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williamw46628854
williamw46628854
Participant
December 22, 2018
Answered

Lightroom: Why is the Folders panel not reflecting the folders on my hard drive?

  • December 22, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 2181 views

When I import photos into LR from a camera SD memory card, I have LR copy the photos into a new subfolder in the 'My Lightroom Photos' folder, which it does correctly, according to Finder:

But this now does not match what LR shows me in its Folder layout:

So, for example, folder '2018 RAF 100' is shown in LR as being outside 'My Lightroom Photos', as are lots of other folders, as you can see in the LR screenshot.  But, if you look back at the Finder screenshot, above, they are all actually properly in the right place in 'My Lightroom Photos'

Note also that LR is showing two '2015 Cape Town' folders, one inside 'My Lightroom Photos' with 1269 photos and one outside/above 'My Lightroom Photos' with another 3 photos, but when I look in Finder, there is only one '2015 Cape Town' folder, which has got all the right photos in it.  I don't know why LR has separated these three out.  It's done it as well for '2017 Spa GP', with a single photo showing in the extra folder outside 'My Lightroom Photos' in LR, but not in Finder (that single photo is actually a panorama stitch done in LR, which was then saved to the correct location according to Finder but a new location according to LR).

I have tried to 'Update Folder Location...' for each folder, but nothing changes.  Sometimes I get the following error pop-up:

I have tried renaming folders, through LR, but that doesn't fix it.  I am nervous of the 'Synchronise Folder...' command because it talks about copying and deleting photos, which I don't want to do.

Fundamentally, LR still works and I can access all the photos and all my previous developing, etc, is all still there and still working, so I don't want to do anything that jeopardises 5 years of editing!  But it is frustrating and worrying that the folder structure is not correct in LR and that the error message pops up.

Help, please!

Thanks,

Will

PS: Lightroom Classic 8.1; Mac OS Mojave 10.14.2; all up to date

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Rob_Cullen

Your problem is often referred to as the "Capitalization error", although you may not see a difference in the duplicated folder names.

The steps you have taken (moving folders, synchronizing) will not fix the problem permanently.

The best answers come from Jim Wilde-

See the "Correct Answer" at this link-

Lightroom Import ADD folder structure issue

Reply back with questions if you do not understand the steps Jim is suggesting.

In summary- Your steps will 'update' a mis-placed folder (top of your screen-clip eg. 2015 Cape Town) to a temporary (Capitals Fix) folder, then again re-link it back to the correct folder (2015 Cape Town - Under My Lightroom Photos)  with a resulting "merge" message..

3 replies

J
Community Expert
Jao vdLCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 23, 2018

What happens if you right click on the 2018 RAF 100 folder and select "Show Parent Folder"?

williamw46628854
williamw46628854Author
Participant
December 23, 2018

Thanks.  In short, Show Parent Folder did nothing, I'm afraid.

WobertC had the correct answer, as this being a 'Capitalisation error'

Thanks, though.


Will

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
December 23, 2018

Your problem is often referred to as the "Capitalization error", although you may not see a difference in the duplicated folder names.

The steps you have taken (moving folders, synchronizing) will not fix the problem permanently.

The best answers come from Jim Wilde-

See the "Correct Answer" at this link-

Lightroom Import ADD folder structure issue

Reply back with questions if you do not understand the steps Jim is suggesting.

In summary- Your steps will 'update' a mis-placed folder (top of your screen-clip eg. 2015 Cape Town) to a temporary (Capitals Fix) folder, then again re-link it back to the correct folder (2015 Cape Town - Under My Lightroom Photos)  with a resulting "merge" message..

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.3, Photoshop 27.5, ACR 18.3, Lightroom 9.3, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.3 .
williamw46628854
williamw46628854Author
Participant
December 23, 2018

Amazing!  Perfect!  Thank you, and to Jim Wilde.

Happy Christmas!

Will

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
December 23, 2018

1) In the folders panel, if you scroll up, do those folders above "My Lightroom Photos" eventually show a parent folder?

2) Are you sure they are in the exact same directory on the computer? You did this via Finder, How about instead of immediately going to Finder, instead in LR right click and select show in finder, do this for both cases and compare, just in case.

3) This probably wont help, but have you optimized?

3) Immediately if you are not already doing so, copy your lightroom catalog to another location, preferably to a nice external hard drive. If you want to use the Lightroom backup tool to accomplish this Ok, but do not select the optional check integrety9 checking integrity when backing up can go south, the integrity will b be checked, and if that makes the catalog worse it will blindly back up that now even more fouled up catalog) (got that from some web page) That error message you got looks scary

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

4) OPTIONAL  While you are in Lightroom, in the preferences, in General, change the default catalog, have it prompt you when starting

4b) Oh and optionally make sure yu do not automatically backup when you close Lightroom (for now).

Change that back t what h you want later.

4c) then close Lightroom, wait a few seconds, and relaunch Lightroom, A new screen will come up allowing you to pick an existing catalog, or a new catalog, and the screen contains additional options. Carefully consider checking on the option to check integrity. When you e=check integrity upon opening, you will not stumble upon the issue of a catalog corrupted (more) by checking integrety of getting uselessly and damaging backed up.

If Lightroom then does not completely blow up, if it then works, you can put all that back to the way it was before.if you want.

williamw46628854
williamw46628854Author
Participant
December 23, 2018

Thanks, David.

WobertC had the answer, and it's all fixed now.

Thanks, though.

Will

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