# I'd appreciate some assistance to reload Lightroom please.



## 3dogs (Aug 16, 2014)

Just had a video card that died replaced for me.  Upon re-opening LR there are no images at all.

Lightroom is still there!

The various catalogue folders are there as set out prior, just no images in the libruary view.
When I select My Lightroom folder with all 2000 plus images (broken up into Sub-folders) it says there is 250 odd Gb and the next step appears to be "Import"

Is that the correct path?

Thanks


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 16, 2014)

NO! Do not reimport!

Have you opened the correct catalog? Why not post a screenshot of the Folders Panel in Lightroom and we'll sort thing out from there....


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 16, 2014)

When you say the folders are there, can you see grey squares where the thumbnails should be?  Could be a corrupted monitor profile.


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## 3dogs (Aug 17, 2014)

*Corrupt Catalogue!! Eeek!!*



Victoria Bampton said:


> When you say the folders are there, can you see grey squares where the thumbnails should be?  Could be a corrupted monitor profile.




I went to the LR backup performed days before the card failure. I went to the backup created a couple of weeks ago. I also went to Pictures where Adobe put a catalogue.

ALL show a total of 14,000 plus images, of which 1% are showing as images, and the rest are simply gray squares with no image.

In Bridge all my images are there as saved and can be viewed fine.

Every time I have had an issue that required restoring the backup LR its been the same story, I have had to start over, because there IS no backup. THE PROCESS OF BACKING UP AS OUTLINED DOES NOT WORK full stop so there is clearly something I have not yet grasped.

As I understand LR cat is simply the data base containing image information, each time it backs up it creates a new current dated version. NO NO NO it does NOT. there is only one version and its only part, not dated no list, just an incomplete LR showing one drive and some Collections.
Images are stored separately, and need reimporting each time. Clearly this is not correct so Im needing your help please to get on the RIGHT track.



My profile is:

Drive C: where I have all programs inc LR5, LRcat
Drive E: Documents only
Drive F: where I have key image backup
Removables:
Drive G: where I have all originals + backup + Widows mirror
Drive D: where I have LR cat backed up. comes on line for backups only

Thus my LIGHTROOM was structured to reflect that, EVERYTHING that appeared in Bridge was replicated in LR, ALL those drives were replicated faithfully.

I've never had to do a screen grab, would appreciate advice on how to do it so I can post


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 17, 2014)

OK, a few issues here to deal with. Let's start with backup:

When you use the LR backup option you are creating a backup copy of the current catalog, which is stored in a location of your choosing (the default location is a sub-folder called "Backups" inside your main catalog folder). Inside "Backups" each time you run the catalog backup Lightroom creates a time-stamped sub-folder containing one file - the backup catalog, which has the same name as the master catalog. And that's it.....your images are NOT backed up by this process, they are not "in" the catalog, only "referenced" by the catalog, so backing those up is the users responsibility. 

So if you haven't got a backup routine in place for the images, you need to sort that out asap.

But first we have to deal with the current problem. Unfortunately the screenshot isn't quite giving me what I wanted, as it's not showing all the information I need. What I see from it is that a small part of the image library is on the "C" drive (possibly these are the only thumbnails you can see), but those images with the grey thumbnails are indeed "offline or missing", and this remainder of your images Lightroom *thinks *are on either the "F", "H", or "I" drives. So could you expand those drives in the Folders Panel so that I can see the folders listed below (I don't need to see all the folders, just the top-level folder(s) for each drive). 

Once we have established that, i.e. where does Lightroom *think *your images are, we can then tell it where they *really *are. This may be a simple problem of Windows changing the drive letter of an external drive. We'll see. So if you can repeat that screenshot for us, that would be very helpful.

One other matter to address is why the thumbnails are grey for the missing images. Is that screenshot by chance from one of the backup catalogs? When LR takes a backup it doesn't backup the previews cache either, so if you open a backup catalog when the image library is "missing", then Lightroom is unable to generate new previews for those missing files, hence the grey thumbnails. If you open the prime catalog instead, you should still have "missing" pictures but you should also have the original previews so that you should see proper thumbnails.


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## 3dogs (Aug 17, 2014)

Thanks, back soon!


