canon cameras and so there is a (very remote) possibilty that I could have the same file number turn up around the same time whereupon it could get confusing. If I was to be really pedantic I would add the timestamp as well, but even for me that's a step too far. I notice that you don't normally rename, this is a perfectly fine position to take as Lightroom itself will give you much more powerful tools to find images so that you don't have to depend upon developing a complicated naming scheme. If you are happy, *leave this option unchecked.

*

The final part of the top half of the RH panel is where you can optionally add Develop Presets, Metadata Presets, and/or Keywords. Selecting any of these would have the selection applied to ALL images being imported. Generally I would use a Metadata preset (simply to set Copyright fields) and possibly some global keywords if I can tag the whole import with the same keywords.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 20, 2010)

*IMPORT Screen, Right-hand Panel: Part 2

*This final part deals with the all-important setting of the destination folder for your images. I have attached a number of screenshots which hopefully will illustrate how things could go wrong if the incorrect target folder is selected. Let's go through this step by step:

1. The first thing to do is to consider your target folder structure. Having spent a week or so reorganising your G drive folders, I will assume that you are going to continue with the existing scheme, which is individual dated sub-folders within a year parent folder, all under the Fotos>Canon hierarchy. In this case the first thing to do is the set the "Organize" field correctly (ignore the "Into Subfolder" box above this, you won't need this option). Clicking in the box alongside the "Organize" field will present two options: 'By Date' or 'Into one folder'. Obviously you will choose 'By Date', at which point a further box labelled 'Date Format' will be presented. Clicking in this box will reveal a variety of differing formats (see screenshot) and *the format that matches your current scheme is the second one down in the list. *One you have selected that we can go onto to consider the final part of the puzzle, which is the setting of the correct target folder.



Beneath this organisation box you will find a list of the various eligible drives which Lightroom has found on your system (so you should see at least the C and G drives).
The most important thing to understand is that *when you choose to use a dated folder scheme on Import, Lightroom will take FULL responsibility for creating the correctly named folders for ALL levels of the hierarchy you have chosen.* What this means in your specfic case, using the YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD scheme, is that Lightroom will create and maintain firstly the year folder (currently 2010) and secondly the individual dated sub-folders. It is clever enough to realise that when 2010 has already been created in the relevant target folder, then it doesn't need to create a new one. And similarly if you are importing photos with a capture date the same as some previously imported photos, it is clever enough to realise that it does not need to create a new dated sub-folder for those pictures, instead adding them to the existing folder.  Everything works perfectly simply and accurately *provided that you accurately set and maintain the proper target folder.* It is easy for things to go wrong if you don't understand this, and I have prepared a few examples to show you, but it's also true that once you have it setup correctly it works every time without any intervention being needed. OK, let's look at a few examples:

I have setup a folder structure (on my F drive) which is based on your own scheme, so I have Fotos>Canon folders with 2009 and 2010 year folders within Canon. In the first screenshot I have (mistakenly) chosen Fotos as the target folder....as soon as I do that Lightroom shows *a preview* of what it will do based on the chosen settings. Here you can see that, although I have a Canon folder with 2009 and 2010 sub-folders, because I have chosen Fotos as the target (indicated by the bold highlight and arrow) Lightroom is proposing to create a folder called 2010 with two dated sub-folders (11-24 and 12-16). A few things to note about this display:

a) The use of italics (with very small '+' signs) in an indication that these folders do not currently exist and so will be 'added' to the hierarchy.
b) Lightroom also indicates how many pictures are being added to which folder.



The fact that 2010 is in italics, and is thus being created, should act as a warning that I have something set incorrectly. Time to change my target folder, which I have now done and chosen (again mistakenly) to be the 2010 year folder under Canon. Here you will see a familiar problem, because Lightroom will look inside the target folder (2010) for a folder named 2010....it doesn't find it so in the preview in the screenshot you can see what it would do if I proceeded with the import....I would end up with a 2010 folder within the 2010 folder!



Again, the fact that the proposed 2010 folder is in italics is my warning that I have this still set incorrectly. So finally I set the target folder as Canon, and here you can see the result:



Success! 2010 in no longer in Italics, although the two dated sub-folders still are. So they are being added to the *existing 2010 folder under the Canon parent folder! Perfect.

Now I can click on Import (bottom right) and Lightroom will do the import exactly as planned. The first time I import pictures taken in 2011, Lightroom will automatically create the new 2011 year folder (so on that one occasion it will be in italics), inside the target Canon parent folder.
*


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 20, 2010)

OK, that's the long version of the Import instructions. Here's a much shorter version:

1. Check the import source is set to card reader (left-hand panel).
2. Check action set to *Copy *(top of centre panel)
3. Select pictures to import (main centre panel)
4. Ensure "Don't import suspected duplicates' is *checked* (top right-hand panel)
5. Make other optional import actions as appropriate (top half right-hand panel)
6. Use *Organize By Date, select Date Format 2010/2010-MM-DD.
*7. Ensure Target Destination Folder (bottom half right-hand panel) is set to *G>Emma>Fotos>Canon.
*8. *Enjoy!*


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 20, 2010)

Wow, you have been busy Jim.  Great job!


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## emesfa (Dec 20, 2010)

Yes!! Thanks!!! Just got home and I'm gonna start following your instructions...

I'll tell you how I'm doing! 

thanks!!


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## emesfa (Dec 20, 2010)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

Well... What else can I say? and it wouldn't be enough....

it all went very well... I didn't commit any mistake, as if I could with those so well explained instructions! You could publish them somewhere on the forum for people that is a bit lost (like me?)

They imported perfectly. I don't know if there's something else I should know? (apart from the backups which I'll do very soon) and truly... I'm very very grateful to you for all your help.

Then... next step is removing the duplicate fotos folder? or is there anything else?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 21, 2010)

Emma, am pleased it all went well. Keep checking those few things on future imports and you should have no more trouble.

Regarding "what's next", I really don't think there is anything else, other than the following few things for you to consider:

1. Get the backup process up and running....this is THE most critical thing now.
2. You can delete the Duplicate Fotos folder, but I would suggest to wait until you have taken your first backup of the main Fotos directory.
3. Think about buying a Lightroom book to help as a future reference. I can strongly recommend Victoria's "The Missing FAQ" book, which will have the answer to just about every problem you might run into. See the signature section of any one of her posts for details on how to acquire it.
4. And when time permits, you can think about renaming the dated sub-folders, changing the underscores (_) to hyphens (-)....this will then show all the folders in proper date order. This is not essential though.....


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## emesfa (Dec 24, 2010)

Hi Jim!! sorry I couldn't reply sooner.

Ok, I'll start with the backup as soon as I can. I'll try the program you told me. 

And LR is working well now, no more problems with the folders and the import goes great.

