Can't top the help here! Thanks to everyone for replies! ... View more

Thank you, I think I will be wanting to study this now that I see its potential. ... View more

Ah, so it converts to 32 bit and that is what is throwing me a curve. Thank you for explaining. I'm wondering about the message I get on screen and what settings in 'preferences' (there is no longer a 'preferences' on the Mac but is 'settings' which one of the long list of settings contains what I need to enable corrrect display? ... View more

Thank you. ... View more

Amazing, even in this highly respected place. The world is on edge these days it seems... Thanks all, greatest help here. ... View more

Thanks to everyone here, I was able to get good results from using the eyedropper tool in color range in masking. What a great thing to learn. Now if I could only figure out how to delete comments where I was trying to reply individuallly here but the posts transferred to another person. It's always something... Thanks again! ... View more

Delete. ... View more

Thank you for 'Expert' answer. Helpful. ... View more

Delete. ... View more

Thank you for 'Expert' answer. Helpful. ... View more

I previously went into preferences and limited the saved backups to 3 as I thought that was all that is necessary. Lightroom now keeps reminding me that it can make more backups and I have to keep dismissing. I do not, and don't think anybody wants Lightroom to grow into a monster that takes over your computer. Wouldn't this be an area that would be reasonable to make easier to control. It seems now I need to keep track of three things: previews, and then the other two which are contained in this thread as things I need to pay particular attention to so they don't grow into huge backups I don't need. Wouldn't it be good for Adobe to review this thread and the wisdom given here just to impliment clear and easy controls together and simply explained in preferences? I vote for this to be implemented soon as it is needed. As it is now, these things are out of control unless you are amongst the most advanced users. ... View more

Thank You, And I will add that this may be the most valuable single help file ever in my years of using Lightroom. I will definitely be studying and re-reading every response here as this subject is like the backbone of Lightroom... everything else hinges on understanding this 'inner-workings' or 'structure' component of Lightroom. I think I have enough information in these responses to move ahead with understanding now. Thank you all for brightening my day and my working future with Lightroom. I would post this thread as a 'must read' for everyone that uses Lightroom! Thanks and good weekend to all of you!   - Ken ... View more

I've got to include this question: what is the difference between 'previews' and 'presets' and can they both easily be eliminated from 'backups' of lcat data which I gather is the true backup of the catalog structure that links the entire Lightroom catalog together with the image files on disk? ... View more

Thank you... These 'presets' seem to be the problem and from what I gather, they are not needed as a part of making a backup as Lightroom will reconstruct them if they are missing? Is that true? ... View more

I'm using the built-in backup to backup to my hard drive. Then making a backup of that copy to an external drive. It's when I make a backup of that external drive that it slows down incredibly slow. From what I am gathering, I can eliminate the 'previews' from the backup of the external drive as Lightroom can reconstruct them if ever need be. Does this sound correct to you?  ... View more

You've made an excellent analogy and to let anyone who winds up in the same boat referencing this thread will have a chance to see there is some missing element to the folders being restored. I know they were entered over several shoots over several days, over a dozen in all, and were all present an accounted for at the end of last year. The mystery to me is why just that one bunch in the last month of the year that dropped out of sight from the catalog without a trace but with all folders and files still in place on the hard drive. I'm hard line for consistency in the way that I work so there is no reason for the sudden disappearance of a block of folders from the catalog. I'll certainly accept your "we may never know" as I am not interested in trying to re-create the problem.as I really wouldn't know how to do that. I was banking on 'it was working' and 'nothing has moved or changed' to employ the 'ADD' and 'without duplicates' as a measure of insurance. Thank you for your help and input as well as to everyone who commented and gave advice. The happy thing is that everything has been restored with literally the press of a button, what a relief it was to see it importing and with folders showing up in place during the process. Whew!  ... View more

I do use virtual copies and they are there too. All edits, all copies as I use other software on edits but from Lightroom as the 'hub' for everything done. I imported the missing folders and their contents into Lightroom, adding them to where they should have been. This worked for me and I've had more than 24 hours now to check everything and it's all there. Sorry if I appear dense, but it seemed logical to me that if the folders had been removed somehow 'subtracted' from the catalog that 'adding' them back in would be logical. To ensure I would not be duplicating I checked 'do not add suspected duplicates' just to be sure. Fortunately it worked. Everything is completely restored and working properly. Nothing missing and all in order. ... View more