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## 3dogs (Aug 20, 2014)

The replaced Video card, was the unexpected outcome from taking the Computer in to have the brand new Samsung Evo SSD looked at. My computer was freezing, a symptom seen with this SSD and Win 7.......apparently! The Drive C: is what I call the Processing Studio, and that is where LR resides.
Well prior to going in for Surgery here was a System Reserved Drive (H that is created by the Samsung in order to protect it from having too much data written to it, a fatal action..
I just noticed that it is not there..........BUT LR is saying Drive H: has images stored in it.
I am beginning to think that they have fixed me up good and proper here!

Lr is has shown up all over the place, not just in Processing Studio C: where it belongs, and is incomplete in ALL cases.

I have had a look and all the key images are preserved.  My gut feel is to get one of the MANY versions, reload and Delete unwanted copies??

Here is the expanded panel of the RH one on C:






Here is the Contents of LR in the expanded list below











Thanks in advance

Andrew


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 20, 2014)

Well it's great news that your hardware's sorted.

When you say "Lr is has shown up all over the place", you mean you have duplicate catalogs all over the place?  What are the dates against those files?  Where are your backups stored?

Don't panic about Lightroom showing the drive letter incorrectly - they can get switched round.


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## 3dogs (Aug 21, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Well it's great news that your hardware's sorted.
> 
> When you say "Lr is has shown up all over the place", you mean you have duplicate catalogs all over the place?  What are the dates against those files?  Where are your backups stored?
> 
> Don't panic about Lightroom showing the drive letter incorrectly - they can get switched round.



First the question of dates. I am now thinking that these are backups I made for safety so there are various dates, So I did asked LR to do a backup on each of three drives which answers your second question. 

NOW all the photos on G: are missing, if I ask LR to locate them it is saying they are on H: which is the last backup location??


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 22, 2014)

This should simply be a matter of telling Lightroom the files are not on H: but are on G:.

But before doing that, can you post a screenshot of the folder structure on the G: drive using Explorer? I'm hoping there's a top level folder called "My Lightroom Pictures" on the drive, if there is can you expand that folder so that we can see at least the next level down before taking the screenshot? Thanks.

Or do you mean that the photos that you thought were on G: are actually not there? If so I'm a little confused as to where YOU think the images actually are. Once we can establish that we'll be off to the races...


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## 3dogs (Aug 23, 2014)

Jim Wilde;153270

But before doing that said:


> _This should simply be a matter of telling Lightroom the files are not on H: but are on G:_
> 
> Ok for starters I am very much self taught, and not really a computer oriented brain so please take that into account
> 
> ...


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 23, 2014)

To be honest I'm really not following the story so far, but hopefully that doesn't matter. 

Irrespective of what went before, what I see now appears to be a folder structure under "My Lightroom Pictures" that Lightroom thinks is on an H: drive, but in reality that folder structure is on your G: drive, yes?

If so, open up Lightroom, then in the folders panel right-click on the "My Lightroom Pictures" folder and select "Find Missing Folder" from the context menu that appears. A file browser window will open, use this to browse to and select that "My Lightroom Pictures" that you've just shown on the G: drive. Make sure you select the "My Lightroom Pictures" folder, NOT the "Lightroom Folder" that sits just above it.

Once you've made that selection, all the "?" folders will disappear from under the H: drive, the G: drive will appear and all the folders should now be listed under G:, with no "?" marks.

Try that and let us know how you get on.

As an aside, generally speaking (which means always!) Victoria's instructions will work if you are applying them correctly to the correct situation.
Also, Lightroom makes an excellent job of carrying image metadata from release to release....if you update the catalog using the correct procedure. Sure, if you reimport everything into a new catalog then you will lose all the metadata, but that's the wrong way to upgrade. If, when you next want to upgrade (e.g. to LR6 whenever it's released), check back with us here *before *you try the upgrade and we'll point to to the correct method.


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## 3dogs (Aug 23, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> To be honest I'm really not following the story so far, but hopefully that doesn't matter.
> 
> Irrespective of what went before, what I see now appears to be a folder structure under "My Lightroom Pictures" that Lightroom thinks is on an H: drive, but in reality that folder structure is on your G: drive, yes?
> 
> ...



