# Are these files necessary?



## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 17, 2017)

Lightroom version: CC 2015.12 [ 1125239 ]
License: Trial
Operating system: Windows 10
Version: 10.0
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64


Sorry, dont know whats happened below, or why my "licence" reverts to trial all the time. Have had Adobe assistance to solv
  e it 2 now, but stiil does it.
_(Please go to Help menu > System Info to double check the exact version number)_

Question or Description of Problem: I am in process of transferring my image files to a new ExtHDD and have noticed these files.
Are both of these necessary?
Can one     or other or any parts be deleted.
You'll notice the one I have added "2" to will not open for me.
look forward to hearing. thanks in advance.


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## Victoria Bampton (Oct 17, 2017)

All of the Temporary Import Data ones can go. You'll want to keep the others.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 17, 2017)

Thank you.
Now I cannot connect my new ext HDD. 
I have transferred all files/folders, parent and sub folders to a new drive that I now want to be my working drive. I have read and listened to a swag of tutorials. In fact I last did this about 3 years ago, no problems, but this time I can't get to being able to point to the new drive.
I imported a few files but can't get any more across without importing. I read that is dangerous as I'll lose all the work that been done on nearly 60,000 images.
How do i resolve this one Victoria please.
Thanks 
Brian


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 17, 2017)

*Don't import*. What you need to do is right-click on the parent folder and choose 'Update Folder Location'. In the dialog that follows you navigate to the same folder on the new disk. Select it and the entire folder hierarchy will now be used from the new disk. Some people find they have to restart Lightroom before it shows correctly.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 17, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> *Don't import*. What you need to do is right-click on the parent folder and choose 'Update Folder Location'. In the dialog that follows you navigate to the same folder on the new disk. Select it and the entire folder hierarchy will now be used from the new disk. Some people find they have to restart Lightroom before it shows correctly.


Uh! thank you. Simple when you follow the correct procedure. Thanks so much. All done now.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 18, 2017)

Brian Scantlebury said:


> Uh! thank you. Simple when you follow the correct procedure. Thanks so much. All done now.


Well I thought it was all done.
I then went on to erase files from the old drive, after doing some work on the new drive (K) then disconnect the old one (E) and reconnect the new one (K).
Somehow the new drive disappeared from my catalog and recently used catalogs, and now I cant get it back.
See attachment of catalog panel.
When I go to Recent Catalog (in File) the K drive isn't there.
 see attachment
When I go straight to + under folders I get taken to K drive, but if I open anything within, there's nothing there.
If I click on one and try to point LR at it I get taken to IMPORT. Been told NOT to import.
However, if I open K through explorer, the images appear to be there.
What can I do, need to do please?


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 18, 2017)

I'm not sure what I am supposed to see here. The middle screenshot shows Lightroom with an opened catalog and the images don't seem to be missing. So what is the problem exactly? You should see the K drive in the folders panel, but there is no screenshot of that panel. Why are you looking for it in the recent catalog menu? Is the catalog that Lightroom has open right now not the correct one?

P.S. I'm going to delete your exact same question in a new thread. No reason to ask this twice, and the answers would only be scattered and duplicated.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 18, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> I'm not sure what I am supposed to see here. The middle screenshot shows Lightroom with an opened catalog and the images don't seem to be missing. So what is the problem exactly? You should see the K drive in the folders panel, but there is no screenshot of that panel. Why are you looking for it in the recent catalog menu? Is the catalog that Lightroom has open right now not the correct one?
> 
> P.S. I'm going to delete your exact same question in a new thread. No reason to ask this twice, and the answers would only be scattered and duplicated.





JohanElzenga said:


> I'm not sure what I am supposed to see here. The middle screenshot shows Lightroom with an opened catalog and the images don't seem to be missing. So what is the problem exactly? You should see the K drive in the folders panel, but there is no screenshot of that panel. Why are you looking for it in the recent catalog menu? Is the catalog that Lightroom has open right now not the correct one?
> 
> P.S. I'm going to delete your exact same question in a new thread. No reason to ask this twice, and the answers would only be scattered and duplicated.


