Import or view preexisting file structure that is empty

Question

My filing structure is a little deep.  year-week-camera-stills or video.  Because I don't want to type all that out each time I have template folder in Finder that I duplicate and all I need to do change week name.  Normally I move media directly from card to appropriate Finder folder and in then Import that folder into LR.  The problem comes up when I off load a phone, or drive from someone else who has already combined their media which needs to be sorted in LR.  LR doesn't allow for a "folder template" and I can't access the empty folders that were already created via Finder.  Does anyone have a workaround or suggestion for this?

Rob_Cullen · Accepted Answer

Many would say that - using folders to sort your images is not ideal, but rather use the filter capability of Lightroom to show you "camera, still, video"

But if you must have your template folder structure created via Finder, you could import these 'template' folders if they contained even one 'seed' image file.

So you might start with this in Finder- and having the "combined media" all in the {Week} folder:

YEAR

>WEEK / Combined files to import

>>CAMERA / One seed file

>>STILLS / One seed file

>>VIDEO / One seed file

Now you can Import by "ADD" selecting the {WEEK} folder and with the option to "Include sub-folders" they will also appear in the library because they contain one image. (you may need to "allow duplicates" if the 'seed' images are always the same)

Then it is your job to use filters and sorting on the "combined media" and simply drag them to the appropriate sub-folder within Lightroom folders panel.

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