# Wrong path every time when importing



## process (May 18, 2017)

Something strange has started to happen whenever I import new photos. I use the "Organize into one folder" and "Into subfolder:" options and now the subfolder shows up alongside the root folder in my library, not where I told it to go.
I can easily fix this by right-clicking on the subfolder after importing, "Update folder location" and telling it where the images are physically located on the hard drive, but it's a bit of a hassle to do this every time.
I'm using LR 6.7 (perpetual) on the Mac OSX platform.
Here's a detailed explanation of what I do/what happens when I import new photos:

*1)* In the import dialog I choose "_Organize into one folder_" and "_Into subfolder_" (giving it a suitable name, i.e. "_Paris vacation_") and import the photos, ensuring that the correct folder is chosen.

*2)* I start importing and the "_Paris vacation_" folder (with the new photos within) appears in the wrong place. Here's how my LR folders are organized and where the imported subfolder should go:

/Lightroom/
/Home/
/2015/
/2016/
/2017/
/2017-01/
/2017-02/
/2017-03/
/2017-04/
/2017-05/
/Paris vacation/   <-- Here's where the imported folder SHOULD go​
But the photos show up here instead:

/Paris vacation/   <-- Here's where the imported folder actually appears!
/Lightroom/
/Home/
/2015/
/2016/
/2017/​
*3) *If I drag the newly imported subfolder to "_2017-05_" I'm told that "_A folder named 'Paris vacation' already exists at this location_". This is actually true, because if I choose to "Show in Finder" that subfolder is found inside "2017-05" as I told it to, but for some reason LR doesn't understand this.

*4)* To solve the problem with that specific folder is that I right-click on it, choose "_Update folder location_" then tell it where the folder is found on the hard drive.

So how do I permanently solve this (for any future imports), and what could possibly have caused LR to do this in the first place? The only thing I can think of is that I might have imported photos from LR library/folders on my laptop, which has the same file-structure as on my desktop computer and LR has gotten confused.


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## Jim Wilde (May 18, 2017)

It's possible that you've run into the "capitalisation problem", which occurs when the capitalisation of part of the file path is changed. This causes no issue as far as the OS is concerned (it would see the folder name "Jim" and "jim" as the same folder), but LR is case-sensitive and would see "Jim" and "jim" as two separate folders. 

To check this, in the LR Folders Panel hover the cursor over the "Paris vacation" folder until a tool-tip pops up which shows the full path of that folder. Note that down carefully, paying close attention to the case of each letter. Then do the same for the "2017-05" sub-folder. Report back with the full path of each folder.


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## process (May 18, 2017)

I think you're on to something here.
I didn't find anything irregular with the folders by checking their names, but prior to reading this I tried to fix things further by doing a "Synchronize folder" which re-imported things. Everything appeared to be fine until I decided to re-check by selecting "Synchronize folder" again. Turns out that LR tells me once again that the exact same number of images inside one of the folders needs to be sync'd again! So obviously I can do this till the cows come home and nothing changes.

So I decided to do a "Show parent folder" of the topmost folder (or the "root" folder for the LR library if you like). It appears I have two parrallel folders structures running, and the incorrect one shows yet another subfolder after synchronizing something within the correct one. In other words, I'm having two identical file structures in LR where one has the right folder names and the other has the same folder names in ALL CAPITALS (highlighted in red below, by me), so what I'm seeing in LR now is:

/Pictures/
/LIGHTROOM/
/HOME/
/2015/
/2016/
/2017/
/2017-01/
/2017-02/
/2017-03/
/2017-04/
/2017-05/
/Paris vacation/​/Lightroom/
/Home/
/2015/
/2016/
/2017/
/2017-01/
/2017-02/
/2017-03/
/2017-04/
/2017-05/
/Paris vacation/​

The subfolders with the actual images in them (i.e. "Paris vacation" in the above example) don't have any capitalization issues. The subfolders within the "year-month" folders appear like they should, but in two places at once.
If I do a "synchronize folder" of "Paris vacation" (inside "Lightroom") it tells me that a number of images can be imported (that number being identical to what the same "Paris vacation" subfolder inside "LIGHTROOM") has, but when I actually try to sync I'm told that no photos or videos were found to import.
And if I go to "Paris vacation" (inside "LIGHTROOM") and do an "update folder location" and point the file-selector to the actual folder on my hard drive I'm told that the folder is already found in LR and it asks if I want to merge the two together. I say yes to that and the "Paris vacation" (inside "LIGHTROOM") disappears while the one in the other structure ("Lightroom") shows twice the number of images within (but only the correct number of images is shown, which is half of that), so I do a "synchronize folder" of "Paris vacation" (within "Lightroom") which again results in "Paris vacation" being created inside "LIGHTROOM". Frustrating! 