Thank you again, for everything, and I want to wish you Merry Christmas!!!! Have some wonderful days!!


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 24, 2010)

Hello Emma, and a very Merry Christmas to you too!!

One more thing I forgot....all those old catalogs in the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder on the G drive probably need to be removed. Before you do that, can I have a final screenshot of the Explorer view of G? You can collapse all the year folders (2008,2009,2010), I really just want to see the parent folder hierarchy....


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## emesfa (Dec 24, 2010)

sure! but I don't understand what you need... like this?


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 24, 2010)

That's exactly what I wanted, thanks.

So, can you expand the 2008 and 2009 folders inside the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder to see what is in there?

What is in Nueva Carpeta in the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder.

What is in the Lightroom folder above the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder.

Sorry for the questions, just trying to see if a bit more clean-up work is needed. I would like to delete the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder, but we can't do that until we are sure there's nothing in there that is still needed.


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## emesfa (Dec 24, 2010)

I think it's needed at least in the catalog folders...

The Lightroom folder above LR 3 Catalog folder is just the folder where all the exported pictures go.


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## Jim Wilde (Dec 24, 2010)

OK, well *after *you have taken a backup of your Fotos folder, I think it will be safe to delete the "Duplicate Fotos" folder AND the "Lightroom 3 Catalog" Folder. Do you agree?


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## emesfa (Dec 24, 2010)

OK... perfect. I'll try to do it on Sunday, it's impossible to do it earlier. I'll let you how I'm doing if I get to know how to manage the backup program.

I have to go now.

As said before, wish you a Merry Christmas!!


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## emesfa (Feb 6, 2011)

hey Jim!
got a new problem!!

Lightroom is working great so far but one day I happenned to open Lightroom and didn't have the drive plugged and it seemed to open with a different catalog. The day after I imported some photos (the way you told me, it's working really well) but it seems it imported them to that different catalog (I had plugged the drive already but it seems the catalog wasn't my original but the other one). I was aware of that some days after when I asked LR to open with the catalog you helped me to create which was the one I was using... now I just realized I don't have those pictures and I don't know how to find them :S

thanks!

(how can I avoid this kind of problems with catalogs? it seems I have different catalogs, I only want one.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 6, 2011)

Hi Emma, welcome back!!

OK, let's try to find the pictures. Did you do much work on them in the 'wrong' catalog? If not, it we can find where they have been placed on your system it would be easier to simply import them to the 'correct' catalog and then move them within Lightroom into the right place (as we did in December when we reorganised everything). For now though, using Explorer just have a search on your C drive, possibly in the Pictures folder, and let me know if you find them.

If not, we'll have to open Lightroom and look in the 'wrong' catalog and locate them that way.

Start by having a good look around for them and let me know if you find them.


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## emesfa (Feb 6, 2011)

HI!

the pictures are in the G drive where I import everything. Because I did import them with the g drive plugged but the day before the catalog change and then, when I imported the pictures they imported into the wrong catalog but yet, into the G drive. And they are there


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 6, 2011)

OK, do they have the correct date-based names in the 2011 sub-folder? If they do, all you need to do is open Lightroom as normal, click on Import, then in the left-hand panel locate and select the sub-folder (if there are more than one, ctrl-click on them will let you select multiple folders) that you want under the 2011 folder in the G drive, then in the top-centre section *change the import action to ADD*. Then make sure that you have 'Do Not Import Suspected Duplicates' *checked* in the top of the right-hand column and you should then be OK to import.

If you are unsure about any of that, get back to me and we'll take it step by step.


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## emesfa (Feb 6, 2011)

perfect! I got them back! I lost the processing but well... not big deal, it was only in some of them and have the psd.

Thanks again!!!


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 6, 2011)

We could get the processing back, but to do that you would need to open the 'wrong' catalog, select the images, ctrl+S to write the metadata to XMP sidecar files, then open the 'proper' catalog, select the images again and then do a 'Read Metadata' command. If you want to we could try that, but if it's only a few images perhaps not worth doing? Your call really, just let me know what you want to do.

Also tomorrow I'll talk to you about this 'wrong' catalog so that we can remove it....go to go now as it's getting near to Superbowl time!


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## emesfa (Feb 6, 2011)

Ok, no worries then since they are just a few photographs and I have the photoshop file (and they're not important, but I do want to have them, at least the picture itself)

ok! we'll talk tomorrow!!! enjoy the Superbowl!


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

Hey Jim! 
Sorry couldn't come back sooner! You told me you would give me some steps to follow to avoid problems with catalogs.
Besides that, I remember you told me I should move files IN LR... I want to change my whole 2009 folder from one drive to another because the drive I'm using now has no more room. What should I do? moving the current 2011 to the new drive or moving the 2009 so I have some more room in the current one?

thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

Hi Emma!

No problem to do what you want, but I need to refresh my memory on how you are now configured (as all your original screenshots are not visible any more). So, can I have a few screenshots please?

1. Open Lightroom, then do Edit>Catalog Settings>General Tab and take a screenshot of the settings box....this will tell me where your current catalog is, so we can work out where to move it to.
2. While in Lightroom, can you give me a screenshot of the Folders Panel (I don't need to see all the individual dated folders, but if you show me the year folders and the top level folders).
3. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the Computer section where you should see all your disk drives listed (see my screenshot). Then one at a time can you right-click on each of the hard drives (don't bother with card reader drives, DVD drives) and select Properties and take a screenshot of each of the Properties boxes that will be displayed?

Thanks.


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

is this what you need?


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

and these...


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## clee01l (Feb 27, 2011)

If you want to move a folder named "2009" from your current parent folder to a parent folder on a different drive, you need a container (parent folder) to receive it. 
Once you have this container folder in place, in LR, click on the '+' located  on the right side of the Folder header in the folder panel. This opens a context menu. From this menu, choose {Add Folder...} Then in the dialog that opens, Navigate to the container folder that you set up on the new drive and choose it.  Now Back in the Folder panel, you have  (at least) two parent folders.  Drag the folder named "2009' from its old parent to the new parent that you just created.  Any sub folders under "2009' will get moved too.  If you have additional high level folders at the same level as "2009' (Like perhaps '2008' ) you will need to move these after you have started the '2009' move.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

Emma, before you do any moves, could I have two more screenshots please: again in Windows Explorer can you browse to G:\Emma\Fotos\ then right-click on the folder Lightroom 3 Catalog, select properties, wait until that finishes counting the files and give me a screenshot of the result. Then click on the folder to open its contents in the right-hand window and give me a screenshot of it. I'm trying to find out how much space your catalogs and previews data are taking up on the G drive, before you make the decision about which picture folder (if any) you need to move.

Also, it seems that you are using a backup catalog, were you aware of that?