*As an aside, generally speaking (which means always!) Victoria's  instructions will work if you are applying them correctly to the correct  situation.*

Agree, sadly LR 5 is SO fraught with bugs that its a nightmare, picking the correct option to apply to the correct situation is out the window here at the moment.......see below







I have NO idea where this piece of nonsense came from. This morning when I opened LR it went straight to the Lr.cat saved in C: closed it normally and went to explorer to snip for you.


Essentially what has happened is this: 

The last catalogue backup I did was to save the (then) current catalogue in C; to an external.....Drive I: - that was then ejected and permisson granted to disconnect.

It appeared to have done that ok because I returned to LR the next day and it was normal

Later next day the computer is disconnected and taken to a repair shop. Video card failed and replaced,

Computer reconnected at home......Lr status upon opening! -_* LR had of its own volition wiped drive G: and replaced it with H:,  *_( see the screenshot from a previous post)
Drive H: was a system reserved Volume of Drive E: nothing to do with LR, never been connected to LR EVER!!!!

The backup LR recorded can be seen in the screen shot refered to above.....it not only invented a drive but it also obliterated the record of the drive it was supposed to be protecting AND left 1100 of the 1400 plus images data unrecorded.....

This copy of LR is posessed, the devil has it in its grasp, now we need to find the appropriate incantation to exorcise it :mrgreen:

Cheers


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 23, 2014)

I'm sorry to say it... but I'm not sure I've seen any Lightroom bugs in your description so far.  Some user confusion, for sure, and Windows messing with drive letters.  Which bits do you think are bugs?

I may repeat things Jim's said, as I'm typing as I'm studying your posts, so consider it confirmation of Jim's comments.  I'll confuse myself more by going back and editing (sorry Jim!)

Your screenshot in post 4 is showing grey squares because you've opened a backup catalog (it doesn't back up previews as they'd take up too much space) and the photos aren't where Lightroom's expecting so it hasn't been able to build new ones yet. 

When you go to Locate, read the "last known" path in the dialog, and then ignore it and navigate to where the photos are now.  That last known path is information only, to help you identify the photos, and Lightroom doesn't control the location of the next dialog that comes up (as you've noted, because it showed your last save location).

Explain what you mean by "I mean when I open the computer there is an empty Lightroom there naked as brand new unused."  That sounds like it's unable to find your last used catalog and so it's opening a catalog at the default location.

"Please correct me if I am wrong, but my strategy was this : LR + Lr.cat and all other programs on C:,-all 'working' images on G: 
-all backup images ( same images as working on multiple external drives."

That's perfect.  Now we just have to make LR match that, because your Lightroom catalog believes the photos are spread around multiple drives, and I don't believe that's related to this issue.

That last screenshot in post 13 confirms that your OPERATING SYSTEM (not Lightroom) has been messing drive letters around, even recently.  That error message is saying the last catalog you had open was a backup catalog on drive H - or the drive that the operating system was calling H at the time.  That's why, when you next opened Lightroom, it opened an empty catalog.

So where are you up to now?  Have you got your main working catalog back on the C drive in the right place?  And have you been able to open it?  And how does the Folders panel look now?


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## 3dogs (Aug 23, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I'm sorry to say it... but I'm not sure I've seen any Lightroom bugs in your description so far.  Some user confusion, for sure, and Windows messing with drive letters.  Which bits do you think are bugs?
> 
> I may repeat things Jim's said, as I'm typing as I'm studying your posts, so consider it confirmation of Jim's comments.  I'll confuse myself more by going back and editing (sorry Jim!)
> 
> ...




Victoria and Jim,

I have restored LR as it was, Jim actually gave me the clue to the problem I had created the 2TB G: folder, but not the over arching My Lightroom Pictures folder. So what I did was find missing and that self created the missing inside a new My Lightroom Pictures, that was the clue I needed and just repeated the find missing and they reappeared inside the new MLP, which now sits under the main folder







Sounds, and probably is wrong/convoluted/ prone to error......but its working, and I will NEVER, EVER do another Lr.cat backup again - EVER


BIG  *THANKS* to you both,

Andrew


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 24, 2014)

Great job.

Now, I can see 3 more volumes listed in your file browser.  Do they have photos inside them, and if so, are those photos really stored on drive G too?

I've just replied to your PM about backup locations - I really would recommend continuing to do them.  Just check where they're going this time!