Since LR is obviously referring to two sets of paths named identically, but with ALL UPPER CASE as well as just a Capitalized version of the same, could I solve it by creating a brand new master/root folder within LR where I move everything (then delete the "LIGHTROOM" and "Lightroom" folders, and finally re-sync everything?


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## process (May 19, 2017)

I think I might have solved the problem by creating new parent folders (i.e. "Lightroom new", "Home new", "2017 new" etc.) then moving the subfolders to their new folders. Finally I deleted the erronous ones ("LIGHTROOM", "HOME") and renamed the ones with "new" in them back to their original names.


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## Jim Wilde (May 19, 2017)

OK, sounds as though you've figured it out. Let us know if you need any further help.


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## process (May 19, 2017)

Thanks.
yes, it appears to work now. "Show parent folder" helped to to see what was going on, then renaming the same filenames (i.e. so I didn't continue having both a "LIGHTROOM" and "Lightroom" folder. I think the problem may have appeared when I imported photos from my laptop (which has the exact same LR file structure as my LR in my desktop Mac). I should probably have a unique "export" folder on my laptop to avoid that.


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## process (Jun 6, 2017)

I spoke too soon!

It's started to act up again. I'm not sure what triggers it but it might be the "Into subfolder:" import option though that doesn't really make sense because it shows the new folder in the right place before doing the actual import. Just in case I deleted all the recent paths used.
As you can see in this screenshot, LR creates a new folder outside my file structure, but the actual folder is located within the same structure as before (only LR doesn't see it).


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 6, 2017)

Look at the 'Pictures' parent folder. You have two folders, one in all caps and one in lower caps (except for the first letter). Same for the Lightroom (Private & Family) subfolder below. The problem is at the level of the Pictures folder.


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## process (Jun 6, 2017)

Yes, both folders shown in the screenshot ("Pictures" and "PICTURES") point to the exact same file-path on my hard drive with the exception of the capitalization of "pictures".
There is no folder named "PICTURES" on my hard drive, just "Pictures". As suggested by Jim Wilde earlier in this thread I've tried holding the mouse pointer over each of the two folders to get the path they refer to.

Why is LR still insisting there's a folder named "PICTURES" when it's not there?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 6, 2017)

process said:


> Yes, both folders shown in the screenshot ("Pictures" and "PICTURES") point to the exact same file-path on my hard drive with the exception of the capitalization of "pictures".
> There is no folder named "PICTURES" on my hard drive, just "Pictures". As suggested by Jim Wilde earlier in this thread I've tried holding the mouse pointer over each of the two folders to get the path they refer to.
> 
> Why is LR still insisting there's a folder named "PICTURES" when it's not there?



The problem is that this folder *is* actually there. MacOS X does not see it as different from the non-capitalized folder however, because MacOS X is not case-sensitive (at least not by default, you can format a Macintosh disk in case-sensitive format if you want to). So what Lightroom shows you is real, but that doesn't make it less of a problem.

I leave it to Jim to tell you how to solve it. It's not that difficult and I can help you if Jim is not available, but you have to know what you're doing and he has dealt with this many times.


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 6, 2017)

Well, we can try the "normal" fix, but I don't recall seeing the "capitalisation" issue when the "wrong" parent folder was actually visible and with the same duplicated photo count. However, one thing at a time, so let's try the usual fix:

1. Backup your catalog. This is important, as it'll give you an immediate fallback position should the "fix" cause a problem.

2. Create a temporary folder somewhere outside the photos folder hierarchy. On a separate drive would be good, and somewhere easily accessible in Finder, such as on the Desktop. Call it something like "Capsfix".

3. Back in Lightroom, in the Folders Panel, right-click on the "LIGHTROOM (PRIVATE & FAMILY)" folder (must be the one all in capitals), and select "Update Folder Location".

4. In the resulting file browser, navigate to and select the "Capsfix" temporary folder. This should result in the entire "PICTURES" folder hierarchy disappearing, and now showing under the "Capsfix" folder. All the sub-folders will show as missing, don't worry about that. 