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

am I using a backup catalog? I guess I wasn't aware of that...

I'm just so tired of this mess in my folders, I thought I had cleared it up but it seems I didn't... yet.

I still have the folder with all the catalogs I told you about the last time I asked... I fear deleting anything and messing it up even more. 

Another thing... when I process a picture in LR then I export and process it in Photoshop. I know the picture I export is saved in a folder in G. Should I delete that folder since I save (again) the jpg and psd after processing in PS? I don't like doing the "Edit in Photoshop" because I can't save the jpg then.
I know there must be easier ways to do this and it disheartens me so much knowing I'm adding more complications....


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

Don't despair, it shouldn't take much to sort these last issues out. One more screenshot please: open that Backups folder within the Lightroom 3 Catalog folder and take a shot of the right-hand window.

Looking at all those hard drives, apart obviously from the C drive, are all the others externals or are any of them internal? Just trying to establish which would be the best drive for setting up a new catalog folder so that you'll not run into the problem of the catalog being offline when you start Lightroom as you did a few weeks ago.


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

C and E are internal, the other 3 are external.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

OK, thanks for that....it confirms that somehow you started using the backup catalog sometime after January 24th. Probably not an issue, but I think the first thing we need to do is to get the catalog location on a firm basis. Ideally it would be better on one of the internal drives, and although there isn't a great deal of free space on either of them there will be enough for the time being (and when we do the move we can get rid of some of the backups as you don't need so many).

After we've done that, I think it would then be a good idea to have a look at the G drive to see what data we can clean off there....when we've done that we can make a decision about moving some of the pictures over to the H drive (it may not be necessary just yet).

Finally we can look at your workflow in respect of Photoshop and see if we can find a way that is more efficient regarding disk space usage.

Does that sound like a sensible way forward? We don't have to rush this, we can take our time to make the right decisions and we can take it step by step over the next few days.

If you are OK with that we can make a start as soon as you are ready....we can start tonight or leave it until it is more convenient for you.


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

Ok, we can start as soon as it's ok for you although I may come and go and it'll take me some time to reply but will check as much as I can.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

OK, before we start can you just tell me how comfortable you are using Explorer to copy files and folders from one drive to another? Do I need to provide detailed instructions or are you happy if I just say "copy file x from the G drive to folder y on the C drive"?


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

if it's not going to ruin the folder in LR, I'm ok copying or moving using Explorer, that's fine, and if I get lost I'll let you know.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

OK, well the first thing we are going to do is create a folder on the C drive called something like 'Lightroom Catalog Folder' which you can either create in the Pictures folder or in the root directory. It only matters from the point of being able to easily locate it and to include it in your backup scheme. For now let's create it in the root directory, then create a sub-folder within called "Emma LR3 Catalog".

When they have been created, make sure that Lightroom is NOT running and then go to the G drive and open the folder _*G:\Emma\Fotos\Lightroom 3 Catalog\Backups\2011-1-24 2215*_. Inside that folder you should see a file called *Emma LR3 Catalog.lrcat* and a folder called *Emma LR3 Catalog Previews.lrdata.* I want you to COPY these two items and put them inside the folder Emma LR3 Catalog which you just created inside the Lightroom Catalog Folder on the C drive.

Let me know if that is understood!


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

Yes, understood and done.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

OK, now double-click on the file Emma LR3 Catalog.lrcat on the C drive....this should open Lightroom, when it does take a screenshot of the Edit>Catalog Settings>General Tab. Thanks.


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

done.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

Great....now 3 last things for this evening....

1. In Lightroom, Edit>Preferences>General Tab.....in the box for the Default Catalog, where is says "When Starting up use this catalog" I want you to make sure that the file specified is the new catalog on the C drive. If is currently says 'Load most recent catalog' click on the down arrow to the right and you may see several catalogs listed....if the new one on the C drive is there, click on it to select it. This will make sure that you always startup using the correct catalog. May I have a screenshot to make sure it's correct.

2. On the G drive, rename the Emma\Fotos\Lightroom 3 Catalog folder to something like 'Old Catalog Folder'....when we are finished we will delete this, but for now let's keep it but hide it from Lightroom.

3. Finally, can you give me an Explorer screenshot of the G drive so that we can start thinking about a clean up.

Thanks.


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

1. changed. (see attached)

3. still need to delete those folders we created in december, haven't had time to go back to that and revise but I think we can delete them now


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 27, 2011)

OK, that looks fine. Could I just have a screenshot inside the Emma LR Catalogs folder on the G drive? Thanks.


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## emesfa (Feb 27, 2011)

done.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 28, 2011)

Thanks...let's call it a night and we'll start having a look at the G drive clean up tomorrow, OK?


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## emesfa (Feb 28, 2011)

OK! Thanks! 

Night!


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 28, 2011)

Emma, a couple of things for you to do please:

1. When you gave me the screenshots of the Properties of all your hard drives, you gave me the H drive twice (see post #202), I think you have another drive so could you show me the Properties of that drive please?
2. On the G drive, if you have never had any reason to go looking in the Duplicate Fotos folder, I think you can go ahead and delete it.
3. Also on the G drive, in Explorer can you open the Backups folder inside the OLD Catalog Folder? I think you can safely delete all the sub-folders that start with the 2010 year....we'll keep all of the 2011 backups, but you don't really need more than that. Then after you have deleted all the 2010 backups, could you COPY the "Backups" folder from the G drive into the _*C:\Users\Emma\Lightroom Catalog Folder\Emma LR3 Catalog *_folder on your C drive. Then post a screenshot of that Emma LR3 Catalog folder, thanks.

Once that has been done we'll adjust your Lightroom backup process to use the new location, pending a look at your regular backup scheme. While we are doing all this we may as well get that fully sorted as well.


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## emesfa (Feb 28, 2011)

ok, everything asked to be deleted is deleted... and I'm about to COPY "backups" folder, but it asks to combine it with the current "backups" folder... I guess I should accept, just asking to do it well


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 28, 2011)

There shouldn't be a current Backups folder unless you did a backup after we moved the catalog to the C drive. If you have, no problems to go ahead and merge. If you haven't taken a backup I'm a bit confused so please get back to me...


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## emesfa (Feb 28, 2011)

ok, it's true... every Sunday asks me to do a backup so that is probably why... I merged them.


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 28, 2011)

OK that's fine. Back on the G drive before we delete the OLD Catalog Folder can you just have a look inside the sub-folders 2008 and 2010...there may be stuff in there that you want to keep.


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## emesfa (Feb 28, 2011)

no, it's fine, I can delete them.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 28, 2011)

OK, but before we delete that folder we probably need to have a discussion about your backup strategy. Have you been taking regular backups of your catalogs and pictures to external devices? If so, what have you got copied, and to where have you copied it? And how often? Looking at all the drives you have, none of them seem big enough to take a full copy of your picture files?