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## 3dogs (Aug 24, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Great job.
> 
> Now, I can see 3 more volumes listed in your file browser.  Do they have photos inside them, and if so, are those photos really stored on drive G too?
> 
> I've just replied to your PM about backup locations - I really would recommend continuing to do them.  Just check where they're going this time!



I'm not sure I understand what you mean by volumes Victoria, simpler please,
G: is the 2TB and that is a USB 3 external
C: is a 500Gb Samsung Evo SSD, onboard
F: is a 500Gb 10, 000rpm  Raptor HDD, onboard
I: is a 1TB USB 2 external, disconnected

Each has ALL my images.

As to backups, I am over reloading lightroom v1, 2, 3, 3, now 5  
where I sit right at this moment......my honest opinion is that in management and organisation, I have not had this much difficulty since Lotus 123.....I read and read and non of it goes anywhere for me.
Believe me its something I am either doing or not doing, but I can follow an instruction to the letter, AND THE INTENDED OUTCOME IS NOT THERE, and believe me I am not alone.
There is a PS user just joined the Camera Club and I am in hopes she is a Lightroom user so I can visit with her to pick what it is I am messing up.
Cheers


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 24, 2014)

Look at your screenshot again - I've put red arrows against the extra volumes.  If you've correctly located all of the files, these should now be empty because you've told me all of your working files are stored on drive G.  Are they empty?


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## 3dogs (Aug 25, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Look at your screenshot again - I've put red arrows against the extra volumes.  If you've correctly located all of the files, these should now be empty because you've told me all of your working files are stored on drive G.  Are they empty?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 25, 2014)

3dogs said:


> My entire portfolio (100%) of images is contained in a folder called My Lightroom Pictures. My Lightroom Pictures has 3 *backups*, in G: - on F: and on I:
> 
> _*Whilst Lr and .Lrcat reside on C: there are no images on that drive. Lightroom links to G: only to find images.*_
> 
> ...



OK, a few things need clarifying:

You've said that Lightroom links only to the images on the G drive, but I think that's not correct. Look at the All Photographs number (14686), then look at the number of images on the G drive (12601)....so that means that there are more than 2000 images that Lightroom has cataloged that are NOT on the G drive. Furthermore, if there are no cataloged images on a drive, Lightroom will not list that drive in the Folders Panel, so the fact that Lightroom is showing C:, F: and I: as well as G: means that there are images *on all 4 drives in your catalog.* You perhaps need to inspect those drives in Lightroom to understand what images are on them, then decide if they should be on the G: drive instead.

Generally speaking, it's probably better if the backup drives are NOT included in the Lightroom Folders Panel, as that could lead to serious confusion about what are original files versus what are backup files.

Regarding catalog backups, let me just say I am a little perplexed by your assertion that Lightroom has never created a "Backups" folder when running the catalog backup process, as that most definitely is the default location. However, it is possible to change that default, so perhaps that is what you have done. I suggest you post a screenshot of the backup dialog box when you next run a backup....as you can see from the attached, you can hover over the path in the Backup Folder box to see the full path to the chosen location for your backups.


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## 3dogs (Aug 25, 2014)

Jim,

I always 'assumed'!! that the difference was the images that I had brought onto Lightroom then "Removed" 

Cheers,

Andrew


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## 3dogs (Aug 25, 2014)

3dogs said:


> Jim,
> 
> I always 'assumed'!! that the difference was the images that I had brought onto Lightroom then "Removed"
> 
> ...




And now, after I did that save






and






If I click on ANY of the individual folders in F: the folder disappears "poof" as you see here some have gone already.......


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 25, 2014)

3dogs said:


> Jim,
> 
> I always 'assumed'!! that the difference was the images that I had brought onto Lightroom then "Removed"
> 
> ...


 
No. If you remove an image it is, well, removed from the catalog, and that includes the total photo count in All Photographs. So that 2000 difference are genuine photos (they may of course be duplicates, but that's for another day).


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 25, 2014)

3dogs said:


> And now, after I did that save
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Andrew, I suggest you stop doing whatever it is you are doing and explain exactly what you mean by "did that save". What "save"?


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## 3dogs (Aug 25, 2014)

Jim Wilde said:


> Andrew, I suggest you stop doing whatever it is you are doing and explain exactly what you mean by "did that save". What "save"?



