# Disappeared photos



## luzz (Aug 4, 2013)

Hi,
i'm having an issue with LR5, i was editing a wedding photography work, 7000 pictures, and, as i decided to classify them by category and to put them in different folders in my computer (not using LR but directly on the finder) they now disappeared on LR. Only one picture appears in my folder, instead of the 7000... (but they are still on the computer). I've try to synchronize, but LR only propose me to import them again, without all the settings i had made..
I'm sorry if my question is obvious, but how to get back my pictures with all those settings cause it's a work i've been doing for 3 days and i'm really late now to start it all again !
Thanks a million, and sorry for my english.

Luzz


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## clee01l (Aug 4, 2013)

Welcome to the forum.   When LR catalogs your master image copies, it creates a reference pointer of the physical path location into the catalog database.  If you change that physical location outside of LR then LR has no idea where you moved the images.  Each image that is now "missing" to LR is shown by a (!) in grid view  and each missing Folder is shown with a (?) on the folder icon in the FLR Folder panel.   

The solutions to this is to 
a) Put everything back like it was and like LR has it cataloged.
or
b) Tell LR where you moved the "missing" images (image by image or folder by folder)   You can click on the (!) of any missing image and LR will pop up a message  telling you where the previous location is that is currently in the catalog and a {Locate} button to let you guide LR to the moved location. 

When you choose LR as your image organisatio tool, you should not ever use another tool for file organization with those images.


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## luzz (Aug 4, 2013)

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, LR is not showing at all those images, neither with a ! or a ? . There is only one picture appearing. I have no idea why all the others dont show off, when they still are on the computer. I have already put them back the way they used to be, but still, LR consider there is only one picture on the folder. (but in the finder, there really are my 7000 pictures). The only way to get them back seems to be reimporting it all.. do you have any other help ?
Thanks a lot !


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## clee01l (Aug 4, 2013)

*Do Not Reimport*. Reimporting is the last resort and usually is not necessary.  Let's not even think about going there unless we have exhausted all other possibilities. 

If in the catalog panel, the "All Photographs" collection is not showing a count that includes your 7000 images then you have probably opened a different catalog or started a new catalog by mistake.   If that is your situation, then you need to open the correct catalog containing your 7000 images. To Do this, in the {File} menu, choose {Open Recent} and you will see a list of the catalog that have been opened recently. The currently open catalog should be at the top of the list and checked. The second catalog in the list is most likely the one you want.


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## luzz (Aug 4, 2013)

i've checked whaat you say, but it's not in a recent catalogue. It was on this catalogue i'm still using right now. And the pictures are not appearing in "all photographs" except a mysterious one, that does ! if i remember well, this picture was the only one i had the time to say to LR its new location. LR found its new location, but then, as i was synchronizing, there was a bug, and now, as i'm saying, there is only this picture in the LR folder and nothing else.. another idea ? thanks !!


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## clee01l (Aug 4, 2013)

What is the COUNT showing in the All Photographs collection?  This is the count of all of the photos that you imported into this catalog and did not remove using the LR Remove option. 

In the mean time, use Spotlight to search for all of the catalogs that might be on your HD (Do you have more than one HD?)  Catalogs are a file with an extension of "lrcat" (that is an "L" not an "I").  Please report the names and path of any catalogs found with Spotlight.


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

Hi,
i did the search as you say, but i only have one main LR5 catalogue, all the others are this catalogue backup, but i dont have any backup just before this incident.  The count showing in ALL the photographs is 107380.. The count showing in the folder where i was working is 1 - instead 7000. I've turned from LR3 to LR5 recently, and also i moved from one mac to another recently, like 1 month ago, but this seems to have no link with the accident, because when i open the LR3 catalogue (whose last opening date is way before the accident), the missing pictures still dont show.


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2013)

With 107380 images cataloged, I think your missing photos were originally imported into another folder besides the one you are viewing.  
Pick a file name for one of the 7000 that are now missing and use the filterbar to find it in LR.
The {\} key will toggle the filterbar on and off. 
In the filterbar choose a Text filter.  Now create the filter {Filename}{Contains}{(yourFileNameGoesHere)}
The image should now appear in the grid view. 
If it does, right click on the image and choose {GoTo Folder in Library} from the context menu.
This should open the folder where LR cataloged that image. Once you have found this image, the others may appear along side it in that folder.  If they are shown as missing, then you already have my instructions for helping LR to adjust the folder path pointers


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

i did what you say, they don't seem to be in the catalogue. I had already searched for them with the filter, by date, but they didnt appear..


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

the only image appearing, is the survivor one from the 7000 pictures.. i have no clue :(


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

I'm trying to explain again what happend : i was working on those 7000 pictures, they were almost all developped, then i decided to categorized them by putting them in different folders, but for this, i used the finder, as i usually do. Then lightroom asked me with a "!" where the pictures are. I picked one picture ("the survivor one") and told them its new place, then i decided to synchronise the folder to see if LR understand where they all are, but while doing that, LR had a bugg and i had to quit. When i opened up back, LR only has this one picture in my folder, eventhought i put back everything like it used to be in the folder, and the 7000 seem to have disappeared from catalogue. When i do the synchronisation, LR propose me to import the 7000 pictures, he doesn't see them like double, he sees them like new pictures. Thanks a lot if you see another way to get them back, or to get back my settings..