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## emesfa (Feb 28, 2011)

I have an external device it's not connected right now, it's bigger and it has a backup I did about a month ago. I should do it again.


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 28, 2011)

OK, we're going to sort that out before we finish! 

For now, just for my piece of mind, I want you to close Lightroom then take a backup copy of the folder C:\Users\Emma\Lightroom Catalog Folder and put the copy on any one of your external drives *except E or G. *Drive H or I will be fine. That's then our safety net should anything go wrong with your PC before you get the regular backup strategy in place.

When that copy has been done, you can then go ahead and delete OLD Catalog Folder from the G drive, then take another screenshot of the Properties of the G drive (we need to see how much free space there is after deleting those files).


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## emesfa (Feb 28, 2011)

we didn't solve too much of the problem, BUT... I keep my edited pictures which get SO MUCH space in the drive. Is it ok if I move them? will I have problems in PS after that? I remember I moved them once and since then on PS didn't recognize the PS files...


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## Jim Wilde (Feb 28, 2011)

Emma, have you emptied the Recycle Bin? If not, do that and run that Properties screenshot again. If you don't mind can we leave the next step until tomorrow? We'll also have a look at the PS workflow as well.


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## emesfa (Feb 28, 2011)

of course! we can leave it until tomorrow, I'll be around in the evening.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 2, 2011)

Hi Emma, sorry I didn't get back to you last night....I'm having a bit of a busy and stressful week.

Just to recap, we now have your catalogs relocated to your C drive so there should never be a problem if you start Lightroom with your externals drives not available. We've also done a little clean-up on the G drive and you now have 46gb of free space....that should keep you going for a little while, but you'll still face a space problem eventually so we may as well tackle it now.

So, have you given any thought to how you would like to do that? One option would be to move 'older' years such as 2008 and 2009 to one of your other externals, H or I....you should then have plenty of room on G for the rest of this year, then maybe early next year you could move 2010 over as well, and so on. Let me know what you want to do and I can tell you how to do it, OK?

Drive H has more free space, maybe that would be the best location for the older years?


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

Hi Jim! I'm very very sorry I couldn't be here yesterday nor the day before. 

I had decided to move old photos like 2009 folder. 2007 and 2008 were moved months ago but, although they exist in the I: drive, they kept the folders in G (don't know why) but they are empty.
I had also thought about moving an old processed pictures' folder, but found this problem with the files. Any recommendation?

H has more space than I because 2007 and 2008 are already there, but would like to concentrate years together.

thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

Hey, no worries!

Ok, I'm a little confused about the 2007 and 2008 folders. As far as I can see, 2007 has never been imported into your Lightroom catalog, is that correct? But 2008 *is *in your catalog (though only 35 pictures) and that is on the G drive. Is there another 2008 folder in I, and if so does it contain different pictures? Perhaps a couple of screenshots: use Explorer and expand the Canon folder on the G drive so that I can see what sub-folders are there. And can you give me an Explorer view of the folders on the I drive? Thanks.


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

- 2007 and 2008 are jpg and I never imported them to LR.

- Just gained a few GB, I saw 2007 was repeated (as well as some folder within "portatil" are repeated from "2008" folder. Will solve that.

It's a mess, I used to work with several computers back then and put it all together in the end :blush:


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

OK, so you want to move 2007, 2008 and 2009 from G to I, is that correct?

Before we do that, can you tell me if the 2007 and 2008 that are already in I are the same as the 2007 and 2008 on G?


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

yes, 2007 and 2008 on G are empty folders :S don't know why

(I need to go now, will be back in an hour or so, sorry)


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

Lightroom thinks there are 35 pictures in 2008 on G, so if that folder is really empty then all of the 35 images will show as 'missing files'. In Grid view in Lightroom, click on the 2008 folder....you will then see the 35 thumbnails in the grid. Do they have a '?' in the top right-hand corner of each thumbnail?


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

it's true, I remember now, they are only from the same folder and it's one of the folders we recovered in December. but only that one, the others seem to be empty.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

So when you move the 2008 folder from G to I, are you wanting it merged with the 2008 that's already on I? If so I need you to expand both folders in Explorer so that I can see the sub-folders, then take a screenshot, and also can I have a screenshot of the Folders Panel in Lightroom with the 2008 folder expanded?

So that's 3 screenshots, one of G 2008, one of I 2008, one of Lightroom 2008. Thanks.


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

both have as many folders as days in a year. Except the one in G has the folder that LR recognizes, "2008-10-06" (the one we recovered)

Within 2008 (both G and I) there's another folder named "portatil" (from my old laptop in which I downloaded some of the files that year) with many folders (days) within 2008 repeated. Could I merge it with it's parent 2008?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

OK, so on the G drive the *only *folder in 2008 that has any pictures is 2008-10-06, is that correct?

All the remaining 2008 and 2007 folders are empty, yes?

On I, is it your intention at some point to import all the 2007 and 2008 photos into Lightroom?

And what about the photos from "portatil"....will you be importing those as well at some time?


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

1. I think so, I should check folder per folder but I think if I merge them I wouldn't lose any file?

2. think so, yes.

3. I don't know, probably, but I don't want to import them *all*. They are jpg which I can process with photoshop, but I can't say I'll *NEVER* import any.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

OK, last questions for now....

Is it safe to only copy the one 2008-10-06 folder to I, on the basis that I already contains all the 2007 and 2008 photos?

And is it safe to assume that 'portatil' on G is an exact copy of 'portatil' on I, or do you think we should try to merge them?


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

yes to both.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

Can you clarify the last one, because I guess I asked two questions! 

So is it Yes, it is safe to assume....

Or Yes, we should try to merge them?

Sorry for the confusion...


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

sorry... it is safe to assume...


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

OK, I'll put some instructions together and will post them a little later.

By the way, what is the Canon 2010 folder on I? Is that more pictures? If so, what you you want done with them?


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

yes, but we are done with those, we can remove them (security copy I did back then when the drive I used broke)

ok, I'll probably check later this afternoon or if not, tomorrow. Thanks for everything!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

OK, let's start by creating a top level folder on \I that we can add folders to as we go along. All this work should be done using Windows Explorer and with Lightroom closed down. So on drive \I create a folder called "Lightroom Fotos", then inside that create another folder called "Canon Archive" (you may want to use the Spanish word for 'archive').

Next, drag the 2007 folder from 'Canon 2008 y anteriores' and drop it into "Canon Archive". 

Then do the same with the 2008 folder.

Next, check that there are no pictures left in 'Canon 2008 y anteriores', and if OK go ahead and delete it.