5. If the "PICTURES" (the one in capitals) folder is still showing in the list, but greyed out with a zero photo count, right-click on it and select "Remove".

6. Now, when all trace of that capitalised folder hierarchy has gone from the Folders Panel, right-click on the "Capsfix" folder and again select "Update Folder Location". This time navigate to and select the (correct) "Lightroom (private & family)" folder. You should likely receive a "Merge" warning message (basically telling you that some folders already exist, do you wish to Merge or Cancel). Click on Merge, and you should have everything back as normal, one folder structure.

If something doesn't happen as I've outlined, stop there and report back.

If it fixes the problem, you'll need to be vigilant to ensure that you spot when/if it happens again, and report back wih what actions you had been taking immediately prior to the recurrence.


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## process (Jun 7, 2017)

Jim Wilde said:


> Well, we can try the "normal" fix, but I don't recall seeing the "capitalisation" issue when the "wrong" parent folder was actually visible and with the same duplicated photo count. However, one thing at a time, so let's try the usual fix:
> 
> 1. Backup your catalog. This is important, as it'll give you an immediate fallback position should the "fix" cause a problem.
> 
> ...



Looking good! Yes, they disappeared. Good riddance! 




> 5. If the "PICTURES" (the one in capitals) folder is still showing in the list, but greyed out with a zero photo count, right-click on it and select "Remove".



No, "PICTURES" is still showing here, not greyed out and not with a zero count. The number of photos is the same as what's shown next to the "Pictures" folder.
Should I proceed with removing it and move on to the next step or has something gone wrong here?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 7, 2017)

Jim, I wonder if the fix shouldn't be done at the 'PICTURES' folder rather than the "LIGHTROOM (PRIVATE & FAMILY)" folder. After all, that folder shows both in all caps and not all caps too.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 7, 2017)

In fact, this seems to be a kind of 'double capitalisation problem'. Both folders exist twice, so in theory there can be four paths all leading to the same images:

Pictures/Lightroom
Pictures/LIGHTROOM
PICTURES/Lightroom
PICTURES/LIGHTROOM

So maybe you have to use the fix two times as well...


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 8, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> In fact, this seems to be a kind of 'double capitalisation problem'. Both folders exist twice, so in theory there can be four paths all leading to the same images:
> 
> Pictures/Lightroom
> Pictures/LIGHTROOM
> ...


Yes, you may be right, Johan. The reason I suggested doing the fix on the "LIGHTROOM (PRIVATE & FAMILY)" folder, is because if we'd started with "PICTURES" instead, that wouldn't fix the LIGHTROOM etc. sub-folder. I expected that the "PICTURES" folder count would have reduced to zero, hence my point 5, but as it hasn't then we're in uncharted territory. There are several different things we could try next, and several different orders of doing things, but probably the most likely fix would come from doing the double fix. 

@process, do I understand that you haven't done step 6 yet? If that's correct, proceed with it. On the assumption that there are no problems with the Merge, and assuming that "PICTURES" still remains with the non-zero photo-count, then repeat Steps 3 to 6 but this time in step 3 do the right-click>"Update Folder Location" on "PICTURES", and in step 6 when doing the same command on "Capsfix" this time navigate to and select "Pictures" (step 5 probably won't be needed as this time PICTURES should disappear when you do Step 4). 

Obviously let us know if any of this doesn't work. And take care of that backup you did in Step 1!!


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## process (Jun 10, 2017)

So the general idea is to merge the correct path's folder/sub-folders with an empty folder (Capsfix) which should straighten it all out?
I don't know if I might have messed things up further in all the confusion or the problems are bigger than first assumed, but it seems that no matter what I do the CAPITALIZED folders pop up again with the new imports.

Given that my photos are mostly organized by physical folders (i.e. as in organizing photos with Adobe Bridge), and the majority have their keywords saved; could I just rebuild everything from scratch using the "Synchronize folder" option by right-clicking on the drive's root folder?
Is there a way to start from scratch but still keep the collections?
Obviously the photos won't be there, but I have several smart collections which I want to avoid redoing.


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 10, 2017)

It'd be easier to try to figure out why it keeps happening and stop it. Are you saying therefore that the capitalized folders did disappear when you did the "fix", but they reappear as soon as you do a new import? If so, can we see a screenshot of your import dialog?


