Moving files in the folders panel in lightroom

Question

I want to use the Folders Panel in Lightroom to move photo files from one location in the windows file system to another. I know I must use the Folders panel in Lightroom, rather than Windows Explorer or Lightroom catalog will lose track of where the files have gone. Normally I use 2 instances of Windows Explorer to move files. One instance is for source, the other for destination. I cannot use this technique in Lightroom. And the Folders panel is really too small to expose two locations in the hierarchical file system to make effective use of drag and drop. There must be a better way to use this but I don't see how.

Tom

johnrellis · Accepted Answer

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@thomehm: "the Folders panel is really too small to expose two locations in the hierarchical file system to make effective use of drag and drop. "

To make drag-and-drop easier:

1. Go to All Photographs, a folder, or a collection and select the photos you want to move.

2. In the Folders panel Filter Folders box, type enough of the destination folder name that uniquely identifies it, e.g.

3. Now drag the selected photos to the desired folder.

Conrad_C · Answer

I agree it would be nice if Lightroom Classic allowed multiple source viewers, the way you can in the Windows and Mac desktops, and in Adobe Bridge.

But until that happens, I like johnrellis’s idea to use the filter field, and there are ways to take that further.

For example, it would be nice if the filter field displayed more than one folder so that you wouldn’t have to re-enter each folder’s name just to switch the one being viewed. One way to do that is to have the same text in both folder names so that if you enter that common text in the filter field, it restricts the list to just the folders containing that text. Of course it isn’t always practical to mess with the names of folders. Fortunately, Adobe upgraded the filter field so that it can use metadata other than file/folder names, and that leads to some more flexible ideas.

In the picture below, the same color label has been applied to folders that need to be used together. By applying the Color Labels filter, only the folders with the selected label are left visible. Color labels are easy to reassign or remove as your needs change.

If this involves folders that you’ll always need to use frequently, you can mark them as Favorites. Then, instead of having to assign color labels, just use the Favorite Folders filter in that same filter menu so that the Folders panel only shows those, freeing the limited color label colors for other things.

When you’re done, to make all list items visible again set the filter field back to All.

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