Drive F:was entire and all images connected/registered/recognised by Lightroom prior to doing a backup/save.
If I select a folder click and option to find missing, that folder disappears from F: drive in Lightroom.

I can get my Lightroom operating the way I want it, and it has functioned that way for ....well 3-5 years. As soon as I do a lrcat backup the whole thing falls apart.
Jim I am thinking now that you are right when you say that I should have only one drive on LR, not because I get confused, but because LR is just not up to managing.

Clearly it cant cope with having the catalogue on one drive, and multiple image sources (drives) referencing that central data source. In other words it is incapable of hub and spoke operation.

If thats the case is it perhaps an option to have each drive with its own catalogue? In other words multiple catalogues by drive rather than by subject?

What I am trying to avoid, if I can is having the SSD C: full pf program data  AND images, at the same time I want to be able to view the contents of my other drives via Lightroom.

By doing that when I process an image in C: all I have to do is copy it immediately to multiple drives ( G,F & I), sync. has never been a problem for me, I dont need third party programs to tell me where the mismatches are because I keep the entire thing up to date in real time as I do it.

Andrew


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## 3dogs (Aug 16, 2014)

Just had a video card that died replaced for me.  Upon re-opening LR there are no images at all.

Lightroom is still there!

The various catalogue folders are there as set out prior, just no images in the libruary view.
When I select My Lightroom folder with all 2000 plus images (broken up into Sub-folders) it says there is 250 odd Gb and the next step appears to be "Import"

Is that the correct path?

Thanks


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 26, 2014)

Andrew, if Lightroom's not up to managing multiple image sources on different drives, exactly how do you think the hundreds of thousands of other users with huge libraries are managing? It DOES work. There would be a massive outcry if it didn't, and so far you're the only person I've seen with a thread quite like this. 

You say that all of the photos are correctly showing a single drive until you do an lrcat backup, so go ahead and get all of the photos re-linked correctly under the G drive and let's see a screenshot of that. And then once we've confirmed that, let's see screenshots of each step you take after that, in running the backup and the messy folders panel you say results. Before and after the backup, I also want you to go to Edit menu > Catalog Settings and tell me the full path of the catalog that's open, to confirm you're not accidentally opening the wrong catalog.


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## 3dogs (Aug 26, 2014)

You say that all of the photos are correctly showing a single drive  until you do an lrcat backup, so go ahead and get all of the photos  re-linked correctly under the G drive and let's see a screenshot of  that. And then once we've confirmed that, let's see screenshots of each  step you take after that, in running the backup and the messy folders  panel you say results. Before and after the backup, I also want you to  go to Edit menu > Catalog Settings and tell me the full path of the  catalog that's open, to confirm you're not accidentally opening the  wrong catalog.                         

This is as my LR is right now,

G: is fine, and F: was an EXACT copy of G, its not now because:

  " * Drive F:was entire and all images connected/registered/recognised by Lightroom prior to doing a backup/save.
If I select a folder ( in F  click and option to find missing, that folder disappears from F: drive in Lightroom.* " 

Immediately after lrcat save/ backup it looked as shown in post 24 above.

when next I accessed LR this :    






Note G: is fine but F: has changed.

Here is explorer and this is what F: looked like:







*to confirm you're not accidentally opening the  wrong catalog.                         
*

There is only one catalogue now and its on C: post 23 above the rest have been gone for days - deleted.

If I try Find missing tonight 26th I get this, not deleting anymore















In assembling this I have arrived at a decision, that is......... G: is good, C: is good so I am going to clear F: and start again. I have the day off tomorrow so we will see what comes. I am sure its just me doing something wrong.

Cheers,

Andrew


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 26, 2014)

I can't see your screenshots, but if you're comfortable, we'll leave you to it!


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## 3dogs (Aug 28, 2014)

Well its done, I REMOVED all images from F: drive. I took Victorias advice and made screen shots of every preparatory step, and every step from then on. 

Having now reloaded all the images I require, and despite the fact that I vowed never to do so again I did a backup before and after the process.....with no ill effect! 
On previous occasions when I reopened Lightroom after say 12hrs  the problems above showed up. I have just reopened LR and its entire, as it should be.

