# how to create file folders



## sie (Feb 28, 2020)

Hello,
I recently moved my photo folders from windows 7 to windows 10 and now they are no longer in folders.  What I have is a long stream of photos. Could someone tell me how  to put my photos into folders with titles?
Thank you.


----------



## clee01l (Feb 28, 2020)

How did you move them and the master catalog?   

Lightroom does nothing except what you tell it.  
How closely does what you did match these instructions:  How do I move Lightroom to a new computer?


----------



## sie (Mar 1, 2020)

I burned all my folders to DVDs and I'm downloading the DVDs to Lightroom.  Each photo has the folder title underneath it.
I did not  have or read the instructions you asked about.


----------



## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (Mar 3, 2020)

> I'm downloading the DVDs to Lightroom


Could you describe exactly the process/command you use to accomplish this?


----------



## clee01l (Mar 3, 2020)

sie said:


> I burned all my folders to DVDs and I'm downloading the DVDs to Lightroom.  Each photo has the folder title underneath it.
> I did not  have or read the instructions you asked about.


If you simply copied the image files to the DVD and from the DVD to the new computer, you may have ignored the folder structure on the old computer and copied these into a single folder on the DVD.   It is important that you copy the folders and the containing the images from the olde computer to the new computer.   Burning them to a DVD and then transferring them again to the new computer is probably slower than making a computer to computer transfer across your network.

It is essential that you follow these instructions: How do I move Lightroom to a new computer? | The Lightroom Queen and do the transfer again.  I don't think there is any easy way to fix what you have done.


----------



## sie (Mar 13, 2020)

Philippe Coudé du Foresto said:


> Could you describe exactly the process/command you use to accomplish this?



Hi,
Sorry for the delay in responding. I was very busy.
So, in answer to your question, I download to a third party image viewer and then I import to LR.
The third party image viewer is called FastStone and it is a free download.
Using a third party image viewer was the only way to put my photos onto Windows 10. It is one of about six accepted by Microsoft.  Get the list online.
By the way , a lot of people were and are having difficulty putting their photos onto Windows 10.
It is this difficulty with Windows 10 that has caused my problems with how my photos are displayed in LR.


----------



## sie (Mar 13, 2020)

sie said:


> Hi,
> Sorry for the delay in responding. I was very busy.
> So, in answer to your question, I download to a third party image viewer and then I import to LR.
> The third party image viewer is called FastStone and it is a free download.
> ...



I'm not sure if you want to know the following but here goes:  every time I upload photos from my camera ( about 400 photos per upload ) I burn that file to a DVD and I do the same with every altered photos folder I create ( also about 400  entries ).


----------



## sie (Mar 13, 2020)

clee01l said:


> If you simply copied the image files to the DVD and from the DVD to the new computer, you may have ignored the folder structure on the old computer and copied these into a single folder on the DVD.   It is important that you copy the folders and the containing the images from the olde computer to the new computer.   Burning them to a DVD and then transferring them again to the new computer is probably slower than making a computer to computer transfer across your network.
> 
> It is essential that you follow these instructions: How do I move Lightroom to a new computer? | The Lightroom Queen and do the transfer again.  I don't think there is any easy way to fix what you have done.


----------



## sie (Mar 13, 2020)

clee01l said:


> If you simply copied the image files to the DVD and from the DVD to the new computer, you may have ignored the folder structure on the old computer and copied these into a single folder on the DVD.   It is important that you copy the folders and the containing the images from the olde computer to the new computer.   Burning them to a DVD and then transferring them again to the new computer is probably slower than making a computer to computer transfer across your network.
> 
> It is essential that you follow these instructions: How do I move Lightroom to a new computer? | The Lightroom Queen and do the transfer again.  I don't think there is any easy way to fix what you have done.



I agree that what I would like to do will be time consuming but what I want to know  is what the process is for creating a folder in LR and then putting photos into the newly created folder.


----------



## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (Mar 13, 2020)

> By the way , a lot of people were and are having difficulty putting their photos onto Windows 10


I never heard about that. Putting photos on Win10 is just a matter of copying files to a Win10 storage as in any OS. From the OS point of vue, photos files are no different from other files.
Do you try to copy them directly from the camera or from a card reader ?