If you want, drag "portatil" and drop it into "Canon Archive" (at some later stage we can merge all the dated sub-folders into the main 2008 folder).

If everything has gone OK unto this point, next I want you to COPY the folder 2008-10-06 *from the 2008 folder on the G drive, *and paste it *into the 2008 folder *inside "Canon Archive" on the I drive*.

*Next I want you to COPY the 2009 folder *from the Fotos\Canon folder on the G drive, *and paste it *into the "Canon Archive" folder on the I drive.* This will take a little while as there are more than 13000 photos being copied.

When you have done that, you should have a folder called "Lightroom Fotos\Canon Archive" on the \I drive which will contain folders 2007, 2008, 2009, and portatil. Please take a screenshot for me to check before we move into Lightroom.

Thanks. If doing any of this worries you let me know and we'll try to clarify things.


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## emesfa (Mar 5, 2011)

Sorry, couldn't do it sooner.
Done everything except copying the 2009 from G to I, yet. I guess we'll be able to recover 2009 in LR eventually?
And there are some folders within "portatil" that are the same (may some files be different) as in 2008 folder. Can I merge that? Should I wait?

Will continue with the copy of 2009 as soon as you tell me (yes, it worries me a little). after that, I'll be off for some hours but you can leave me the next instructions.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2011)

Yes, let's leave the 'portatil' merge until later as that is going to be a little tricker (but not TOO much!).

You can go ahead with the 2009 copy whenever you want to....I have chosen this method specifically because it poses no risk to your Lightroom catalog. Lightroom will continue to see the 2009 photos on the G drive until we tell it to stop and to look at the I drive instead. We will do that when you tell me that the copy of the 2009 folder is complete. There is no hurry, do it when you are ready....it is a simple copy, no risk to your photos.


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## emesfa (Mar 7, 2011)

Hi Jim, sorry I couldn't make it for these past few days, lots of work and needed LR. I'm running out of space in G drive 

here you have the last screeshot you asked. 

Thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 7, 2011)

Hi Emma, no problem.

Am a little surprised that you are running out of space on G, there was 40+gb free a few days ago.

No matter, now that you have copied 2009 from G to I, you should start Lightroom and in the Folders Panel you should right-click on the 2009 folder which is under 'Canon' and choose 'Update Folder Location'....a file browser dialog will follow, browse to and select the 2009 folder under 'Canon Archive' on the I drive, then click OK. That should add the I drive to your folders panel, and switch 2009 to that drive.

Let me know when that is done, and can I have a new screenshot of the Folders Panel? Thanks.


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## emesfa (Mar 7, 2011)

yes... took many pictures this last few days and they are very "big".

ok I did what you asked.

By the way, I have a question. I may change my computer in some time (hope not too long) having the catalogues saved, I just need to open LR with that catalog, right?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 7, 2011)

OK, now you should do the same for the 2008 folder. Then I want you to just check in Lightroom that you can access the 2008 and 2009 pictures OK, and that there are no 'missing files' or other problems. As soon as you are satisfied that everything is OK you can go ahead and delete the 2008 and 2009 folders from the Canon folder on the G drive. When you have done that, empty the Recycle Bin and you should have a lot more free space on the G drive.



> By the way, I have a question. I may change my computer in some time (hope not too long) having the catalogues saved, I just need to open LR with that catalog, right?


Although it shouldn't be very complicated, it isn't quite that simple....when you get your new computer you will need to copy the Lightroom catalog from the C drive on the current computer, you will also need to copy your Lightroom settings (for plug-ins, presets, etc.).....and of course you will need to ensure that the external drives get the same drive letter on the new computer (although we can get around that should they have different letters). Just check back in when you are ready to upgrade and we can help with the move.


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## emesfa (Mar 7, 2011)

Ok, I remember there was a way to check if there was any missing folder. Was it "Library-Find missing files"? So it's totally safe to delete 2009 and 2008 from G now, right?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 8, 2011)

Yes, if you've updated the location for 2008 and there are no missing files, then yes you can go ahead and delete 2008 and 2009 from the G drive.

Perhaps we need to look at how much space your processed files are taking up, and if there is a more efficient workflow....maybe that should be the next job we tackle?


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## emesfa (Mar 8, 2011)

yes, I may need to do something with my processed files, didn't move them because of what I told you, Photoshop wouldn't recognize the psd files.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 8, 2011)

OK, let's start looking at that tomorrow?


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## emesfa (Mar 8, 2011)

yes! no problem! thank you! and see you tomorrow!


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

hi Jim! can we have a look at my processed files' folders?  Thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

OK, tell me again where you keep them, and why you don't use the 'Edit In Photoshop' option from within Lightroom.


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

I have them in the G drive and I don't do the "Edit in Photoshop" because I could save the psd but could save the jpg. Maybe there's something I'm missing...


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

Sorry, don't quite understand....should there be a 'not' in there somewhere?


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

sorry... yes, I meant that I can save the psd but CAN'T save the jpg in Photoshop, then.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

OK, I guess what you mean is that you can only save Tif or PSD in Photoshop to have the file automatically imported into Lightroom. So that you then have to do a 'Save As' in Photoshop in order to create a Jpeg, right? 

But I guess my next question is: why do you feel the need to create a jpeg?


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

Sorry, I didn't explain myself very clear. If I do the "Edit in Photoshop" then, *in* Photoshop I can only save the psd (and Tiff, but I don't tend to save tiff), but I also want to save the jpeg which I can't. Then, what I do is, I export to Photoshop and when edit the picture I can save the psd and the jpeg.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

Yes I think I understood your workflow....but I don't understand why you need the additional saved jpeg?

I sometimes work in Photoshop, though not very often (though coincidentally I'm actually doing that while talking to you). I use 'Edit in Photoshop' and when done select Save and the Tif file is saved and appears in Lightroom stacked with the original. Depending upon what I want to do with the Tif, I *may *export it as a jpeg....but that would usually be a 'disposable' file that I will eventually delete when it has served it's purpose. All my 'file management' is done within Lightroom, so I have little need to be separately managing files outside of Lightroom......any time I need to produce another jpeg copy I can do so.


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

Ok, I should do that then, I didn't know how I could created jpegs that way but now I see it.

then, what should I do if I want to change my processed pictures' folder? or it's better I don't do that?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

The thing is that when using the 'Edit in Photoshop' process, the Tif/PSD file is automatically stored in the same folder as the original Raw file, so there is no need for a separate folder. When you export from Lightroom to create a jpeg, you CAN create the jpeg in the same folder as the original, and you can even add them to the catalog and stack them with the original. Lots of options....if, however, the jpeg truly is a temporary file for a specific purpose (printing, web gallery, sending to client, etc) you could just as easily export them into named sub-folders within My Pictures (which is sort of what I do)....just remember to delete them when you don't need them.