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## process (Jun 12, 2017)

I see what you mean -figuring out the cause might reveal other issues that can pop up later.

I'll give it another go, but at this stage I'm afraid I've just messed it all up too much (I use LR almost every day for adding new photos so it's inevitable), and I really don't know what action has caused which problem. I assume the first thing I have to do is reset things back to how they were before you posted the remedy, so I'll be applying it to the problem I reported and not some further problems I've added since then 

As you can see from this screenshot, it's even more messed up now:





As for the actual path-names (what I get when I hover the mouse over the folder names), this is what I'm getting for the following folders (~/ representing here the preceding file structure on my hard drive of course):

*Pictures*:  ~/Pictures/
*Lightroom (private & family)*:  ~/Pictures/Lightroom (private & family)/
*PICTURES*:  ~/PICTURES/
*Lightroom (private & family)  *PS: the one found underneath "PICTURES"*:  ~/PICTURES/Lightroom (private & family)/
LIGHTROOM (PRIVATE & FAMILY)* PS: the one found underneath "PICTURES"*:  ~/PICTURES/LIGHTROOM (PRIVATE & FAMILY)/*

NOTE: the above naming conventions are consistent to the sub-folders' paths as well*.*


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## Jim Wilde (Jun 12, 2017)

Well, that's different! Where have your 51k images gone? There's much that I don't understand on that screenshot, so at this stage I'd suggest reverting to the catalog backup that you took in step 1, post another screenshot so that we can confirm we're back where we started, and then we can try again. However, I'm beginning to think this is a lot more messed-up than normal, and may require a dedicated hands-on session with an expert....I know that Victoria offers a (paid for) remote help service, so something for you to consider if we can't figure this out using just screenshots.

BTW, is there any particular reason why you keep scrubbing out the names of the 4 folders at the top of the Folders Panel? Reason for asking is that there's another odd folder problem which is OSX-specific and which are visible mainly at the top of the panel, and it would be good to eliminate that as a potential confusion.


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## process (Jun 12, 2017)

I've just replaced the (even more messed up) LR catalog with the backup and created a new, separate catalog for temporarily importing any new photos. The only difference is that the total file count is now 51803 (instead of 51733 as in me previous screenshot). It's the 2016-06 folder which has 70 more photos though I don't know when that happened to the backup. 

The scrubbing of the folders (including the parent folders of "Pictures" is because I don't feel comfortable posting my entire hard drive paths publicly and I've heard it's not a smart thing to do). All seems to be as it's supposed to though (hovering over the folders and the drive name with my mouse to reveal their full paths).

I did noticed something very strange which might be worth mentioning: when creating the new catalog (for temporarily importing photos while troubleshooting all of this) I first noticed that when adding some new photos from a memory card the previously used sub-folder in the import window was there, so I assume this is related to LR in general on my computer and not to each specific catalog (I assumed all settings would be blank and empty).

The other strange thing is that after importing the new photos I noticed the file path (Library module) showing the "PICTURES" folder in all uppercase! Hovering over that folder and its sub-folders confirms that "PICTURES" is indeed part of each folder's path. So even with a new from scratch catalog the problem appears!


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 12, 2017)

There is absolutely no reason why showing the folder paths on your hard disk would be harmful. And because the capitalisation problem may even be at the level of your user name, it's wiser to show the full paths if you want to get this problem solved.


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## process (Jun 14, 2017)

I assure you the paths are as I just described them as I double checked it all.
I've taken a look at the new "temporary import" catalog I made, which has also gotten the same problem. So this time I did a "mouseover" in the import dialog for the folders I wanted to import them to. Interestingly, when mouse-hovering over the "Pictures" folder on my hard drive the tooltip shows me the correct path but with PICTURES in capitals which of course isn't how I named it in OSX.

Could it be an OSX problem and not LR? As Jim Wilde said in the start of the thread, LR is case-sensitive while OSX isn't. But something must have confused LR.
I see my problem isn't unique as others have run into this as well, but I haven't been able to track down a permanent solution (I tried

I have a Macbook Pro with LR (same version as far as I remember) as well, so perhaps I should try importing some new photos there and see if I run into the same issue.