Day after, and all is well, The folders have been restored, all edits and metadata are present and accounted for. Absolutey perfect. I don't know why Lightroom would loose track of a handful of folders that had been imported and were a part of the catalog. But locating them from within Lightroom using the ADD command and then, for my own security, selectiong do not add suspected duplicates, the folders and contents were added back into the Lightroom catalog with all edits and metadata. I am happy, my catalog is now resotred and working perfetly. With due respect for those who object to the way I solved this, I am willing to delete this thread as it seems to be contrary to the way experts here think it should have been handeled. I won't belabor the point, I think the way I solved this problem has value for others to consider who run into this type of problem. Because of the very detailed nature of this work-through I could now write a book on this subject but will spare doing anything like that here. The problem is solved. I would leave this thread as is for others to take into consideration. But I will abide by the choice of the experts here just out of respect for the hard workd everyone has put into making these forums userful to everyone. Let me know.... and Thank You to everyone who responded to this issue, All of you have been a help in solving this matter. Ken ... View more

Okay, we're on the same page on this I do think "the better approach was to find the photos and then fix the location of the photos." I may not and do not want to re-create the problem. And I agree with you on 'best approach' but the missing folders were not recognized as 'missing' so I couldn't instruct Lightroom to 'locate' missing items as would be easy to do and I do use when an item that Lightroom knows about has sudddnly lost contact with. Let me run my working routine over the next 24 hours to be sure, but it looks now, that the missing items that Lightroom had completely lost contact with are now recognized, added in place, and 100% restored, but only by going through the process of 'adding' them back to the catalog.   PS: I also add here that I have checked the contents of the 'added' thus recovered folders in place and see that all of my edits and ratings are fully there for all folders. Hooray, I have lost nothing, Whew! I realize that this is no small thing as I have endless hours and days of work poured into my images, over a month's worth of work, all recovered and all there. ... View more

I've been using Lightroom every day since the day it was released and it has been foundational software to me. I'm unsure because I've been through the dregs, Lightroom Queen et. al. of the various skirmishes that are possible with this program. Being unsure, to me, is just being smart and not jumping headlong into complete destruction.  ... View more

I'm prepared to pull my 'correct' as you and others here are far seniors at this than I am, but before I selected "Add" I made sure to select "Do not add suspected duplicates" which seemed like definitely the thing to do. All is in place and working properly now. But I want to be sure others know you'd input... let me re-read and check your every word. No doubt this is important as, to me, using Lightroom is like playing with fire and you'd better know what you are doing. ... View more

"Add" seems to have brought the missing folders back into the catalog. I'm making a backup now as I do believe this was what was needed. How on earth almost a month's of shoots got eliminated is beyond me, no rhyme or reason. Thanks for everyone's help and confidence to help me take on the monster. To me, learning Lightroom is nothing short of a lifetime pursuit.  ... View more

Okay, I was able to enter 'text' into the filter bar and searched on the date which is contained in the missing folder name and nothing came up. I think I need to 'import' these foklders into the catalog again. Does that sound correct. should I try an import to bring them back in? ... View more

"Then use the filter bar, set it to filter for the capture date of one of these photos. Do you find them?" I do not see a 'filter bar' or place to enter text for a search... Your idea sounds good but I'm in unfamiliar territory now and also don't want to do any damage.   ... View more

Filters are off, as this is always off, I never use filters.   I'm. still stuck with missing folders for the  end of 2024. So strange, makes no sense. All other folders for all years are showing just fine. There is really no reason why a few photoshoots for the end of 2024 should not be showing up.   ... View more

I have over half a million photos and no parent folder as they are all stored over several drives adding up to nearly 100TB.  As you can guess, I don't want to mess anything up as I have been through a few crises since Lightroom was released  many years ago. My problem with a few missing folders for the end of 2024 is not good but I'm tackling the problem today. As I said, I just don't want to make matters worse. I will first 'turn filters off' which I don't know if it will do anything...   ... View more