One phenomenon has me curious though, 
My master Image file was *copied*, 12,139 images in total into a new folder on F: drive, ( a newly created EMPTY folder)

.....that folder has 14,808 images in it......I can open any subfolder and look at each set  lets say for example images of my daughter. On drive G: there are 34, but when that folder is copied to an empty folder in F:drive it has 88 images....and the images are there and they are not from another folder or drive...looking at them they don't cause me to remember deleting them, or trying to delete at some stage in the past, it just confounds me as not possible!! 

Anyway, conclusion, creating a backup on drive C: then deleting all others seems to have cleansed the problem (whatever that was) and the two backups I have made caused no issues at all. I have the backups set for each time I close LR for now to test if its going to fall over again.

Thanks for your help, I have taken on board everything that has been said.......so till next time

Cheers,

Andrew


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## Medwyn (Aug 28, 2014)

Image counts can be very confusing. I came from Aperture on the Mac and transferred 47,000 images from within Aperture into a folder structure on a new internal HD. Image counts between the two programs really do not match. I ended up going round in circles trying to figure out where about 2000 images had gone!
Some were RAW+JPEG, some were files that LR does not import (PDF and GIF I think). Some were duplicate. 
I also discovered that the filesystem counts the folders in the item count as well as the images, so this also makes for confusion. 

So if you have a different number in the LR catalog to what the filesystem shows some of the discrepancy may be the folder count and some may be RAW&JPEG of the same name in the same folder (the JPEG gets ignored unless you change the prefs). I can't believe you have 2600 or so folders though.


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## 3dogs (Aug 28, 2014)

Medwyn said:


> Image counts can be very confusing. I came from Aperture on the Mac and transferred 47,000 images from within Aperture into a folder structure on a new internal HD. Image counts between the two programs really do not match. I ended up going round in circles trying to figure out where about 2000 images had gone!
> Some were RAW+JPEG, some were files that LR does not import (PDF and GIF I think). Some were duplicate.
> I also discovered that the filesystem counts the folders in the item count as well as the images, so this also makes for confusion.
> 
> ...



The folders match EXACTLY, its the image count variation thats got me. I would have thought that a "copy" command from one file to another, within the same program would deliver the same number of images in each folder.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 29, 2014)

There isn't exactly a 'copy' command in Lightroom, so I'm not quite sure what you're doing there.

Where are you looking for those image counts?  You do only have each photo showing once in Lightroom, don't you? You don't want your backup drive catalogued separately as you won't know which set of photos has your edits.


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## 3dogs (Aug 29, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> There isn't exactly a 'copy' command in Lightroom, so I'm not quite sure what you're doing there.
> 
> Where are you looking for those image counts?  You do only have each photo showing once in Lightroom, don't you? You don't want your backup drive catalogued separately as you won't know which set of photos has your edits.



What I am referring to is the different image count when a master folder containing (12139) images is imported into Lr  as Volume G:

Then the same master folder ( said to contain 1213 images) is then imported into Lr as Volume F: and F: has an image count of 14808

If you look at the image count in the two Volume Labels there is a significant difference, 2669 images to be exact.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 30, 2014)

So my question is how exactly did you 'copy' them to the other drive? 

And I'm also questioning why the same photos are imported into Lightroom on both drives.  That's going to cause confusion if you ever have to use your backup drive, as the photos under one drive will have your settings applied and the photos under the other drive won't... and it won't let you connect up the ones with settings with the other drive because the other drive is already in the catalog.  I can foresee chaos....


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## 3dogs (Aug 30, 2014)

*So my question is how exactly did you 'copy' them to the other drive? 
*
Same way I got your question from your post to here. I use Bridge a LOT as it displays images regardless of type and it is very functional and versatile.

*And I'm also questioning why the same photos are imported into Lightroom on both drives.

*I do that so that my backup images and files are kept up to date in case I need them. I figure in a drive failure situation I will only require a short while to be back up and running again with a mirror thats up to the moment.
I tried SyncToy and programs like that early on, did not like them so developed my own solution that does fit for me.

*That's going to cause confusion if you ever have to use your backup  drive, as the photos under one drive will have your settings applied and  the photos under the other drive won't... and it won't let you connect  up the ones with settings with the other drive because the other drive  is already in the catalog.  I can foresee chaos.... 						
*
No more so than if the the drive was stored in a cupboard  for safe keeping and had to be activated due to primary drive failure.  In point of fact I am FAR better off, because its constantly updated and is absolutely ready to use.