Thank you and sorry for the confusion.
Firstly, the catalog you saw is the wrong one.
it is the only one that opens up, I'm not even sure how it got there, it certainly isn't intended to be a separate catalog.
The reason I tried to show the recent catalog menu was to show what comes up if I look there for the K drive catalog that I had, or thought I had, when I copied the file from my E drive to that new one (K). Before I cleared the E, (original drive) I made sure the K (new one)was working.
After disconnecting the cleared E drive I had to disconnect the K drive to switch power and USB positions.
It was then that I could not find the files in LR.
I have managed to get the K drive to show in the folders panel, however, I cannot connect my files to it.
Update Folder Location takes me to the K but when I click on folder 2009 I get those 77 images that are NOT in 2009 and I see they have the !.
Have attached the Folders Panel screen shot and K drive.
Hopefully these comments clarify my confusing first attempt and you can help and perhaps also let me know what I have done wrong to get to this situation.
Thanks again.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 18, 2017)

I see a folder called 'Main Lightroom Catalog' on your K: drive. Is that where the correct catalog is? If so, open that folder (in Explorer) and double-click on the catalog file. Lightroom will start up and normally it will remember that new location from now on, but check in the Preferences - General tab. There you can set which catalog should be opened. Maybe it's still set to the old one. Either set it to this catalog, or to 'Most recent catalog'.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 18, 2017)

Thanks again, When I open that folder I get Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
When i double click on that it asks "how to open", when I click on Lightroom  I get the confirm window attached.
At this point I stopped.
I then tried your suggestion of looking at the Preferences  - General tab and i get as attached.
So clearly, I am still not doing something right.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 18, 2017)

If that catalog is really your main catalog, then you have to check why it is not writable. It could be that the file is locked, or maybe the folder. That is a Windows thing, not a Lightroom thing.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 18, 2017)

thanks, it get more frightening for me.
I have tried another route.
In K I right click on Main Lightroom Catalog
then get a drop down and click on "Open" then get Lightroom Catalog.lrcat.zip
Should I try and unzip?


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 18, 2017)

I said each time "_*if* that is indeed your main catalog_". It seems to me that this is *not* your main catalog, but a backup. Backups are zipped.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 18, 2017)

Well I don't know how to distinguish sorry.
It is a direct transfer from my previous working version E drive. I took that to be "main catalog" as I had been using it for years as such.
Could that status have changed by my copying to a new drive?
What would un-zipping do?
Could I then access my lightroom catalog?
I understand if I import the files I'll lose all my workings. Is that correct?
Is there a solution?
Thanks again.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 18, 2017)

The catalog and your images are two different things. By default, Lightroom stores the catalog inside your Pictures folder on your internal drive, so the catalog was only on your E: drive (and presumably then copied to the K: drive) if you specifically moved it to the E: drive some time in the past. If that is true, then it should now be on your K: drive and it should not be zipped. It should be in a folder, and should be accompanied by a folder called '<CatalogName> previews.lrdata'. So look for that combo. If you did not move your catalog to the E: drive in the past, then it's still on your internal drive in the Pictures folder.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 18, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> The catalog and your images are two different things. By default, Lightroom stores the catalog inside your Pictures folder on your internal drive, so the catalog was only on your E: drive (and presumably then copied to the K: drive) if you specifically moved it to the E: drive some time in the past. If that is true, then it should now be on your K: drive and it should not be zipped. It should be in a folder, and should be accompanied by a folder called '<CatalogName> previews.lrdata'. So look for that combo. If you did not move your catalog to the E: drive in the past, then it's still on your internal drive in the Pictures folder.


Sorry to be so dumb and keep being a nuisance
Have been using LR for about 10 years, but clearly don't know much.
I did move move my catalog, or my image files not sure of the the difference as i figured the catalog was just the sum total of all my images, to E. the intention was to reduce demand on the internal. I had been successfully using this for years.
It was from the E drive I copied the files to K.
Also have a further drive, I call Backup. Have looked at that, seems same to me.
Have found folder called Lightroom Catalog previews.irdata ( Attached screen shot) It is inside K Lightroom Catalog.lrcat. is that the one you suggest looking for?
Have also looked at the internal drive. In that there is a folder  I've labeled "Internal Drive.." and attached
If i click on that I get the 3 rd attach,ent I've labelled "Internal drive inside...:

Does any of this throw more light on what I've done, and what i now need to do.
Appreciate all your help and time.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 18, 2017)

You do have a Lightroom catalog in your Pictures folder, so now the question is if that is the current catalog or perhaps an old one. Check the modification date, that will at least tell you something. I think it's probably an old catalog however.

