Participant

Answered

Lost folder while working in bridge

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
August 31, 2021
3 replies
1768 views

I was selecting a file in Bridge when my elbow slipped and I may have swiped the folder left. The folder has now disappeared from the entire system. It contained 232 photos. I had created the folder a short while before in the process of doing some "house keeping" in Bridge so it had not been backed up yet. It had been put into Lightroom CC but the folder now shows a ? mark and is unable to find the location of the folder. Any ideas on where it might be hiding?

Problem or error

Correct answer gary_sc

Hi John,

there are two stories here: Bridge and Lightroom Classic. I'll start with Bridge.

it is impossible for Bridge to make your files disappear. The files are SOMEWHERE on your computer. I suggest you search by date or something, anything to find the files on your computer.

FWIW, I think we've all did an "oops" while moving something and the hand jiggles at the wrong time and you inadvertently let them fall into another folder. BUT THEY ARE NOT GONE!!

Now, LRC: LRC is a database and it works by knowing where everything is. It doesn't make a difference where things are as long as LRC knows that location. If you move things in the Finder/Explorer than LRC doesn't know about that move and you get that exclamation symbol. Once you find the files and re-link them, you'll be good again. But this also means that your original action of moving the files outside of LRC was gout to cause the same end result.

do a google search for "how to find missing images in LRC, you'll find a lot of answers because this is a common issue that people have until they stop moving files that are part of LRC while in the Finder/Explorer.

I hope this makes sense, good luck finding your files, they're somewhere.

A

alastairc92818225

Participating Frequently

The same thing with me, a folder is gone that is no longer findable with a spotlight search and is also not in the trash.

D

dx1970@mail.ru

Participant

Вы как-то решили вопрос? У меня Bridge потерял папку, просто исчезла после переименования. И ее больше нигде нет. Сканировал диск тремя (!) программами восстановления, ни одна не нашла ни папку, ни файлы в ней. Несколько съёмок просто исчезли.

E

EL25834890v9o9

Participant

That's true.Bridge CC 2018 get same issue, holy!

gary_sc

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi John,

there are two stories here: Bridge and Lightroom Classic. I'll start with Bridge.

it is impossible for Bridge to make your files disappear. The files are SOMEWHERE on your computer. I suggest you search by date or something, anything to find the files on your computer.

FWIW, I think we've all did an "oops" while moving something and the hand jiggles at the wrong time and you inadvertently let them fall into another folder. BUT THEY ARE NOT GONE!!

Now, LRC: LRC is a database and it works by knowing where everything is. It doesn't make a difference where things are as long as LRC knows that location. If you move things in the Finder/Explorer than LRC doesn't know about that move and you get that exclamation symbol. Once you find the files and re-link them, you'll be good again. But this also means that your original action of moving the files outside of LRC was gout to cause the same end result.

do a google search for "how to find missing images in LRC, you'll find a lot of answers because this is a common issue that people have until they stop moving files that are part of LRC while in the Finder/Explorer.

I hope this makes sense, good luck finding your files, they're somewhere.

J

johnb727Author

Participant

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your reply. It did make sense. When this happened last night
none of the "normal" means of recovery or searching for files and folders
was finding anything at all. That included Lightroom which when I tried to
redirect it was as mystified as I was. I was really getting frustrated and
I reached out. As a point of interest I tried creating a new folder in the
same main folder named "Test Folder, for tracking" when I swiped it left it
appeared Recycle Bin immediately, a behavior in Windows that I was unaware
of. (There are so many of these "learning experiences") waiting to happen.

After reading your response I thought that you were exactly right and
started a hand search of all of the folders around the one that had
disappeared and found it as a sub folder of a sub folder a few folders
away. I do like your idea of Googling "how to find missing images in LRC"
as that has occasionally driven us all crazy and will try it later
this morning. I find LR so kludgy when it comes to moving files around that
I frequently move things outside of LR and then resync the drive. It
occasionally bights me but usually seems less frustrating.

Thanks again for your quick response and your hints that got me back on
track.

Best,

John

--
John Cornell
john.squarepeg@gmail.com
http://www.cornellphotography.com

gary_sc

Community Expert

Hi John,

I'm glad I was able to help. If I can impose upon you to please tap my response with "Correct Answer" it will also help others who have the same issues.

I'm not fully sure why you are using Bridge on LRC's folders. As you've found out, it has it's "issues." FWIW, I find working in LRC's folder system fairly easy. I've taken a screenshot of a portion of my Folder structure to give you an idea of how I've laid it out. I do both a tight folder structure AND keywording. It's important for me to have both.

There are some folks in these forums who are adamant that they dump all images into one or several folders and rely upon keywords to find everything. I do not work that way because that's not the way my brain is comfortable. Obviously, the way I work is not comfortable for their brain. My point is you need to find a structure that works for you. But going into Bridge to do LRCs duties is not a good way to do it as you have just demonstrated.

One of the things I often do is if I have a folder of MANY images and wish to break it down into unified components, I go into the Library menu (in Library mode) and turn Off, "Show Folders in Subfolders." When you do that as you remove images from the main folder, the total number of images see in the main folder goes down AND what's more important: you do not see them. Put another way, let's say you have images that are about to be placed in sub-folders with categories AAAABBBBBBCCCCCC, etc. Once you move the A images into the A folder, all you see in the main folder is BBBBBBCCCCCC, etc. If you turn that "Show Folders…" back on, you'd see all of the images.

For me, one of the big reasons for Keywording is that you will have subjects that appear in different folders and this is how to unite them. For example, let's say you have a Aunt on your father's side, Auntie Gravelda. And you have photos of your father's side in a folder. But then you have a family get together, also with Auntie Gravelda. Now, later, you want to find ALL photos of Auntie Gravelda. With Keywording this is a snap. By folder's only, it's a pain.

Lastly, notice that when you right-click on a folder, there's an option to "Create Folder inside Folder XYZ." When you open that window (that also lets you name the folder), there's a checkbox to add all selected images. Be sure to uncheck that if you do not want that. Plus, you can also drag folders around in the Folder Panel as well.

Hope all this makes sense. Here's a portion of my folders:

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded