# Transfer or Move Folders to External Hard Drive



## Potus5 (May 21, 2011)

Currently I have my "RAW" photos residing on an external 1Tb HD. And I have the various "processed final" photos sitting in various subfolders on my iMAC desktop internal Hard Drive. All the photo subfolders are under the main standard MAC folder "Pictures". These are all catalogued using LR3. I have recently purchased a DROBO 4 Tb Raid External Hard Drive unit, and I want to transfer or move all of my processed final images from the iMAC desktop internal HD to this DROBO external HD unit. 

How do I, in LR, move these folders with all their images from the iMAC HD to the external HD without losing the LR catalogue tracking? I tried the approach of "creating a new folder" in LR for the new external HD via the Library module [to which I'd drag and drop the internal HD folders] but once I select the external DROBO HD device as the new folder location all this approach results in is it then asks  me to import images from the external HD [which of course has no images on it] into the internal iMAC HD.


----------



## Jason (May 21, 2011)

There are several ways to move your images from one place to another.  The simplest, for me, is to use finder and simply drag the entire set of sub-folders and move it onto the new disk.  Just drag and drop.  

You said they are under "Pictures".  So, drag Pictures onto the drobo.  Let it copy.   Then, rename the original "Pictures" folder for a few minutes, because finder copies by default, and we don't want LR to see the old ones.

Now, start up LR again.  You will see a ? on the folders and all the images will be offline.  Over on the left hand panel, cmd-click on the folder Pictures, and the browse to it's new location and reconnect it. 

You're done.  LR is now pointing to the new location of your images.  Once you are sure everything is working, remember to go clean out your old Pictures directory, and rename it back to Pictures!

Cheers!


----------



## Victoria Bampton (May 21, 2011)

I'd tend to do it Jason's way too.  The one warning that goes with that is to make sure you Lightroom Folders panel is showing a hierarchy of folders (http://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/...can-i-change-it-to-show-the-folder-hierarchy/), because if it's just a long list of folders, you have a bit of a job to relink them all one-by-one.


----------



## Potus5 (May 22, 2011)

*Thank You*

Victoria & Jason

Thank you for the advise - appreciated the quick responses. Followed both sdets of instructions and the move well exceptionally well - no problems.

Glenn


----------



## pixeltaker (Aug 24, 2011)

I just started reading this thread about moving folders to a different drive.  One poster said the easiest way was to use "finder".  I have a PC, not a Mac, so I'm not sure I have a "finder" option or possibly it has a different name. 

Also, the folder I want to move is a Level 1 folder, or the top folder in the hierarchy.  Can I move all of them in one fell swoop by choosing the Level 1 folder?


----------



## clee01l (Aug 24, 2011)

Finder is the OSX equivalent of Windows Explorer (aka the File Manager).

If you have only one top level folder in LR it is probably easiest yo make the move in the LR Folder panel  Just drag the top level folder to the new location.  You identify the new location by clicking on the (+) on the folder header and adding the new folder that exists on the destination drive. 
Moving the top level folder will also move the subfolders along with the files underneath it and you do not get the dreaded Missing Folder (?s)   Either method works.  Some people are more comfortable moving the files and folders through the Operation System and relinking the LR pointers. Others are just as comfortable letting LR move the files and folders through the operating system and not needing to relink.


----------



## pixeltaker (Aug 24, 2011)

I probably wasn't making myself clear as I should have.  The "top level" folder I was referring to was the "top level" of my Lightroom imports. I moved my Photoshop Elements Organizer (which has thousands of photos) to Lighroom, so the Lightroom import folder is just one of many.  The Lightroom import folder, which has subflolders is the one I want to move.  I would rather move it within Lightroom to keep everything neat and tidy if I could.  

I wasn't sure what + sign you were referring to until I realized after I found it what my mistake was in calling my Lightroom folder a "top folder".  Hope this clear things up, and you have new instructions for me.  Thank you for your quick response, by the way.



clee01l said:


> Finder is the OSX equivalent of Windows Explorer (aka the File Manager).
> 
> If you have only one top level folder in LR it is probably easiest yo make the move in the LR Folder panel  Just drag the top level folder to the new location.  You identify the new location by clicking on the (+) on the folder header and adding the new folder that exists on the destination drive.
> Moving the top level folder will also move the subfolders along with the files underneath it and you do not get the dreaded Missing Folder (?s)   Either method works.  Some people are more comfortable moving the files and folders through the Operation System and relinking the LR pointers. Others are just as comfortable letting LR move the files and folders through the operating system and not needing to relink.


