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pstraus141
Known Participant
March 14, 2026
Question

How to keep photos in collection after moving folders?

  • March 14, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 83 views

I ran out of disk space on an external hard disk, so I moved a large folder of photographs to a different external disk. Now photographs that were in the original place are lost in an important bridge collection.

 

I can relocate them one by one in Bridge using the “Fix” dialog, but there are hundreds to fix.

 

Question 1: Is there any way to to point Bridge to the new location of the folder and tell it to fix all pointers to photographs in that folder?

 

Question 2: I am solving my storage problem by buying new larger disks. How can I avoid the same problem when I move all photographs to a new disk?

 

Thanks,

Phil

    1 reply

    gary_sc
    Community Expert
    gary_scCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 14, 2026

    Hi, @pstraus141, I think you are referring to folders of images in the Favorites Panel. And, when you move those from one location to another, Bridge does not know their location. Is that correct?

    If so, the solution is fairly easy. What you need to do is move the entire folder from Hard Drive A to Hard Drive B, then right-click the folder name in Favorites and delete it. Then replace that same folder, now in Hard Drive B, back in the same location in your Favorites Panel. It’s a bit procedural, but it should only take a minute or two, depending on how many folders you have.

    One more thing. 

    You’ve probably heard that there are two kinds of hard drive users. Those who've had a hard drive crash and those who've not had a hard drive crash YET.

    Over the years (since the late 70s), I’ve had several hard drives crash and lost stuff. I’ve lost data only the first time. Here's what I now do:

    I have a 4 TB drive that holds my images and many documents. I use a 2nd 4TB drive to back up my first drive. I manually do this at least once a week or more often if I've done a lot of work. (If you have a Mac system, I can strongly recommend Chronosync for this backup strategy. I’m sorry, I cannot make a similar recommendation for PCs. Regardless, look for backup software that can update your new data as opposed to constantly replacing all your data — it’s much faster.)

    I use a 3rd 4TB drive for Apple's Time Machine. I do not know if PCs have such a process built in.

    I also use a cloud service in case the house burns down. Am I paranoid? No, I’m just a realist. In a worst-case scenario, I would not lose much, at worst, sometimes a bit more than I'd like, but nothing horrendous.

    [Note: the 4TB is entirely based on what I need. Your needs may demand more or less hard drive space. Whatever you think you need, double it. Oh, the backup drives, you do not need SSDs or anything fancy or fast, just reliable. Be aware that your first backup will take a long time.]

    P
    pstraus141Author
    Known Participant
    March 14, 2026

    Gary,

     

    Thank you for your prompt answer, but no, I am not talking about folders in Favorites. I have collections of individual photos from various folder. For example, I have a collections of photographs of the Columbia RR bridge in Philadelphia. They come from different folders from the last five years. The collections are in Collections, not in Favorites.

     

    I am even more careful than you about hard drives, and I have a lot more data. I have a 20TB external drive for Time Machine backups. Once a month, I exchange that for another 20TB drive in a bank safe deposit box. That covers me for fire and floods.  I also have a cloud backup system.

    Phil

    gary_sc
    Community Expert
    gary_scCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 14, 2026

    Hi, ​@pstraus141 , (sorry for the delay, I had a call). OK, now I understand what you’re doing. 

     

    The key here is that collections know the location of the original source of the image, but if you move them in the Finder/Explorer, that location is unknown in Bridge. This is no different than with doing things outside of Lightroom Classic. Here’s a video that has an excellent tutorial about how to use Collections 

    However, if you want to cut to the chase, at the 8-minute mark, watch how to move files so that the Collection and your images are in sync.

    Let me know if this solves your problem.

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