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Known Participant
September 11, 2022
Question

Importing photos from internal hard drive to external hard drive

  • September 11, 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 208 views

Trying to import photos from C drive to external hard drive in Lr Classic (latest version on Windows 10). Mistakenly imported photos to "My Catalog" NOT the Master Catalog on external hard drive. Now photos are grayed out and Lr C cannot import them, indicates that the photos are already imported.  Cannot find on external hard drive or in LrC. Is there a fix for this problem?  Thank you in advance.

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5 replies

F. McLion
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2022

There's no need to multi-post the very same answer. Everybody can see it even if posted once.

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Participating Frequently
September 17, 2022

Step 1: Backup Your Lightroom Catalogue and Images.
Locate your catalog and images.
Step 3: Plug in your external drive.
Step 4: Copy/Move Your Catalog and Images.
Step 5: Copy your images (Optional)
Step 6: Open the new catalog in Lightroom.
Step 7: Reconnect Your Catalog and Images
Step 8: Delete the Original Catalog (and files!)

dj_paige
Legend
September 11, 2022

Mistakenly imported photos to "My Catalog" NOT the Master Catalog on external hard drive. Now photos are grayed out and Lr C cannot import them, indicates that the photos are already imported.

 

The only way this makes any sense to me is if "My Catalog" is the name of a FOLDER, and "Master Catalog" is the name of a FOLDER. But you didn't say that. Can you confirm that these are folder names?

Known Participant
September 16, 2022

I am sorry for the response delay. I do not know how I became so stupid in regards to these photos. Apparently the photos were imported to my external drive in the LrC catalog.  But the mess I have made of the organization makes it hard to find them.  I am sorry to have bothered you. But thank you for your assistance

F. McLion
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 11, 2022

Do you use multiple catalogs?

If you work with one catalog, you can move the images from within LrC - DO NOT reimport, except there is absolutely no work done on these photos, then you can delete them in LrC and re-import to the correct location.

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Known Participant
September 16, 2022

I am sorry for the response delay.  I do not know how I bcame so stupid in regards to these photos, Apparently they were imported to my external drive in the LrC catalog.  I have made such a mess of  the organization that they are hard to find. I am sorry to have bothered you.  But thank you for your assistance.

GoldingD
Legend
September 11, 2022

I am confused. Please list step by step what you did. Be verbose.

Known Participant
September 16, 2022

I am sorry for the response delay.  I do not know how I became so stupis in regards to these photos.  Apparently the photos wereimported into my external drive in the LrC catalog.  I have nade sucha mess of the organization, that they are hard to find.  I am sorry to have bothered you.  But thank you for your assistance.