# Moved catalog to new drive semi-successfully...but all Develop edits are lost



## buzzlonghorn (Mar 2, 2012)

I really wish I had found this forum before taking action....
I have found similar posts but nothing that has my exact issue because I started moving things before asking advice.
My C: drive was full so I wanted to move my 300+GB of photos to a separate internal hard drive (F
I made a directory in the F: drive called My Pictures and then (in Lightroom) dragged the Lightroom folder from C: to F:.  This included the sub-folders Backups, Catalog, Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.lrdata, and Lightroom Settings as well as the files Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat (not sure why I still have this) and Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat.
All pictures moved over nicely but I just noticed that none of my Develop edits moved.  So all my RAW files (~9000 of them) are "straight out of the camera".
I THINK the problem may be that I still have the folder C:\Users\Jake\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom on the C: drive, but I didn't want to go monkeying around any more before asking someone who has a clue (as I clearly don't).

Thanks in advance.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 2, 2012)

Hi, welcome to the forum.

OK, going to need a couple of screenshots here, as I'm not sure exactly what you've done. For a start, I'm not certain how you could have dragged a folder within Lightroom that contained the active catalog. Lightroom won't allow that, so the question is, what DID you drag and drop?

The screenshots we need (for starters, there may be more needed later) are a shot of the Folders Panel in the Library Module with all top-level folders showing, and then a screenshot of the General Tab of the Catalog Settings (Edit>Catalog Settings>General Tab), like this:




Get those done and we can start trying to work out what's gone wrong. See this post for help in taking and posting screenshots.

BTW, your thought that you need to move the Lightroom settings from default location to fix the problem isn't really relevant, I'm afraid.


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## buzzlonghorn (Mar 2, 2012)

Thanks for the reply Jim.  I appreciate your help.  Here are the screen shots:


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 2, 2012)

Thanks for the screenshots, though I have to say I'm a little concerned at what I see. If you have indeed 'lost your edits' (and presumably all other metadata: keywords, ratings, etc), the obvious inference is that you have re-imported the 9000+ pictures again. This is reinforced by the fact that LR still thinks there are 9322 pictures on the C drive in what looks suspiciously like the same folder hierarchy (although obviously I can't see what's below "Lightroom" on the C drive).

So a couple of questions:

1. Is it possible that you re-imported all images after moving them to the F drive?
2. Can you expand the structure on the C drive in the Folders Panel, and tell me if the hierarchy is the same as on the F drive?


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## buzzlonghorn (Mar 2, 2012)

I didn't re-import, but I did "Synchronize" the F: drive folders a few times (the picture counts weren't matching the actual folders...later figured out it had to do with some XML and PSB files).  I don't think this is the same thing, but (obviously) I don't know.
I will add the additional screen shot when I get back home.  Thank you.


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## buzzlonghorn (Mar 2, 2012)

Here are screen shots of the C: and F: drives.
I think they are pretty similar, but definitely not identical.  There is no (shown) C: folder at the top of the actual tree (there is an F: folder), the folder is called My Pictures in one and just Pictures in the other, and there are a few folders missing in the C: tree ("Cool", "Funny Pix", and "GT").


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 3, 2012)

I agree the two sets of folders aren't identical, though they are close enough for me to suspect that your 'missing edits' may be associated with the C drive folders, and not the F drive.  

The next thing to do is check this....start comparing selected images from the C drive with its counterpart on the F drive. On the C drive the file will be 'missing or offline' though you will still be able to see all metadata associated with it, including any develop history. Let me know what you find out, and based on your findings we'll try to put a recovery plan in place. 

One more question...do you have a recent catalog backup that was taken prior to your folder/drive reorganisation. That may be the best option, but don't do anything yet.


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## buzzlonghorn (Mar 4, 2012)

It's exactly like you describe: all the develop settings, keywords, etc. are "there' in the C: drive, but all photos are "not found".  Same thing with my Collections; they are "there" but "not found".
I do have backups.  I backup on every exit and save them all.


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 4, 2012)

OK, have been doing some testing, and I think it should be possible to recover the situation without having to revert to a pre-move catalog backup (which in any case will still be in trouble as the files are no longer where the catalog thinks they are).

The thing is, the procedure to do this recovery is a little complicated and is going to take me a little time to document, time that I haven't got right now. I'll try to get it done this evening (my time).


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## buzzlonghorn (Mar 4, 2012)

I really appreciate your help and look forward to seeing what you come up with.  Thank you!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 4, 2012)

The problem we're facing here is that in essence (give or take a few new folders), the majority of your library in Lightroom terms is duplicated. Although it physically exists only on the F drive, Lightroom has duplicate references to the library on both the C and the F drives. Unfortunately, all your edits seem to be associated with files that are 'missing', i.e. the C drive.

