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fancy_kat
Participant
September 19, 2019
Question

Lightroom Photos Uploaded to Cloud Show as Missing

  • September 19, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1437 views

I have 19,000 photos in Lightroom Classic. They are all uploaded to the cloud, and Lightroom shows as successfully synced. I have worked with many of these images before. Suddenly, 14,300 (!!!) of my photos are showing up as missing. I get the "original file could not be found" error when I try to work with them, and I am prompted to locate the original file.

 

I've seen a number of forums discussing this particular error, but they all say to locate the file on my desktop. I have also heard that this problem is solved by moving or renaming folders on the desktop, rather than through Lightroom. But the files were never on my desktop to begin with. They were stored in Creative Cloud. They went straight from my external memory to the cloud, and locating the image in the Cloud isn't an option. What do I do here? Do I have to put in my external memory and manually locate more than ten thousand pictures? Am I wasting my money paying for a terrabyte of Cloud storage that I can't seem to access? Am I missing something obvious? Someone please save me. 

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2 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 20, 2019

"I have 19,000 photos in Lightroom Classic. They are all uploaded to the cloud."

Both statements indicate a mis-understanding of how Lightroom-Classic works.

Photos are never "in" Lightroom-Classic. They must be stored locally in folders on a connected drive (internal, external,NAS) for Lr-Classic to access them.

If the original image files were imported and uploaded to the Cloud using Lightroom (Cloud based), then the originals were moved to the Cloud and no longer remain locally.

 

"But the files were never on my desktop to begin with. They were stored in Creative Cloud"

How? From a mobile device? or Imported to Lightroom (Cloud based)?

If you turn on 'Sync' in Lightroom-Classic it should be trying to download copies of the "ecosystem images" back to a folder on your hard-drive, the location of which can be set in Preferences-

Read the article link below,

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/lightroom-mobile-desktop-features.html

in particular-

Set Lightroom Preferences

Location

By default, Lightroom Classic desktop syncs your Lightroom ecosystem images at:

  • (Win) C:\Users\[user name]\Pictures 
  • (Mac) /Users/[user name]/Pictures

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
F
fancy_katAuthor
Participant
September 25, 2019
Thank you for replying! I apologize if my initial post was unclear. I upload my photos to the Cloud through Lightroom (Cloud Based). When I open LR Cloud, all of my images show up just fine. However, the image editing capabilities of LR Cloud are limited, so I prefer to use LR Classic when I actually work on my images. I have synced LR Classic with my cloud, so all of the images that show up in LR Cloud also show up in LR Classic. Or at least, they did until last week. Now, despite saying that my images are synced with the cloud, I get an error notification any time I try to work with an image in LR Classic, indicating that the photo is missing. Since the images "no longer remain locally," I don't know where to route the location settings back to. Is this simply something I cannot do anymore? Or am I missing something obvious? Thank you for your help!
Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 25, 2019

I have great problems understanding the whole "Cloud" system. My understanding of your workflow is that you moved all your photos to the Cloud so Lightroom-Classic no longer has the files available to it. All the Previews that referenced photos in folders before you went to the Cloud will now show as "missing". If I understand correctly, you will have to wait until the photos sync back down from the Cloud before you can use them in Classic. But they will sync to a different folder location- as specified in Classic Preferences. You will need to look there to edit the photos in Classic.

You will still need that terabyte of local storage if you want to edit all your photos in Lr-Classic.

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
DdeGannes
Community Expert
DdeGannesCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 20, 2019

Lightroom Classic does not upload your original files to your cloud storage. It uploads smart previews of those files from collections you have created in Lightroom and selected to sync. Those smart previews do not utilize any of your paid. I hope you have not deleted your original files from your local storage, and if so that you have backups safely stored.

 

There are two Lightroom Applications. (1) Lightroom (Cloud-centric application);  (2) Lightroom Classic (Desktop focused app) you need to decide which you prefer. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-cc-vs-classic-features/

 

 

 

Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
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