You also have a folder called 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' on the K: drive, but that is a bit confusing. This 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' is a *folder* and by itself that is not a problem because you can give the catalog folder any name you like. But the Lightroom catalog  is normally also called '_Lightroom Catalog.lrcat_', and that's a *file*, not a folder. Inside that 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' folder, there are a bunch of old lock and journal files, there is a 'Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata' folder and a 'Lightroom Catalog Smart Previews.lrdata' folder. But the 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' *file* is missing. This is probably your main catalog folder, but then something went wrong during the copying process.

OK, so here's how you can solve it. First, delete all those 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat.lock', 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat-journal' and 'Temporary Import data' files inside that 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' folder on the K; drive. Now we have to get a valid recent copy of the catalog file... Do you still have access to that E: drive? On an earlier screenshot of that E: drive the 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' folder _does_ contain a 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' file. So somehow it didn't get copied. If you do have access, copy that file into the 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' folder on your K: drive and double click it. That should do it. If you don't have access to the E: drive anymore, then indeed you should use a backup. Look inside the 'Backups' folder shown inside the 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' folder. Get the most recent zip file and unzip it. If everything is correct, it should unzip to become a 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' file. Move that file out of the Backup folder into the root of the 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' folder and again double click on it.

On more advice: although it's not necessary for Lightroom to function correctly, I would rename that 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat'' folder to '_Lightroom Catalog Folder_' before you do the double clicking. Just so it not so confusing anymore...


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 19, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> You do have a Lightroom catalog in your Pictures folder, so now the question is if that is the current catalog or perhaps an old one. Check the modification date, that will at least tell you something. I think it's probably an old catalog however.
> 
> You also have a folder called 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' on the K: drive, but that is a bit confusing. This 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' is a *folder* and by itself that is not a problem because you can give the catalog folder any name you like. But the Lightroom catalog  is normally also called '_Lightroom Catalog.lrcat_', and that's a *file*, not a folder. Inside that 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' folder, there are a bunch of old lock and journal files, there is a 'Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata' folder and a 'Lightroom Catalog Smart Previews.lrdata' folder. But the 'Lightroom Catalog.lrcat' *file* is missing. This is probably your main catalog folder, but then something went wrong during the copying process.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much again, I don't access to the E drive now, so will have follow the route you've provided.
I did look at the Pictures folder on the internal drive and went to properties. This is what I found, just in case it offers any solution thought I'd pass it along. The folder is dated 18/11/13, so old as you suspected. The last entry in properties is 11/10/17 as you can see from the screen shot.


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## Brian Scantlebury (Oct 19, 2017)

Brian Scantlebury said:


> Thanks so much again, I don't access to the E drive now, so will have follow the route you've provided.
> I did look at the Pictures folder on the internal drive and went to properties. This is what I found, just in case it offers any solution thought I'd pass it along. The folder is dated 18/11/13, so old as you suspected. The last entry in properties is 11/10/17 as you can see from the screen shot.


Wow, brilliant, thank you for your persistence. I seem to beck in full operation. The system went through some unexpected operations and fixes along the way, but I boldly followed them and yippee.
Have a couple of odd things arrive in my Folders, like an M folder, with a lot of images with question marks, but I assume they are redundant, so will look to delete these.
Also want to ask 1 more question (hopefully).
What do I now do with the lock and journal files etc in the attached. What can I dispose of, or should I dispose of.
Again, much appreciated.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 19, 2017)

The lock and journal files are created when Lightroom is running. They should be automatically deleted when the program quits. Older copies can remain when Lightroom doesn't quit properly, like after a crash or if you had to force-quit Lightroom. In that case you should delete the lock file manually. Keep the journal file for one more restart. If it still remains after that, then you can trash it too.


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