*UPDATE:*
Following my discovery above when attempting to import some new photos (into the newly created library as it has less photos and I know it hasn't been messed up by me) I did the following:

1) In the OSX Finder I created a new folder named "Pix" in the root of my user-area (i.e. the same level as "Pictures"

2) I opened up LR, inserted a memory card with some new photos so I could start importing something. I also mouse-hovered over the "Pix" folder to check the path in the tooltip, and "Pix" was named exactly like that. No ALL-CAPITAL as with the "Pictures" folder.

3) in the import window I navigated to the "Pix" folder (I also created a couple of sub-folders, mouse-hovering over them to see if the paths appeared correct which they were), then imported the photos.

4) It all looked fine in the library module. In addition to mouse-hovering "Pix" and all its sub-folders (all looked fine) I did a final check by right-clicking on "Pix" to do a "Synchronize folder". There was nothing to synchronize.

so.... maybe next I should try renaming "Pictures" to something entirely different, or move all my photos over to "Pix", update their paths in LR, delete "Pictures", exit LR and rename "Pix" to "Pictures", then finally update the paths in LR to "Pictures".


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 14, 2017)

Pictures is a MacOS X folder. It is automatically created when a user account is created. I don't think you can rename or delete it just like that. MacOS X will probably restore it when you try.


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## process (Jun 14, 2017)

Restoring is good if it rebuilds it as it's supposed to be.

So I've just moved my "Lightroom (private & family)" folder over to my newly created "Pix" folder, told LR to find the missing folder, and all seems fine now! I even imported some new photos from a memory card. Worked fine!
So my conclusion at least is that there's something strange going on with the "Pictures" folder. Not only that, but by mousing-over the other folders in my user-area (while in the import section of LR) I found out that both "Pictures" and "Music" were shown as "PICTURES" and "MUSIC". The other folders were shown correctly.
Oh: I just checked my folders with the OSX Terminal (doing an "ls" in the root of my user-area) and all my folders look OK there ("Pictures" and "Music" among those). Nothing all-capitalized.

Is there anything I can do about that? If HFS+ (which my drive is, according to disk utility) is indeed case-insensitive, why do they show up as all UPPERCASE in LR (but not in OSX)?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 15, 2017)

They show up because the folders exist both in upper case as well as lower case. There really are two folders! To MacOS X that doesn't matter because the upper and lower case versions are considered one and the same (that is why MacOS X shows only one), but to Lightroom it does matter.

I don't think there is much you can do, apart from correcting it when it happens. The only real solution would be to format your disk as HFS+ Case Sensitive, but most people don't feel like doing that.


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## process (May 18, 2017)

Something strange has started to happen whenever I import new photos. I use the "Organize into one folder" and "Into subfolder:" options and now the subfolder shows up alongside the root folder in my library, not where I told it to go.
I can easily fix this by right-clicking on the subfolder after importing, "Update folder location" and telling it where the images are physically located on the hard drive, but it's a bit of a hassle to do this every time.
I'm using LR 6.7 (perpetual) on the Mac OSX platform.
Here's a detailed explanation of what I do/what happens when I import new photos:

*1)* In the import dialog I choose "_Organize into one folder_" and "_Into subfolder_" (giving it a suitable name, i.e. "_Paris vacation_") and import the photos, ensuring that the correct folder is chosen.

*2)* I start importing and the "_Paris vacation_" folder (with the new photos within) appears in the wrong place. Here's how my LR folders are organized and where the imported subfolder should go:

/Lightroom/
/Home/
/2015/
/2016/
/2017/
/2017-01/
/2017-02/
/2017-03/
/2017-04/
/2017-05/
/Paris vacation/   <-- Here's where the imported folder SHOULD go​
But the photos show up here instead:

/Paris vacation/   <-- Here's where the imported folder actually appears!
/Lightroom/
/Home/
/2015/
/2016/
/2017/​
*3) *If I drag the newly imported subfolder to "_2017-05_" I'm told that "_A folder named 'Paris vacation' already exists at this location_". This is actually true, because if I choose to "Show in Finder" that subfolder is found inside "2017-05" as I told it to, but for some reason LR doesn't understand this.

*4)* To solve the problem with that specific folder is that I right-click on it, choose "_Update folder location_" then tell it where the folder is found on the hard drive.

So how do I permanently solve this (for any future imports), and what could possibly have caused LR to do this in the first place? The only thing I can think of is that I might have imported photos from LR library/folders on my laptop, which has the same file-structure as on my desktop computer and LR has gotten confused.


