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briancberry
briancberry
Participant
April 29, 2019
Answered

How do I fix my file folder location?

  • April 29, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 637 views

I have lightroom on a mac and I use an external hard drive to store my photos.  If I go to the hard drive, it is importing things to the correct folder.  I organize by year and then by event name by folders.

However, when I open light room, it gives me 2 identically titled hard drives on the left.  Then it gives me some of my files and some of my years in one location and then the second one has all the rest. 

However, when I search for the parent folder or try to move one of the lists to the other hard drive listed so I can delete one as obsolete, it tells me I have them all in the right location. 

How do I get it to stop showing me 2 master file folder locations and simply show them as they actually are on the hard drive?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer richardplondon

As a practical policy, I would recommend not making image organising folders directly at the top level of a drive.

It is easier to manage if there is a standard folder first, representing your whole library (or at least, those parts of your library which live on this particular drive volume) and then the various year (or whatever) folders within that. And then if you moved some older years to another drive in future, you would want a similar containing folder there - the point being, a folder will exist to which LR can be directed, rather than just a "bare" drive name.

(edit: you may already have such a folder, called "Photo Master File" - distinct from the drive name which is all in capital letters.)

Once such a containing folder exists, it can be shown or not shown in LR - but once shown, LR reorganises its entire folders panel as needed until the nesting (hierarchy) displayed, corresponds with how things are on disk.

So if inside drive volume "PHOTO MASTER FILE" you made a new folder "Library" (say), you could move all of the year based folders into that using Finder, outside Lightroom. This will momentarily cause the Catalog to lose contact with these photos, but they and all edits etc still remain safe. Then you can "Find Missing Folder" for one of the year folders still seen inside LR's folders panel, and then in the dialog which opens, browse to the corresponding year folder inside your new "Library" folder. All the other years alongside should also readdress themselves, and LR will regain contact with all the photos involved.

If a second instance for this drive's contents still shows up in LR, (e.g. with different years inside) you can readdress one of those image containing folders too, in the same way, and LR should bring it all together as one.

(edit: so - go to one of those year folders which do not display "Photo Master File" as their parent, and select "Show Parent Folder")

IOW your years should show in a single list, once LR is displaying the (e.g.) "Library" folder which constitutes the actual relationship between these years. You can then choose "Hide Parent Folder" if you don't want this to take up any space in the interface - but any time such a problem repeats, "Show Parent Folder" will bring it back into view.

1 reply

Tony_See
Tony_See
Inspiring
April 30, 2019

From your screen shot the Folder '2007' contains 120 files. Are you seeing a duplicate of the folder structure above that which was cropped off the screen shot?

briancberry
briancberryAuthor
Participant
April 30, 2019

No, the second screen shot is only partial... it continues like that with the rest of the years minus the ones above.  I just can't figure out why it thinks it has 2 parent folders to display subfolders from.   For some reason, hard drive "photo master file" is listed 3 times: twice as a hard drive and once as a parent folder, which doesn't exist. 

R
Community Expert
richardplondonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
April 30, 2019

As a practical policy, I would recommend not making image organising folders directly at the top level of a drive.

It is easier to manage if there is a standard folder first, representing your whole library (or at least, those parts of your library which live on this particular drive volume) and then the various year (or whatever) folders within that. And then if you moved some older years to another drive in future, you would want a similar containing folder there - the point being, a folder will exist to which LR can be directed, rather than just a "bare" drive name.

(edit: you may already have such a folder, called "Photo Master File" - distinct from the drive name which is all in capital letters.)

Once such a containing folder exists, it can be shown or not shown in LR - but once shown, LR reorganises its entire folders panel as needed until the nesting (hierarchy) displayed, corresponds with how things are on disk.

So if inside drive volume "PHOTO MASTER FILE" you made a new folder "Library" (say), you could move all of the year based folders into that using Finder, outside Lightroom. This will momentarily cause the Catalog to lose contact with these photos, but they and all edits etc still remain safe. Then you can "Find Missing Folder" for one of the year folders still seen inside LR's folders panel, and then in the dialog which opens, browse to the corresponding year folder inside your new "Library" folder. All the other years alongside should also readdress themselves, and LR will regain contact with all the photos involved.

If a second instance for this drive's contents still shows up in LR, (e.g. with different years inside) you can readdress one of those image containing folders too, in the same way, and LR should bring it all together as one.

(edit: so - go to one of those year folders which do not display "Photo Master File" as their parent, and select "Show Parent Folder")

IOW your years should show in a single list, once LR is displaying the (e.g.) "Library" folder which constitutes the actual relationship between these years. You can then choose "Hide Parent Folder" if you don't want this to take up any space in the interface - but any time such a problem repeats, "Show Parent Folder" will bring it back into view.

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