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2013)

luzz said:


> ...then i decided to synchronise the folder to see if LR understand where they all are, but while doing that, LR had a bugg and i had to quit. ....


Synchronizing a folder will do two things. It will allow you to import (in place) any images in the folder that are not in the catalog. It also removes any images cataloged but missing and not in the folder.  From your description this sounds like what may have happened to you even though you say you killed LR mid process.  FWIW, I don't think there are bugs that cause LR to lock up. You probably should not have killed LR since anytime you do this can leave the catalog unstable and result in a corrupt catalog. 
I'm fresh out of ideas to recover your LR adjustments.  You will probably need to import these 7000 images into a backup catalog.  What is your most recent backup  date?  I'm reluctant to use this catalog since in the act of killing LR you managed to "lose" 7000 cataloged images. 

Can you put a copy of THIS catalog on a public site and share the link so that I can download the catalog and look for data associated wit a partial list of these 7000 missing files (I'll need a partial list too).


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

my most recent backup is from june.. ok all the fault on me ! 
i have no clue how to put this catalogue on a public site, and its weith is 983 Mo.. I think i might start doing all the editing again, but now you mention the fact my catalogue might be corrupt, i'm a bit worried.. should i start a new catalogue ? is there a way to transfer all the 107380 pictures with settings in it ? 
with this accident, i'm gonna be wayyy more prudent now.. thanks for informing me


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2013)

If you have DropBox, you can just copy the catalog file into the Public folder and right click on it to get the public link to share.  There are other file sharing services that use a Web page for uploading. They all work about the same including DropBox. A file gets stored on a Cloud server and a HTTP link to that file is generated.  Any one with that link can download the file.

At this point I would  A) Make a backup copy of this catalog. B.) revert to the June backup and try to determine which image files are not included in the june catalog backup that need to be imported. 

The act of backing up the current catalog will test the integrity of the possibly corrupt catalog. 
Another thing you can do on the current catalog is run the menu item {Library}{Find Missing Photos}  This will show you al of the cataloged images that can not be resolved with the path that LR has stored in the catalog.  You can also do this with the copy of the June Backup.  And you can compare the two results.


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

Here is the dropbox link :
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nib3bvksr6cqs8g/mJq6PRALM8
can you tell me if there is anyway to recuperate my settings ? if not i'm starting right now to reimport all the pictures and start it all again..
About what you said, i didnt understood what was the use of the June backup sorry ! Also i have many many pictures missing in my catalogue, cause i'm working with several hard drive (but this missing work was on the hard drive of the computer)


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2013)

Sorry, I should have said. You need to exit LR before copying the catalog file.  I do not need the previews folder or anything else in that folder.Just the "Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat" file. The "Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat" in Dropbox now has a zero byte length.  Possible this is because the local Dropbox folder has not sync'd with the Cloud server an May not if you are working with your 2 free GBs of Dropbox storage.  The Previews (lrdata) may exceed your free limits. I see a lot of temporary files in that folder which implies to me that you have killed LR a number of times in the past leaving these temporary files around and possibly data that did not get written to the catalog. 

If you don't have all of your cataloged HDs connected, then it is possible that the missing files are just on a HD that is off-line.  Were any of those missing files that turned up from the list of 7000?

As for starting over, I don't know which is the best catalog.  Make sure that you have at least two copies of the June backup and at least two copies of the master original.  That way it will be possible to fall back to the catalog state in June or the the current catalog before you attempt any more imports or changes to the catalog.

To recover your edit adjustments on the 7000 images, you/we first need to find them in the catalog. All of the adjustments are stored on the catalog.  The final adjustments may get written to the Original JPEG or DNG or a XML side car file *IF* you had in your catalog settings set to "Automatically write changes into XMP"

If you are under a time constraint, reimporting into one of the catalog copies might be quicker than waiting for me to search your catalog.  I still would like to search a copy of your catalog with a list of some of the 7000 image files. I can use some database queries that does not involve Lightroom and I can use Lightroom too even with none of the master images present on my  system.


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

Hello, i've erased everything from dropbox except the .lrcat , but it seems to be still long to download.. All those 7000 are in a folder in my computer HD, and not in an external one. 
I am a bit running on time, i would like to ask you if you can explain me what would you do once you can see the catalog, maybe i can try to restore those adjustements the way you would do it? or maybe could you take control of my computer through a software, to let you search in the catalogue.. if you have time and the kindness of course.


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

Anyway, i'm very glad you took time to help me, i feel a bit desesperated about all this work to do again.. actually it took me more than 3 days to make the selection and the adjustements..


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## clee01l (Aug 5, 2013)

luzz said:


> ... i would like to ask you if you can explain me what would you do once you can see the catalog, maybe i can try to restore those adjustements the way you would do it?.