----------



## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (Mar 13, 2020)

> I want to know  is what the process is for creating a folder in LR and then putting photos into the newly created folder


The process in LR is to "Import" the photos. This means that the files will be referenced in the LR database and the photos visible in LR.
If the files are already in the computer stored in folders you created when copying them, you can ask the LR import process to just referenced the files and let the files where they are already stored.
If the files are still in the camera on the SD card, you can ask LR to copy the files on the HD during the import process in a location (HD and folders) you set in the import interface.

Keep in mind, that the files are not in LR, they are just referenced in the LR database, whereever they are in your computer.
Once referenced in LR, the files/folders can be manipulated (moved/renamed) within LR, in the Folder panel of the Library module. This panel will act exactly as the File Explorer of Windows (in fact it will ask File Explorer to do the move/rename for him, and update the LR database with the new name/location).


----------



## clee01l (Mar 13, 2020)

sie said:


> I agree that what I would like to do will be time consuming but what I want to know  is what the process is for creating a folder in LR and then putting photos into the newly created folder.


There are at issue two things here.  In your initial post,  you said 





sie said:


> I recently moved my photo folders from windows 7 to windows 10 and now they are no longer in folders.


.   Lightroom Stores all of the work that you do on images (including the folder location) in the Lightroom Catalog file.  This is why the link that I referenced earlier is so important —  How do I move Lightroom to a new computer? | The Lightroom Queen
_*The import process is not involved when moving your Lightroom data to a new computer.*_

The second issue is unrelated to moving your Lightroom files to a new computer. Normally folders are created in the import process or in the Folder panel .  The only way to get the path to your image files into the database that is the Lightroom Catalog file is to use the import process  or to create a folder in the Lightroom Folder panel .   If you do not import directly from the camera card, and your image files are already in folders created by Windows Explorer or some other app (FastStone) then you still need the import proceed and it "ADD" function to catalog the image files and the path to those files.  

The simplest workflow to get images recognized in Lightroom is to use a Cardreader and read the files from the card using the Lightroom Import process.  This uses the Lightroom Import COPY process which copies the image files from the camera card to a destination of your choosing in the Import Destination panel.  In the Import Destination panel, you can either let Lightroom create the destination folders for you using one of over a dozen 'date named' folder schemes or you can create manually your desired subfolder in the Destination panel.   Note in this workflow, the Import Dialog can replace the  extra work that you are doing with FastStone.  

There has never been any difficulty copying  photos onto Windows 10.   Anything that you may have read is false information.   If you insert your camera card into a card reader, Windows will recognize that card of images and want to copy them automatically into the Pictures folder and open the Windows Photo app.    If you are using Lightroom Classic as your image manager, you will want to stop Windows from doing the automatic image copy and even remove the process from Windows start up so than it does not interfere.   If you have Lightroom running at the time you insert the camera card into the card reader, Lightroom will automatically invoke the Import dialog.

There appears to be a lot of misunderstanding about how Lightroom works.   You could probably benefit from the free eBook download that Victoria has created for people just like you FREE Lightroom eBooks


----------



## sie (Mar 14, 2020)

Philippe Coudé du Foresto said:


> I never heard about that. Putting photos on Win10 is just a matter of copying files to a Win10 storage as in any OS. From the OS point of vue, photos files are no different from other files.
> Do you try to copy them directly from the camera or from a card reader ?



I did not want to use One  Drive because it is a cloud storage service and I don't like cloud storage. I also don't like or use  Bing and Outlook. 
Re: your question - I haven't yet uploaded from my camera to Windows 10 but when I was using Windows 7 I uploaded directly from my camera with no problems at all.


----------



## sie (Mar 14, 2020)

clee01l said:


> There are at issue two things here.  In your initial post,  you said .   Lightroom Stores all of the work that you do on images (including the folder location) in the Lightroom Catalog file.  This is why the link that I referenced earlier is so important —  How do I move Lightroom to a new computer? | The Lightroom Queen
> _*The import process is not involved when moving your Lightroom data to a new computer.*_
> 
> The second issue is unrelated to moving your Lightroom files to a new computer. Normally folders are created in the import process or in the Folder panel .  The only way to get the path to your image files into the database that is the Lightroom Catalog file is to use the import process  or to create a folder in the Lightroom Folder panel .   If you do not import directly from the camera card, and your image files are already in folders created by Windows Explorer or some other app (FastStone) then you still need the import proceed and it "ADD" function to catalog the image files and the path to those files.
> ...



Thank you for this info. I am going to take a few days to digest all of this.


----------

