How to edit Folders panel for sourcing in LRc

Question

Ventura 13.7.7 LRc 14.5I recently added a new ext hd to my system. It is now the source for ALL photo images. I previously used a different ext hd, but when I bought the new one, I copied everything from the old one to the new one. My new catalogs are on the new hard drive, but older catalogs still try to find images on the older, now empty or non existent, external drives, resulting in a lot of time wasted before the message appears that LR cannot find them.I wish to edit the folders panel in Library to have solely the new external drive there as a source for all of my images, old and new, and remove sourcing from all old external drives that were previously used. I have tried to edit with the + and - swtiches, but that has done nothing, ie cannot add nor remove. If I choose import on the lower left, it brings up the import screen, and shows all of my external drives, but when I choose the new external drive, it begins importing all of its contained images—something I don't think I want to do?Seems like it should be a simple process, but it eludes me. I'd appreciate any help and TIAJohn

Conrad_C · Answer

There’s a recommended way to move photos to a new volume:

1. Move the folders, preserving their hierarchy.

2. Tell Lightroom Classic where they went, preferably from a single parent folder, so that it automatically reconnects all subfolders.

You can find the steps for step 1 here:

How do I move only my photos to another hard drive, leaving the catalog where it is? (Lightroom Queen)

For step 2, if the folder was moved in the OS (which is OK to do), then…

In Lightroom Classic, in the Folders panel, if there is no question mark next to the folders, then open the context menu for the parent folder (the one highest up in the hierarchy) and choose Update Folder Location as shown in the picture below.

If there is a question mark next to the folder, then the command you’re looking for on the context menu is Find Missing Folder, as shown in the picture below.

In both cases, you choose the command, show Lightroom Classic where the folder went, and it should be able to reconnect that folder and all subfolders as long as the hierarchy hasn’t changed.

Naturally, if photos are stored in under multiple top-level folders then you’ll have to update the location for each one.

*Your post says macOS, so to open a context menu for an item, Control-click it. Or, if you’ve set up your Mac to open a context menu using (for a mouse) right-click, or (for a trackpad) two-finger click or bottom corner click, etc. then do that.

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