----------



## clee01l (Aug 24, 2011)

pixeltaker said:


> I probably wasn't making myself clear as I should have.  The "top level" folder I was referring to was the "top level" of my Lightroom imports. I moved my Photoshop Elements Organizer (which has thousands of photos) to Lighroom, so the Lightroom import folder is just one of many.  The Lightroom import folder, which has subflolders is the one I want to move.  I would rather move it within Lightroom to keep everything neat and tidy if I could.
> 
> I wasn't sure what + sign you were referring to until I realized after I found it what my mistake was in calling my Lightroom folder a "top folder".  Hope this clear things up, and you have new instructions for me.  Thank you for your quick response, by the way.


Now I'm the one confused.  Lightroom does not have an "Import" Folder.  Are you saying that you converted your PSE organizer catalog database into a LR catalog and then added a new folder to it which you are referring to as an import folder? 

We can probably clarify things a lot if you post a screen shot of your Folder panel,  And point out on it what you mean by _"Lightroom import folder".  And also describe in some detail which folders you want to move and where you want to move them. 

P.S. If you need the Snipping tool for XP you can get it here _http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13797
Another similar prtogram is Faststone Capture found here http://www.faststone.org/


----------



## pixeltaker (Aug 24, 2011)

When I referred to "Import folder", I was referring to the folder I presently have on my internal hard drive that I import photos from my SD card into.  That folder is called "New", and that folder actually is on my desktop.  Under "New", there are sub folders named with the dates of the imports.  That is the stack (and only that stack) I want to move to my external hard drive.  I want to make that folder on the external hard drive my default folder for importing from my SD card.  My internal hard drive is near capacity and RAW files are huge, so importing from now on in the "New" folder on my external hard drive will free up some room on the internal hard drive.  Firstly, I want to move that whole stack (and only the "New" stack), and secondly I want to make it the default for importing future RAW files.  I hope this clears things up.  



clee01l said:


> Now I'm the one confused.  Lightroom does not have an "Import" Folder.  Are you saying that you converted your PSE organizer catalog database into a LR catalog and then added a new folder to it which you are referring to as an import folder?


----------



## clee01l (Aug 24, 2011)

pixeltaker said:


> When I referred to "Import folder", I was referring to the folder I presently have on my internal hard drive that I import photos from my SD card into.  That folder is called "New", and that folder actually is on my desktop.  ... I hope this clears things up.


Not as much as a screen shot of your Folder panel, but I think I understand what you want to do now. 
Just to be clear:

You have a folder on your desktop named "New"
It contains subfolders.
After importing into LR, this folder named "New" and all its subfolders appears in your Folder panel.
You want to move folder "New" and all its subfolders to an external drive (for illustrative purposed I'll call it X:\)
Here are instructions to do that:
In the folder panel header, Click on the (+) icon to open the Context menu.
Choose {Add Folder...} from the menu
In the "Browse for Files or Folders" dialog, navigate to the folder that you want to be the parent on the EHD If the folder does not existe use the {Make new Folder} button to create it. (e.g. X:\LRpictures)
Click {OK}
Back in the Folder panel, With both Source folder ("New") and Target Folder (X:\LRpictures) visible, drag "New" to "X:\LRpictures"  and drop


----------



## pixeltaker (Aug 24, 2011)

These were very clear instructions.  I did as you instructed and it worked perfectly.  Thank you so much for your help.


----------



## Joana (Oct 24, 2011)

This was very helpful. This issue has stifled me for far to long now. I have tried to resolve this on my own, which has led to much frustration. I really appreciate the detailed, and easy to follow instructions. This made the resolution of this issue very convenient for me. I could use some advise here, my system has been really sluggish lately, and I have had a lot of issues with the software as a result, so I have been considering buying a new computer. I am wondering if anyone can advise me on where would be a good place to look for one? Would hhgregg black friday be a good place to look? Would anyone have any insight as to what kind of deals they will have? I really appreciate any help I can get here. Thank you.


----------