If I get a catalog to look at, I'll try to find some of the 7000 images.  If I am successful, I can either point you to them on the master catalog or create a collection in the collection panel and send the updated catalog back. You can then open the catalog and re-link the cataloged images with the files that are on your computer. That is the only way you are going to get your adjustments back.  Since the odds of this happening at this point seem slim, you are are making up the lost time by reimporting.  If we have a miracle, then the reimporting work that you are doing on a copy of your catalog can be tossed. 

I just took a look at the lrcat file on DropBox.  It is still the zero length file and is not your real catalog file.  You need to CLOSE LR and copy a new copy of your master catalog file to that DropBox folder.


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

LR is closed, and i'm copying again (i put a screenshot of my LR folder for that you see what i have) but it's still not showing the lrcat with its real weight, i dont know why its taking so long time


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

ah its ready !! i hope its the good one, i cross my finger for that you can do smthg ! https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nib3bvksr6cqs8g/mJq6PRALM8


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## luzz (Aug 5, 2013)

precisions :
those missing picture are actually 7645 pictures, they are from 20 july 2013 and they are on a folder  : LLUM-20Juillet2013 . Their name is "20072013-IMG_0843" only the number after IMG_ changes. THANKS !


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## luzz (Aug 6, 2013)

hello,
did you found anything to help me ? thanks a lot


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## clee01l (Aug 6, 2013)

Lucille,  I did a thorough search and unfortunately I can not find but one image file that was imported in that time frame .  My only conclusion is that perhaps during a period of inattention you had these images selected and removed them from the LR catalog.  Removing an image is a two step process, but unless you are paying careful attention you may not notice that more images are selected that just those few that show on the screen. 

One good thing, the catalog file that you sent doe appear to be intact and stable.  So you can continue to use it. 

I am sorry that I am unable to help more.


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## luzz (Aug 6, 2013)

thanks a lot for your help..
it's really weird, cause i never erased them.. i know well the 2 steps questions of LR before erasing, and i could never have done such a thing, i was not tired at the moment doing that, so really i dont understand.. there was this crash, and then.. only one picture :(
thanks a lot for your help, i'm starting all again 
bye


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## luzz (Aug 4, 2013)

Hi,
i'm having an issue with LR5, i was editing a wedding photography work, 7000 pictures, and, as i decided to classify them by category and to put them in different folders in my computer (not using LR but directly on the finder) they now disappeared on LR. Only one picture appears in my folder, instead of the 7000... (but they are still on the computer). I've try to synchronize, but LR only propose me to import them again, without all the settings i had made..
I'm sorry if my question is obvious, but how to get back my pictures with all those settings cause it's a work i've been doing for 3 days and i'm really late now to start it all again !
Thanks a million, and sorry for my english.

Luzz


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## Photos (Aug 8, 2013)

clee01l said:


> Lucille,  I did a thorough search and unfortunately I can not find but one image file that was imported in that time frame .  My only conclusion is that perhaps during a period of inattention you had these images selected and removed them from the LR catalog.  Removing an image is a two step process, but unless you are paying careful attention you may not notice that more images are selected that just those few that show on the screen.
> 
> One good thing, the catalog file that you sent doe appear to be intact and stable.  So you can continue to use it.
> 
> I am sorry that I am unable to help more.



Hey Clee01 can I email you a question about an issues I'm having ? My email is [email protected]


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## clee01l (Aug 8, 2013)

Photos said:


> Hey Clee01 can I email you a question about an issues I'm having ? My email is [email protected]


Ask away. You can send me a private message by clicking on my screen name on the left and choosing Private message from the context menu.


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## Photos (Aug 9, 2013)

clee01l said:


> Ask away. You can send me a private message by clicking on my screen name on the left and choosing Private message from the context menu.



I don't see a private message option


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## clee01l (Aug 9, 2013)

Photos said:


> I don't see a private message option


You probably need to go to the General Settings of your Profile settings and turn on "Private Messaging"


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## Photos (Aug 9, 2013)

clee01l said:


> You probably need to go to the General Settings of your Profile settings and turn on "Private Messaging"



I tried that I can't seem to find it under general or profile


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 9, 2013)

It may be unavailable (as an anti-spam measure) until your post count reaches a certain limit. This is very much the case with being able to attach screenshots, for example, so the same restriction may also apply to PMs.

If you don't see the "Private Message" icon when you click on a username in the left-hand box of one of their posts (see attached) then I think that'll be the problem. I thought Victoria was going to reduce the limit to 5 posts, so it might now be an option as you've reached that number....


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## Photos (Aug 9, 2013)

Jim Wilde said:


> It may be unavailable (as an anti-spam measure) until your post count reaches a certain limit. This is very much the case with being able to attach screenshots, for example, so the same restriction may also apply to PMs.
> 
> If you don't see the "Private Message" icon when you click on a username in the left-hand box of one of their posts (see attached) then I think that'll be the problem. I thought Victoria was going to reduce the limit to 5 posts, so it might now be an option as you've reached that number....
> 
> View attachment 3850


 Boom just like that it appeared Thank you guy's !!!


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 9, 2013)

Jim Wilde said:


> I thought Victoria was going to reduce the limit to 5 posts



You remembered correctly!


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 9, 2013)

LOL, that makes a pleasant change these days!


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