# Parent Folder



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

I want to move my Lightroom photos from a smaller external drive to a larger external drive and maintain 1 catalog. When my folder structure was set up,  a parent folder was not created. In Explorer, pictures are in folders and subfolders - no parent folder. In Lightroom, it looks like I have a parent folder but in actuality when you click on the parent folder (it’s called F) to see the location, it shows the drive  (drive f ) - not a parent folder called F inside the drive.  I have searched Lightroom and Explorer and don’t see how I can fix this structure so I can have 1 parent folder that contains all my pictures so it will be an easy link. Your help would be appreciated.


----------



## Califdan (Dec 19, 2019)

I don't have LR in front of me at the moment, but as I recall  
1)   click the tiny down arrow to the lower right of the "+" sign on the line  "Folders" panel title line (the line that says "Folders").  
2)  select "Add Folder".  
3) A File Manager  window will pop up - use it to create a new folder at the root level of the F drive.  Let's call this "Master Photos"
4)  This new "Master Photos" folder should show up in the Folders Panel but of course is empty.  
5)  Using the folders panel, drag each of your highest level folders to this new "Master Photos" parent folder (you can select more than one at a time and drag a clump of them at a time).    
6)  Now that all your image folders are under :Master Photos"  exit LR.   
7)  Using File Manager, copy the "Master Photos" folder to the new drive (let's say it's drive "P").  
8)  Once copied, unplug the "F" drive and launch LR.  
9) LR will still think that all the images are under "Master Photos" but on the old (unplugged)  "F" drive and all those folders will have "?".   
10) Right click on the "Master Photos" folder and select "find missing folder".   
11) In the popup File Manager window navigate to the "Master Photos" on the new "P" drive and select it.  This will re-link all the folders and images

PS.  If your LR catalog was also on the old "F" drive,  in step 7, also copy the entire folder which contains your catalog from F" to "P" and then when you Launch LR you will have to help LR find the catalog by clicking "Open Other catalog" on one or possibly two screens as you navigate to it - or launch LR by  finding the catalog using Windows File manager  and double click on the catalog file (has file extension ".lrcat") to launch LR.


----------



## clee01l (Dec 19, 2019)

littlemacd-aol said:


> I have searched Lightroom and Explorer and don’t see how I can fix this structure so I can have 1 parent folder that contains all my pictures so it will be an easy link. Your help would be appreciated.


Your parent folder is the "root" folder on drive F:\.   That first "\" is actually a folder in the file system.


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

clee01l said:


> Your parent folder is the "root" folder on drive F:\.   That first "\" is actually a folder in the file system.





clee01l said:


> Your parent folder is the "root" folder on drive F:\.   That first "\" is actually a folder in the file system.



Thank you. How do I create a parent folder so when I move pictures to another drive I can click on the parent to attach all photos seamlessly? That option is not available as far as I can see.


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

Califdan said:


> I don't have LR in front of me at the moment, but as I recall
> 1)   click the tiny down arrow to the lower right of the "+" sign on the line  "Folders" panel title line (the line that says "Folders").
> 2)  select "Add Folder".
> 3) A File Manager  window will pop up - use it to create a new folder at the root level of the F drive.  Let's call this "Master Photos"
> ...


I’m just seeing this. I will reply back once I get on my computer. Thank you


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

Califdan said:


> I don't have LR in front of me at the moment, but as I recall
> 1)   click the tiny down arrow to the lower right of the "+" sign on the line  "Folders" panel title line (the line that says "Folders").
> 2)  select "Add Folder".
> 3) A File Manager  window will pop up - use it to create a new folder at the root level of the F drive.  Let's call this "Master Photos"
> ...


I’ve moved everything to Master Photos on my old F drive. The Lightroom catalog is on my internal C drive but I have a couple of backups on my old F drive. Should I put the backups in the Master Photos folder when I copy over to my new M drive (doing that now actually) or just have them by themselves?  Need to add my backups once I get your reply. Thank you


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Dec 19, 2019)

PoppyeMac said:


> I’ve moved everything to Master Photos on my old F drive. The Lightroom catalog is on my internal C drive but I have a couple of backups on my old F drive. Should I put the backups in the Master Photos folder when I copy over to my new M drive (doing that now actually) or just have them by themselves?  Need to add my backups once I get your reply. Thank you


There is no reason to copy the backups to another drive, but you can do so if you want to stop using that old drive.


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

PoppyeMac said:


> I’ve moved everything to Master Photos on my old F drive. The Lightroom catalog is on my internal C drive but I have a couple of backups on my old F drive. Should I put the backups in the Master Photos folder when I copy over to my new M drive (doing that now actually) or just have them by themselves?  Need to add my backups once I get your reply. Thank you


Master Photos (I called it Lightroom Photos) did not show up.  Maybe I shouldn’t have done this. Still looks the same but now my pictures are missing. I probably need to revert back if I’m able to.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Dec 19, 2019)

Don’t worry. All you need to do is reconnect the missing folders: Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

Johan Elzenga said:


> Don’t worry. All you need to do is reconnect the missing folders: Lightroom thinks my photos are missing—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen


It didn’t work. The new parent folder didn’t show up after I closed and reopened Lightroom even though I created it through Lightroom.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Dec 19, 2019)

The ‘parent folder’ in your screenshot isn’t a folder. It is the drive itself. You cannot reconnect a drive, so you will have to do this folder by folder.