Because the library is mostly duplicated, the normal remedial action (of telling Lightroom that the missing files/folders on the C drive are now on the F drive) can't work.....Lightroom can't know which of the two sets of files/folders are the correct ones, so refuses to merge the two sets. So we have to find a different solution. This basically involves 'removing' the duplicated 'My Pictures' folder hierarchy from the F drive, then relinking the 'missing' My Pictures hierarchy from the C drive to the F drive. This restores all your edits, which is good, but fails to take account of the changes that seem to have happened to the F drive hierarchy, which is not so good. To get around this problem we therefore need to 'export as catalog' the F drive My Pictures *before *removing it from the catalog, then re-importing it as a catalog *after* relinking the C to F drive hierarchy. There will likely be some residual clean-up required, as the photo counts from many of the year folders are not exact....where there is a small discrepancy it would seem that you have culled some images from the F drive folders. If you also deleted the images from the drive, then you'll end up with some 'missing files' after relinking (easily dealt with), but if you didn't delete them then you'll get them back in the catalog after the relink. This might be a more difficult clean-up, as you'll have to try to figure out which ones you culled.

Anyway, that's the outline of the recovery action. The specific instructions are as follows (but please note that if something doesn't happen the way I describe, or you aren't sure about something, *stop *the procedure and get back to me):

1. *Ensure you have an up-to-date catalog backup**. *Just in case this procedure goes awry, you get easily then get back to the starting point.

2. Working in Lightroom, in the Folders Panel, click on the My Pictures folder *on the F drive. Note: * this is the My Pictures folder (with the 9182 photo count) listed immediately under Lightroom>Catalog, and *NOT *the My Pictures folder listed immediately under the F drive. 

3. Ensure that you have no filters active, then do Ctrl-A to select all the images. Verify in the breadcrumbs bar (immediately above the filmstrip) that the total number of images selected is the same as the photo count alongside My Pictures.

4. When they are all selected, go to File>Export as Catalog. A dialog box similar to this will appear:



You need to enter a name for the exported catalog, and choose a location. In my example, I have used the name "Exported" for the catalog, and chosen to create it on the Desktop (where it will be easy to find later). Whatever name and location you use, make sure you can find it later!

Also note the two checkboxes at the bottom of the dialog box....ensure that you *uncheck *the "Export Negative Files" option, but you can check the "Include Available Previews" option. Though thinking about it, most of the existing previews aren't going to be needed (the ones from the C drive will be used instead) so it would speed things up if you don't check that box either.

5. Once the "Export as Catalog" operation has completed, the next thing to do is to remove the same 'My Pictures' hierarchy from the catalog. So, to do this you will need to *right-click* on the *same My Pictures hierarchy on the F drive*, then choose "Remove" from the context menu that appears. You'll will get a "confirm you want to do this" dialog box, which should state that this only removes the references from the catalog, the actual files will remain on disk. Click OK.

6. That should remove the majority of the folders from the F drive in the Folders Panel (the higher My Pictures folder hierarchy will remain). Once that has happened, go to the My Pictures folder on the *C drive*, then *right-click* on it and choose 'Find Missing Folder'. A file/folder browser box appears, use this to browse to the equivalent My Pictures folder on the *F drive* (make absolutely certain that you choose the *correct My Pictures folder*, i.e. the one inside the Lightroom>Catalog folder). Once you've located it, select it and then click on OK.

7. Magic should now happen. The folder hierarchy on the C drive should disappear, and it should reappear listed on the F drive.....*and all your edits should be restored. *Check a few to make sure.

8. When you are happy that stage has worked OK, you now need to bring back in the bits from the exported catalog that weren't duplicated. Go to File>Import from Catalog, and you'll get a box like this:



Locate and select the catalog that you created in the export operation in step 4, and then click Choose.

9. Lightroom will then read the target import catalog and compare with the current open catalog, when it has finished a dialog box similar to this will appear:



The top box will be a list of the folders and files that appear in the imported catalog but not in the current catalog. By default they will be checked. The next box gives you a total of the actual files. As a minimum, you should expect to see folder G10 listed in the top box, and therefore a minimum of 25 files included in the second box.

This same box gives you various File Handling options for dealing with these new files, and you should ensure that you have the same option selected as per my screenshot, i.e. "Add new photos to catalog without moving".

The third box identifies the number of duplicate files detected, and there should be over 9000 of these. Again there are various options, *and if you are sure that all the develop edits for these 9000+ images were included under the C drive hierarchy, then you should choose "Nothing" as the replace option.
*
When you are happy, go ahead and click on Import. The catalog import will then proceed (and likely to be very quick as you're not going to be importing many new pictures).

When it is complete, you need to spend a bit of time checking things out. You'll need to see what was the result of the C drive having slightly higher photo counts than the equivalent folders on the F drive. There may be some missing photos in those folders (Library>Find Missing Photos will show any), or you may have some previously removed images back in the catalog. I can't help with that, I'm afraid.


And that's about it. Let me know how you get on, and of course get back to me if you run into difficulties.


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## buzzlonghorn (Mar 4, 2012)

Wow.  This is great info.  I hope to be able to dive into it tonight!  Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this.


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## buzzlonghorn (Mar 5, 2012)

Jim Wilde, you are THE MAN!
Everything is perfect and your step-by-step instructions were spot on and easy to follow.  I have my images back!
I still want to spend some time going through everything, but from what I can tell I'm in great shape now.
I'm not sure what it would be, but if there's every anything I can help you with, let me know!


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 5, 2012)

Great! Thanks for letting me know.

I still have no idea exactly how the problem occurred, so all I can suggest is that if you need to do any more significant moves, and you're not 100% certain about how to do it, just post a question here and someone here will be happy to offer advice.


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