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kellys6074598
Participant
March 13, 2017
Answered

Deleted photos from lightroom and tried to re-import them but now it shows that they are imported but they are nowhere to be found

  • March 13, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1573 views

Okay so I know this is a total newby move so please be kind.  whenever I would upload files to lightroom they were being saved to my computer.  After a photo session I went to upload 800 photos.  Halfway through import my lightroom would no longer upload because it was full.  I realized I needed to store all the old photos from my lightroom and put them on my external hard drive.  I wasn't sure how to do this properly at the time so I just deleted all the photos from that current session out of lightroom so I could reupload them all together once I cleared some space.  I even deleted them out of the Lightroom folder on my finder. (They are now all in that same folder again in finder because deleting them did nothing)

When I went to reupload them once other lightroom files files were stored the correct way on my external hard drive it would not let me hit the check box to upload them (As if they were already in lightroom. attaching a photo of what I mean) The second batch of the photos that didn't upload originally uploaded fine but it's not letting me upload the first half at all.  Does anyone know how I can get these photos to show up in lightroom for me?

    Correct answer kellys6074598

    I'm not sure what's going on. It might just be easier for you to create a new catalog and start the import process all over again. Can you find the folder in the library module? Maybe you could right click and remove the folder, then try to import again.


    Thanks for your help Jim.  I really appreciate it.  That didn't work however, I did just figure it out!

    Turns out they are all in an external folder called NO NAME that I never noticed until now .  Found all of the missing photos in that folder.  They were unlinked but I just linked them back up and they all moved to the correct folder after that.

    2 replies

    J
    Jan_TheCreator
    Participant
    January 27, 2025

    I deleted a folder because an error occurred during import and I couldn't see my imported images in my library. So I wanted to import the files again. However, I couldn't select them because they weren't available for selection. I found out that you can uncheck the yellow marked box in the import tab (see image below) and import again. Yes, my language setting is German.

    P
    paulh62707977
    Participant
    September 7, 2025

    THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

    R
    Community Expert
    richardplondonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 7, 2025

    You could not select them again because the Catalog still had some kind of persisting record of those images. That does not happen when an import fails, at least not in my experience. So it is worth identifying what this "error" was - and what situation it left behind. Very often the images are in fact there to be found, but not in the location expected within the Folders panel. 

     

    If they are present, to import a second instance of each: not a good idea IMO. You then have a tidy-up job to get rid of duplicates, also the problem of: to which instance should new editing attach, and on which instance does previously done editing persist.

    JP Hess
    JP Hess
    Inspiring
    March 13, 2017

    First thing to clarify is that Lightroom does not get "full". Your images are not in Lightroom. Lightroom opens the catalog which is a database file, and displays your images from the database which simply points to where your images are located on your computer. If your hard drive is that full then I would suggest that you import your images and put them on the external hard drive as part of the import process.

    As far as the images that won't import again are concerned, if you go to the library module and click on previous import, does it show those images? This might take a few steps to figure out what's happening. But let's start with the answer to that question.

    K
    kellys6074598Author
    Participant
    March 13, 2017

    Yes, I know that.  Sorry I worded that incorrectly. 

    Yes I did try that! Not showing up there

    JP Hess
    JP Hess
    Inspiring
    March 13, 2017

    I'm not sure what's going on. It might just be easier for you to create a new catalog and start the import process all over again. Can you find the folder in the library module? Maybe you could right click and remove the folder, then try to import again.

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