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

It was my understanding on a comment that I could create a parent folder through Lightroom in Explorer, drag my folders in that new parent folder, close Lightroom, copy that file into my new drive, unplug my old drive, plug in my new drive and open Lightroom where the new parent would show up (it didn’t) and reconnect. I’ve now got new problems.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Dec 19, 2019)

PoppyeMac said:


> It was my understanding on a comment that I could create a parent folder through Lightroom in Explorer


I'm not sure what that means and how you have interpreted that. You can either create a new parent folder via the Lightroom folder panel, or in Windows Explorer. In the first case Lightroom will know that folder, in the second situation it will not.

If you mean the 'Show Parent Folder' menu option in Lightroom: that will only show the parent folder if there *is* a parent folder. If there is no parent folder, then it will show the drive itself as 'bogus parent folder'.

You can and should still use the 'reconnect' option. It's only (a lot of) extra work.


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

Right. I have the bogus F parent folder.  Based on a previous comment in this thread it seemed like I could fix things and actually create a real folder that would become a parent. It didn’t work unfortunately. My case is unique and  I’m thinking once it started off without creating a parent folder in the first place you can’t correct things. I really don’t won’t to do it this way (someone else set up my Lightroom). I know you shouldn’t/can’t reimport but I’d sure like to find a way to create a catalog the right way with a parent, move these folders over to a new catalog and drive and once everything is working properly, delete this troublesome catalog.


----------



## clee01l (Dec 19, 2019)

Johan Elzenga said:


> If you mean the 'Show Parent Folder' menu option in Lightroom: that will only show the parent folder if there *is* a parent folder. If there is no parent folder, then it will show the drive itself as 'bogus parent folder'..


It is not a “bogus” folder. That first “/“indicates that it is the ROOT folder for that volume

The OP needs to create another folder at the root directory and move all of the other folders into it.  If done inside the LR folder panel LR can track the change in Path.  If done in Explorer, the user will have to help LR find the correct path.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 19, 2019)

I did all those things in Lightroom. I added a folder. It opened up my Explorer and I created a new folder. I moved all my folders into the new folder which theoretically would now make them subfolders. I closed Lightroom.  Copied folder to new drive. I opened Lightroom again without my old F drive attached. There’s absolutely no difference in Lightroom file structure. The new folder did not show up. With that being the case, I can’t reconnect at the new parent level on the new drive because Lightroom panel on the left never changed so I cannot connect top level parent folder to the same named top level parent on the new drive.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Dec 20, 2019)

PoppyeMac said:


> I did all those things in Lightroom. I added a folder. It opened up my Explorer and I created a new folder. I moved all my folders into the new folder which theoretically would now make them subfolders. I closed Lightroom.  Copied folder to new drive. I opened Lightroom again without my old F drive attached. There’s absolutely no difference in Lightroom file structure. The new folder did not show up. With that being the case, I can’t reconnect at the new parent level on the new drive because Lightroom panel on the left never changed so I cannot connect top level parent folder to the same named top level parent on the new drive.


It didn't work because you don't understand how it works. I can guide you through this but I need a few new screenshots to be sure that you didn't change something compared to the old screenshots. I would appreciate proper screenshots, not photos taken from a computer screen. Here's how t do that: LMGTFY

The screenshots I need are of your current Lightroom folder panel, and of the folder structure (as seen in Windows Explorer) of the new disk.


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 20, 2019)

Johan, My apologies.  I guess I don’t completely understand but I actually felt I was performing each step correctly as I interpreted it. I took pictures of before and after with my cellphone. I’m not exactly sure how to do screenshots on my laptop other than holding my phone but I’ll be happy to accommodate once I know how. Since I’ve reverted back to the original F drive and my new G drive is empty, please tell me each step to perform and I can take pictures/screenshots after each step. Thanks again


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Dec 20, 2019)

PoppyeMac said:


> Johan, My apologies.  I guess I don’t completely understand but I actually felt I was performing each step correctly as I interpreted it. I took pictures of before and after with my cellphone. I’m not exactly sure how to do screenshots on my laptop other than holding my phone but I’ll be happy to accommodate once I know how. Since I’ve reverted back to the original F drive and my new G drive is empty, please tell me each step to perform and I can take pictures/screenshots after each step. Thanks again


Before I am going to give you any advise, I need to see a screenshot of your Lightroom folder panel and of the original F drive (as seen in Windows Explorer). My funny animation was more than just funny. It says "_If you want help and need to show screenshots to get help, then use Google to find out how to make screenshots on your computer if you don't know that_". In fact, you can really click on the button in the animation to get there...


----------



## Jim Wilde (Dec 20, 2019)

And on Windows there's a free Snipping Tool app to simply and quickly make screenshots.


----------



## PoppyeMac (Dec 20, 2019)

Jim Wilde said:


> And on Windows there's a free Snipping Tool app to simply and quickly make screenshots.


Was able to figure it out and it’s done and working in Lightroom. All my folders are under the Parent folder Photos in Lightroom. Thanks


----------