Regarding your exisiting Processed files, that's a bit more of an issue....you COULD import the PSDs into Lightroom, though you will have a lot of problems trying to match them to the original Raw files. Might simply be easier to just leave them outside Lightroom for now, and start over with a new process going forward.


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

ok, I'll start processing them this way from now on. I tend to save a "big" jpg for clients and another one to publish on the gallery which is framed and with the signature. Should I just open the "clients'" one with Photoshop and add the frame and signature?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

If all that you are doing in Photoshop is adding a border and a signature, there are other ways of doing that from within Lightroom....this would avoid having to save and keep those very large PSD/Tif files. Although I have never used it, the LR/Mogrify plug-in gets widely recommended on this site.


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

no, it's not all I do in Photoshop but need to do that to the final result apart from saving it without border and signature... let's say, two copies of the same file, one smaller than the other.
I'll have a look then.

I think this was all, right? I'll let you know when I change my computer so I can get some help to move the catalog there?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

OK, so your workflow could be:

1. Import into Lightroom and process as far as possible, including keywording, ratings, collections, etc.
2. Edit in Photoshop. Include adding border and signature.
3. Select 'Save' in Photoshop and PSD or Tif is saved into Lightroom.
4. Export two jpegs: one 'large' one for the client, one smaller one for the web gallery.
5. When no longer needed, delete the jpegs (because you can always reproduce them if needed).

There are other things you could look at later on to streamline your workflow even further, such as publishing to your web gallery from within Lightroom.

Regarding the new computer, yes let me know if you need help....


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

about 2. Edit in Photoshop... what if I only want to add the border and signature to the "small" jpeg?

I'm in a process to create my web gallery with photoshop but I just realize since I have my processed outside photoshop I'll need to import them.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

Well, as I'm not really a big user of Photoshop and definitely not a border/signature person there are probably lots more people on this forum who are better equipped to help with this issue....

However, I guess there are a couple of ways of doing what you want:

1. Import and process in Lightroom. Then use 'Edit In Photoshop' and make your changes there, but not the border or signature. When you are satisfied with the changes, select Save in Photoshop to save the PSD back into Lightroom. Then, before closing the file in Photoshop, add the border/signature and select 'Save As' to create a smaller jpeg file for subsequent upload to your Web Gallery. This is similar to what you do now, but at least you would have the Photoshop processed PSD in the Lightroom catalog.

2. Alternatively, after doing the 'Save' in Photoshop go back into Lightroom. Export the 'big' jpeg for the client, then use something like Mogrify to do a second export adding the border and signature for the web gallery. Longer term, investigate some of the many Lightroom plug-ins for creating the web gallery within Lightroom.


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## emesfa (Mar 12, 2011)

Sorry, had to leave for some hours. I done the "edit in photoshop" and "save" well... I'm fine with the result, but I don't understand what you say about "Save As" to create a smaller jpeg... This is what I was asking at the beginning, in this mode, I can't "save as" a jpeg when "edit in photoshop", that's why I wasn't using this processing. I'll have a look at it, maybe the easiest way is to open the saved jpeg from LR, in Photoshop and create the border and signature... I will have a look at it tomorrow..

And regarding the creation of the website's gallery, I'll do some research since now I'm concerned about the pictures I should import to LR to be able to add them into a gallery. Having problems with my computer which makes me work very slow.

Thanks for everything and good night!!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 12, 2011)

Just to explain the first point....when you do 'Edit in Photoshop' your file is opened in Photoshop and you do whatever processing you need to do, right? Then when you are done you do File>*Save *in Photoshop and the PSD file is created and automatically imported into Lightroom, yes? However, at the point *the file is still open in Photoshop....*so you could at that point apply the border and signature and then do File>*Save As*, select Jpeg filetype, a drive location (and you will be given the option to choose a quality setting to get the 'smaller' size for the web upload) and you are done....the jpeg file will be created, but not imported into Lightroom, and then you can close Photoshop and return to Lightroom.

Does that make sense?


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## emesfa (Mar 13, 2011)

yes! but it's not what I can see! I attach a picture of the formats I can "save as". There you can see I don't have the jpeg option, and that's the reason why I wasn't using "Edit in Photoshop"

regarding the PSD, where is it saved? Just in LR? so if I want to go back to the PSD (in case I want to modify a layer, for instance) I need to go to LR and then the picture and "Edit in Photoshop" again? will it open with layers, etc?


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## b_gossweiler (Mar 13, 2011)

I don't use PS, but could it be you have to convert from 16-bit to 8-bit first?

Beat


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 13, 2011)

Emma, what version of Photoshop do you use?

I will post an answer to the second point tomorrow (short answer is yes it will open with layers, but that depends on what option you use). I will explain tomorrow.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 13, 2011)

Beat, that's what I was thinking....but CS5 seems to give a different result to CS3, hence my question...


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## emesfa (Mar 13, 2011)

I use Photoshop CS4. I changed from 16-bit to 8-bit and it worked  thanks!

I need to sleep, now. We can leave the answer about the second point to tomorrow, yes.

Thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 13, 2011)

Emma, when you use 'Edit in Photoshop' on one of your Raw files, when you have finished the work in PS you select Save and the PSD is returned back into Lightroom. The PSD file is physically written into the same folder as the original Raw, and in the LR Catalog you will see the PSD is placed alongside the Raw and 'stacked' with it.

All well and good, but you want to know what to do if you subsequently want to do some further work on the PSD file in Photoshop, yes? In which case you would first *select the PSD file (not the Raw 'master') in Lightroom*, right-click and select 'Edit in Photoshop' again. The following dialog box should then be displayed:



You will see there are three options, which are really self-explanatory:

1. The first option (Edit a copy with Lightroom Adjustments) is designed for the scenario where, after you first work on the files in Photoshop and return it to Lightroom as a PSD, *you then make further develop adjustments in Lightroom to the PSD which you then want to preserve when opening again in Photoshop. *In this situation another PSD file will be created which will have the Lightroom adjustments....*but this results in the file being 'flattened' by Lightroom so that when you open in PS the layers will be lost.

*2. The second option is for when you either haven't made any further Lightroom adjustments or you don't want to preserve them....in this instance another copy of the PSD file is created for opening into Photoshop, *but your original PS layers are retained.

*3. The third option (Edit the Original) means the 'original PSD' will be opened again in Photoshop, no Lightroom adjustments (if any) will be seen, *but your original PS layers are retained.

*In all cases, when you have finished in Photoshop, again select 'Save' to return the file (a copy or the original depending on your choice) back into Lightroom.

I would imagine that in most cases you would want to select the third option...you probably wouldn't want to maintain multiple PSD derivatives of the one Raw file.

Hope that all made sense.