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## process (Jun 15, 2017)

Aha!
I took a closer look at Disk Utility, and indeed there's an option for that.




 

I seem to recall however forum discussions/websites that warn against using it. So why on earth did Adobe choose to make the OSX version of LR _case-sensitive_ when the norm for OSX is _non case-sensitive_? Seems like the two have been going their own ways and in the process causing problems for us users.

Is there a hidden feature somewhere in LR perhaps which allows this feature to be turned off? Reformatting the drive is a hassle and I'm not sure about other implications, so I'd rather look for other solutions if there are any.

Following this revelation I have two questions:

1) when does LR see "Pictures" as "Pictures" and when does it see it as "PICTURES"?

2) Why do just the "Pictures" and "Music" folders show as all UPPERCASE in LR while the other standard OSX folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Library, Movies and Public) show up as I see them in OSX? Is there anything I can do in OSX so that those two folders don't appear in both ways to LR?


Until then it appears the solution is NOT to store any images related to LR in either of those folders (which is too bad as "Pictures" seems like a logical place to put them).


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 15, 2017)

I don't know how to explain it clearer, but it seems you still do not understand. Lightroom does not see 'Pictures' as 'PICTURES'. Lightroom sees that there are two folders, a folder called 'Pictures' and a folder called 'PICTURES'. It's MacOS X that does not see this.

Why this happens is anyone's guess, but it does not specificly happen with the 'Pictures' and the 'Music' folders. It can happen with the User folder too, and it can happen with any other folder. In fact, in your case it also happened with a subfolder of 'Pictures'...


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 15, 2017)

By the way: this problem is not Mac-spacific either. It can happen in Windows too. I believe it's because Lightroom uses paths, in order to keep the catalog platform-agnostic (although the path to a disk would be different). Apparently, paths are case-sensitive, although I'm not sure if that can't be changed.


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## process (Jun 16, 2017)

Well, this whole thing is a mystery. The problem appears to be gone, even after having moved the photos back to the "Pictures" folder. I've checked numerous folders and different catalogs but all mouse-over tooltips report the same case naming as in the OSX Finder now. I have no idea what I've done to recify the problem (or if I've done anything at all) or if it's just a random happening.
If it reappears I'm going to do the tooltip check and see if it helps to create a different folder to move the photos over to (as I did with the "Pix" folder).

Hearing that I'm not the only person who's run into this, has Adobe been notified about the issue and have been looking into it?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 17, 2017)

Yes, Adobe knows about it.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jun 19, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> I don't think there is much you can do, apart from correcting it when it happens. The only real solution would be to format your disk as HFS+ Case Sensitive, but most people don't feel like doing that.



And reformatting the OS drive as case sensitive would break most Adobe software anyway.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 19, 2017)

Victoria Bampton said:


> And reformatting the OS drive as case sensitive would break most Adobe software anyway.



Yeah, I even wonder if MacOS X would still install on such a disk.


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## process (Sep 30, 2017)

This problem appears to be coming and going.
I got it fixed and it's been fine for a long time, but recently it happened again while importing new images from a memory card. 
It occured to me that the catalog name I've used might be the cause ("Private & family"). Perhaps LR doesn't like spaces or special "special" characters, so I've just renamed it to "Private" instead, then told LR to "update folder location" to the root folder of all those images. Hopefully the problem will go away for good.
Does anyone else here have similar experiences with similar catalog names?


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 30, 2017)

process said:


> This problem appears to be coming and going.
> I got it fixed and it's been fine for a long time, but recently it happened again while importing new images from a memory card.
> It occured to me that the catalog name I've used might be the cause ("Private & family"). Perhaps LR doesn't like spaces or special "special" characters, so I've just renamed it to "Private" instead, then told LR to "update folder location" to the root folder of all those images. Hopefully the problem will go away for good.
> Does anyone else here have similar experiences with similar catalog names?



I doubt that the catalog name has anything to do with it. The underlying problem is not a Lightroom problem, but the fact that Lightroom is case-sensitive and your system software is not.


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## process (Oct 8, 2017)

Well, I'm going to try it anyway and see if it comes back again. 
I never had this problem before (and I used simple one-worded catalog names back then). You never know...


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 8, 2017)

It obviously doesn't hurt to use one-worded catalog names, so go ahead. But everything I know about this problem tells me that the catalog name has nothing to do with it.