Cheers,

Andrew


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 31, 2014)

Ah, ok, so the copy didn't involve Lightroom.  In that case I'd guess there are some photos in your folders on your other drive that weren't imported into Lightroom (at least at that location...)

Yes, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your system of copying the photos to another drive.  It's having the photos imported into Lightroom at both locations that will cause you problems.  Think ahead a little... the photos on the backup drive are showing up in Lightroom because you've imported them at that location as well as the working location.  Except the working ones have your Lightroom edits, and the backup ones don't.  There are two scenarios.  1 - if the same photos are in the catalog at two different locations, they become more difficult to search, more difficult to remember which ones you're meant to be editing, etc.  And 2 - if your main drive dies, you'll probably want to link the edited files in Lightroom with their location on the backup drive, but it won't let you because the photos are already in the catalog (unedited) at the backup location.


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## 3dogs (Sep 1, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Ah, ok, so the copy didn't involve Lightroom.  In that case I'd guess there are some photos in your folders on your other drive that weren't imported into Lightroom (at least at that location...)
> 
> Yes, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your system of copying the photos to another drive.  It's having the photos imported into Lightroom at both locations that will cause you problems.  Think ahead a little... the photos on the backup drive are showing up in Lightroom because you've imported them at that location as well as the working location.  Except the working ones have your Lightroom edits, and the backup ones don't.  There are two scenarios.  1 - if the same photos are in the catalog at two different locations, they become more difficult to search, more difficult to remember which ones you're meant to be editing, etc.  And 2 - if your main drive dies, you'll probably want to link the edited files in Lightroom with their location on the backup drive, but it won't let you because the photos are already in the catalog (unedited) at the backup location.



Inside Lr I only process images on one drive. All collections are associated with the same drive, I only print out of one drive/ volume. I have only one main lightroom folder.
I sync but all other activities are in Bridge.
Now that I can do backup am I not just recording a slice in time........Lr is dynamic, evolving, changing, growing........each backup is just a verticle slice?


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 4, 2014)

So the other drive doesn't need to be imported into Lightroom then...

You asked in your PM, "why I cant fathom HOW it is that I copy a folder with 12000 pics and get a folder from it that has 14000"

It's very possible that there are photos in the folder on the first drive that haven't been imported into Lightroom, but that got copied to the second drive as they were silently in those folders.

The backup is a complete copy of the catalog at that point in time.


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## 3dogs (Sep 5, 2014)

Ok assuming that some images did not import from the original, if I then sync at say a single folder level, a folder with just 30 imges showing in Lr with 35 on the main drive- should I then expect to see a sync dialogue box that tells me that there are 5 new images to import?

Thanks
Andrew


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 5, 2014)

Yup, that's right


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## 3dogs (Sep 6, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Yup, that's right



Pity, thought we may have sorted where the extra images came from.

 See Lr thinks it brought all the original images on to G: drive. When I now sync. Lr vol. G: back to the master file in explorer it tells me that there is nothing incoming. But somewhere I am remembering (in the recent past) that something did talk about some images being "hidden"...........what is that telling me, and how would I get at those images?, or will the extra images in that 35 showing, be the 5 that are showing in the 'copy' but not in the originl, if yes then what causes/creates this hidden status for an image?


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 6, 2014)

Images could be hidden by filters or closed stacks.  If it's filters, you'd turned off the filters.  If it's closed stacks, you'd go to Photo menu > Stacking > Expand All Stacks.


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## 3dogs (Sep 9, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Images could be hidden by filters or closed stacks.  If it's filters, you'd turned off the filters.  If it's closed stacks, you'd go to Photo menu > Stacking > Expand All Stacks.



Wow!
Has that thrown the cat amongst the pidgeons........!!!!!!!
Looking at DIGITAL PROJECTS says there are 59 images in Lr
Unstacked as suggested found 4 images
Found 1 image hidden, removed filter
Counted images on the Home drive G: 68
Counted unstacked images in Lr (on G: drive) 63
So thanks for that, step one sorted.
Now to use the same process to find out where the additional images came from on the copied F: drive.

Cheers,

Andrew


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