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## emesfa (Mar 15, 2011)

Hi Jim, sorry couldn't answer sooner. Everything was understood, thanks! 

I'm having so many problems with my current computer, I'm gonna try to change it today. I'm buying a mac. I'll ask you if you can help me how to move the catalog and all the necessary elements. I was thinking, since I'm getting a laptop, to download the pictures I need to process in the laptops drive and after that moving them to the external drive as we did with these last files. Would that work?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 15, 2011)

Emma, yes that would work....quite a few people here operate like that, i.e. import to laptop hard drive for processing, and when finished move them (within Lightroom) to an 'archive' external drive. The pictures all remain in the catalog, but the external drive can be disconnected whenever to want to 'go mobile' with the laptop.

In terms of transferring your existing Lightroom setup to a Mac, there is one glaring issue which will need to be addressed....all of your external drives are currently formatted in the NTFS format, which as far as I know cannot be read by the Mac OS. I'm sure that one of our Mac experts will chip in if I've got that wrong.

But if I'm right, you'll need to find a solution to that problem. To be honest, given the number of small (by today's standards) external hard drives that you have, I would be very tempted to use this problem as the opportunity to upgrade your  external storage and consolidate all your external drives down to 2 large drives (one prime, one for backup). I would be looking at a couple of 2tb Lacie Quadra drives (includes a FW800 interface, very fast for the Mac), and would allow you to get ALL your photos on one drive with plenty of room for expansion....the problem is that they are likely to cost around €200 each, so that may not be an option for you at this time.

Have a think about this and get back to me....there may be lower-cost alternatives, though that may mean a more complicated transfer to the Mac.


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## emesfa (Mar 15, 2011)

ok, that is a problem... I can't afford buying new hardrives right now. I just formated the drive I made the back up in. I was starting over with the back up. That drive is 1tb. I'm thinking... If there's a solution where I could format that drive in a format Mac can read, then I move everything there and format the other drive (1.5tb) It may be better use the 1tb as prime and the 1.5tb as backup. Would that be possible?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 15, 2011)

OK, I didn't realise that you had a 1tb and a 1.5tb drive, all the screenshots I had seen were either 500gb or 640gb.

1tb and 1.5tb should be fine for now, so I guess that plan would be to consolidate the G and I drives onto the 1tb drive, then back it up to the 1.5tb drive, yes? But  before you do that, we need to work out how to reformat these drives so that the Mac will be able to read them....I was going to suggest re-formatting using FAT32, but I think there are some issues with doing that on Vista in drives greater than 32gb. We may need one of our regular Mac and PC users to drop by, or it might be easier to do the reformat on the Mac first.


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## emesfa (Mar 15, 2011)

The G, H and I drives are different partitions in the same external drive. I was recommended to divide it into partitions, now I see it's not too good for me.

I can format the drives in a Windows XP PC and move the files from one to another in there. Would that be ok? If I format the G, H and I into just one G I can place all the photos in the same drive. I guess we'll need to do some changes in LR after that? I'm sorry for all this problems and changes, because you're helping me a lot, but I'm having many problems with the computer, not only related to the catalog and now I see I can't work with it any more. It's too "little" for the work I need to do.
I'll come back in a few hours. Again, thanks for everything.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 15, 2011)

OK, didn't realise they were individual partitions.....but please don't re-format that drive yet until you've moved the pictures off it!!!

So the G,H,I drive is the 1.5tb drive, yes? And you have a 1tb drive which you use for backup? On the Mac you would probably want the 1tb drive to be 'prime' and the 1.5tb drive to be 'backup'? In which case probably the best thing to do would be to reformat the 1tb drive as FAT32 on the XP system (assuming that is not an issue), then connect it back to your Vista PC and *copy *all the contents of G,H,I into the 1tb drive (suggest for now you simply create 3 parent folders on the 1tb drive called FolderG, FolderH, FolderI and copy the relevant files from the three respective partitions).

If all that works OK, we can then consolidate your Lightroom folders into one new Parent Folder and then update the Lightroom Catalog to switch refereneces to the new drive. Then when that is all working OK, the G,H,I drive can be reformatted back to a single 1.5tb FAT32 partition in readiness for it becoming your backup drive.

Any experts out there got an opinion on that process? Is there a safer or simpler way?


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## emesfa (Mar 15, 2011)

I've read somewhere it might be better to format to FAT32 in a PC rather that in a Mac. If anyone elses says nothing against it, I'll proceed to act as you said


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## emesfa (Mar 22, 2011)

Hi Jim!

Finally I have the new mac and I'm finishing with the "moving" of all the files from one drive (NTFS) to another (FAT32). I'd like to know if it's convenient I change the drives into mac format afterwards. In any case, I'd like to ask you if you could help me to move the catalog into LR in mac. But that will be for tomorrow. Thanks!


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## emesfa (Mar 24, 2011)

here they are


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 24, 2011)

Thanks. In the Lightroom Folders Panel can you expand the 'Fotos' folder (it should reveal 2010 and 2011) and can you also right-click on 2008, 2009 and Fotos to select 'Add Parent Folder'....keep doing this until the new G,H,I folders are showing? Then repeat the screenshot for me, thanks.

And when you connected the J drive to the Mac it was recognised OK, and you could write to it?


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## emesfa (Mar 24, 2011)

Hi! Sorry for the delay. Yes, when I connected the drive it recognised it and I could write in it


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 24, 2011)

OK, that all looks good. At some point you might want to rearrange things to get all of the year folders under a single parent folder....but now that they are all on the same drive you can do that very easily at any time.

For now, suggest you make one final check that everything in the catalog is fine with the new drive....go to Library>Find Missing Photos. Hopefully there won't be any.

By the way, have you yet installed Lightroom and Photoshop on the Mac?


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## emesfa (Mar 24, 2011)

:S 11 missing pictures... but I don't know where they are from. I deleted some pictures to get some more space in the drive (old ones I didn't need) but I don't think they were in LR's library, not sure.

and yes, I have Lightroom and Photoshop installed on the Mac already.


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## emesfa (Dec 10, 2010)

Hi! I have a problem I already had like a month ago but I don't know how to solve it. 

I upgraded from L2.5 to L3 and couldn't import some of the photos I had been using with L2.5 (some!) I was getting crazy when someone here recommended me to open the L2.5 gallery and convert it and then import from the gallery. Great, problem solved.

But now I can't find MOST of my pictures (the ones used with the L2.5 and some used with L3) and I just don't know what to do. I've done the previous instructions over and over but the only thing I get is to creat gallery-3/-4 but nothing really changes...
I have a whole 2010 folder that is not found... and I can't "find the folder" because it doesn't appear in there!
I'm thinking about erasing all the galleries because I can't even import my photos and this is really driving me crazy... any suggestion?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 24, 2011)

Perhaps you should spend a few minutes having a check on these 11 missing files to see if they are important or if they can be removed. Select one and look in the Metadata Panel in the right-hand column of the Library Module and you should see the file-name and the folder name of the missing file. This may help you decide if there is a problem or not.