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## process (Oct 8, 2017)

I'm curious: is this a problem every LR user runs into sooner or later, and is there a pattern to when it occurs?
Obviously the case-sensitive/insensitive file naming scheme of the OS is something that doesn't change back and forth, so it's hard to see what causes this in the first place (earlier in the thread I read that it doesn't just occur within Mac OSX either, but also on Windows systems running LR).

Being a LR perpetual user this whole thing might have been fixed now for those with the CC version, but if not it's something I'd call a crucial error which should be fixed ASAP and not acceptable for a serious piece of software such as this.


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## Jim Wilde (Oct 8, 2017)

No, it's not something that everyone runs in to. Although it's quite a common problem on the forums, it's likely that only a very tiny minority of Lightroom users will run across it. Probably the most common cause is "correcting" user names when moving to a new computer (e.g. it was "jim" so I changed it to "Jim" this time). If the images are in the user's Pictures folder, as is often the case, Lightroom's case sensitivity would see "users/jim/Pictures" as a different path to "users/Jim/Pictures", but the OS doesn't. Other causes are simply users correcting the case of a parent folder, e.g. changing "My Lightroom photos" to "My Lightroom Photos". Same effect.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 8, 2017)

process said:


> I'm curious: is this a problem every LR user runs into sooner or later, and is there a pattern to when it occurs?


Nobody knows. But I agree with Jim: it's probably just a small minority (I never experienced it myself).


process said:


> Obviously the case-sensitive/insensitive file naming scheme of the OS is something that doesn't change back and forth, so it's hard to see what causes this in the first place (earlier in the thread I read that it doesn't just occur within Mac OSX either, but also on Windows systems running LR).


Again, nobody knows. We don't now if Lightroom creates the problem by creating a second copy of the folder with a different case, or that the OS does. We only know that's what happens and that's what causes the problem.


process said:


> Being a LR perpetual user this whole thing might have been fixed now for those with the CC version, but if not it's something I'd call a crucial error which should be fixed ASAP and not acceptable for a serious piece of software such as this.


No, it has not been fixed for those with the CC version, because Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC2015 share the same binaries. They are identical applications, only the license changes what you do have in CC2015 and don't have in 6. Both are case sensitive, so both can run into this problem.


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## process (Oct 9, 2017)

Thanks. This is useful info to know. I do find it strange that even the Adobe programmers are clueless to what's happening.
I guess the "solution" is to plan ahead and stick with the catalog names you've chosen (something I haven't done, obviously).

My LR setup is pretty basic. It's really just an upgrade from the way I organized photos in Adobe Bridge, using descriptive folder names. I figure, that way things are well organized regardless of being used with LR, some other app or even just the OSX Finder. I just have a few collections and smart collections -nothing critical though it would be nice not to have to re-create them from scratch. I assume I could create a brand new Catalog (deciding on a name that I'd keep for good this time), then "Synchronize folders", using the root folders (i.e. 2016, 2017 etc. in my case) or even the main root folder for this.
I understand that as long as I've saved the metadata (_"Metadata"-"Save metadata to files"_) all keywords will be saved alongside any photos, but not video files perhaps.... I believe this has been answered in an earlier thread, so I'll look into that before attempting something like this.
Of course, I could always create a brand new catalog in addition to the existing one, so I'd have the old one just in case.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 9, 2017)

process said:


> I guess the "solution" is to plan ahead and stick with the catalog names you've chosen (something I haven't done, obviously).


As I've said several times now, I don't think *catalog names* have anything to do with this. We know *what* the problem is (and that does not involve the catalog name), just not what triggers it.

In my opinion there is only one thing you could try to prevent this from happening: What we normally see is that somebody uses 'normal' folder names to store the images, such as 'Lightroom Images' or something like that. Then, when the problem manifests itself, we see that a second folder has been created in ALL CAPS, so that folder is called 'LIGHTROOM IMAGES'. That leads me to believe that you can prevent this by using ALL CAPS names for your* image folders* from the beginning.

To repeat: I'm talking about the names of your *image folders*, not the name of your *catalog* file or folder.


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## process (Oct 9, 2017)

OK, got it. The image folders.
It's something I've changed as well, so I should probably have stuck with a name to begin with.

Well, at least the problem's been identified and fixes have been posted here to rectify it. I just wish it would go away for good.


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