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## emesfa (Mar 24, 2011)

well... it looks they are lost because I can't find them anywhere, but it's ok. not big lost.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 24, 2011)

OK. If you are ready to try moving your catalog to the Mac, probably the easiest way would be to copy the folder containing your catalog, previews and catalog backups to the J drive. Close down Lightroom, then copy the folder _*Lightroom Catalog Folder*_ which you will find in the C\Users\Emma folder, and paste it into the root directory of the J drive.

When that copy is complete, disconnect the J drive and connect it to the Mac, then using Finder browse to the J drive (which will now be called something else), open the *Lightroom Catalog Folder* then double-click on the file *Emma LR3 Catalog.lrcat*. This should launch Lightroom with your catalog opened, and you'll need to check to see if all your folders have been located or if we have to go through the 'Find Missing Folder' process. 

Let me know how you get on.


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## emesfa (Mar 24, 2011)

I think we need to got through the "find missing folder" process... all the folders and pictures, although I can see the "preview" picture, appear with a question mark. So, should I click on "find missing folder"? on the parent folders G and I?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 24, 2011)

Yes, probably expected. Now you know why I wanted the parent folders to be showing in the Folders Panel!

OK, do the 'Find Missing Folder' process and everything should be OK.


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## emesfa (Mar 24, 2011)

GREAT!!! Everything is ok!!!! Thanks!!! I think all my problems with LR and computer are over!! Thank you so much?! Is any other tip or step I'm missing? or this is it?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 24, 2011)

A couple of things:

1. You need to decide if you want to leave the catalog folder on the external drive, or if you want to move them back onto an internal drive (like we did on the PC). Performance will likely be a bit better with the catalog on an internal drive, but if you think you may want to switch back to the PC at any time you may prefer to leave the catalog on the external drive. Have a think about that and let me know.
2. What about plug-ins and presets? Did you have many of these on the PC? Do you need them copied over or have you already done this?
3. Don't forget that you need to reformat the 1.5tb drive so that you can make a backup again of your J drive.
4. Check your catalog settings on the Mac to ensure that you will always open the correct catalog.
5. When you are ready, you could simplify the folder structure a little of your pictures by getting rid of the G and I folders. 

Some of this stuff I can help with, but some we may need to call in a Mac expert....


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## emesfa (Mar 24, 2011)

1. yes, I'd like to move the catalog folder onto an internal drive.
2. no presets, I wasn't using them.
3. I'll do it now I have everything here, through the Mac.
4. I just changed that. It was selected "last catalog opened", I changed it to the catalog I opened now. I guess that should be changed after moving it.
5. how can I do that?


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 24, 2011)

Will leave instructions for you tomorrow, OK?


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## emesfa (Mar 25, 2011)

No problem 

Thanks!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 25, 2011)

Emma, moving the catalog onto an internal drive is simply a repeat of what we did a few weeks ago. Simply close down Lightroom, then in Finder browse to the external drive, then copy the folder *Lightroom Catalog Folder *then paste it onto the internal drive in a location of your choosing (e.g. either in the root directory or in your user area)....just choose a location that'll be easy for you to find later.

When the catalog folder has been moved, open it in the new location and double-click on the catalog file to launch Lightroom. If all is OK, update the catalog settings as per point 4 above.

Then go back to the *external *in Finder and rename *Lightroom Catalog Folder *to some other name (to prevent you inadvertently opening it). Leave it a few days, then when you are happy you can delete that old folder from the external drive.

Regarding the reorganisation of the pictures folders to remove the G and I folders....this is not quite as straight-forward as I thought. If I remember correctly there are a lot of other pictures from 2007 and 2008 in the I folder but which are not in Lightroom? In which case using the Folders Panel to reorganise is likely to run into a problem with that. Let me do some further testing over the next few days and I'll get back to you (I think it will be easier to do it outside Lightroom, in which case I'll need to leave you with some very precise instructions).


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## emesfa (Mar 25, 2011)

OK. The moving of the catalog went well. 

Yes, there are other pictures in 2007 and 2008 which are not in Lightroom and I don't think I'll import them in the future. I'll wait for your future instructions.

Thank you!


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## emesfa (Apr 3, 2011)

this is it!

yes, I should ask about that, I'm not having that problem every time I save a picture but it happened with new ones and it's a bit annoying...


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 3, 2011)

OK, that's looks fine....and all the sub-folders are OK? No missing folders?

Regarding the "Edit in Photoshop" problem, next time is happens please take take a screenshot of the actual error message, then start a new thread with the details.

I think this thread has reached the end of the road and can be left to quietly disappear down the list!


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## gaweiner (Oct 17, 2011)

*i moved a folder of edited photos using explorer ; (*

yikes! i made the big mistake. i used explorer to move a folder full of photos that i edited in lightroom i reopened lightroom and used the synchronize folders command thinking it would find the xmp files from all the edits i did. that did not work. i have not done any new edits on the raw files as they now appear in lightroom, is there anyway to retrieve the edits that i did before i closed lightroom and moved the folder in explorer?


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## Jim Wilde (Oct 17, 2011)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Normally this would be an easy fix, you would just right-click on the moved folder in the Folders Panel (it should be showing a '?' mark to indicate that Lightroom can't find it any more), select 'Find Missing Folder' from the context menu and then use the resulting file/folder browser window to navigate to the folder in it's new location. Select it, click OK, and Lightroom updates itself with the new location and all is well again.

However, in your situation I am rather concerned about your use of 'Synchronise Folder'.....now you can't use that command on a 'missing folder', so I need to know what folder you used it on. If you used it on the parent folder of the missing one, did you uncheck the option to 'Remove missing photos from catalog'? Because if you did NOT, then I fear you may have removed the edited photos. A couple of questions to help see if we can get you out of this:

1. In your catalog settings, is the option to "Automatically write changes into XMP" checked or unchecked?
2. If unchecked, did you do a Ctrl+S command on the edited pics (forces an XMP write)? You mentioned XMP files in your post, I'm just trying to find out if they actually exist....you can check this by looking in the folder using Explorer to see if there are XMP sidecar files alongside the original raw files. 
3. After you closed Lightroom (before the synchronise folder action) did you take a catalog backup?
4. Is the original folder still listed in the Folders Panel with the '?' mark? If yes, what is the photo count?

If you can get back to me with those answers we'll see if we can help.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 17, 2011)

Or if you don't have a backup after you closed LR, do you have any earlier backups that might include the data?


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