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lasers100
Known Participant
October 18, 2025
Question

need help with recovering folders in LrC

  • October 18, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 141 views

LrC 14.5 on a PC.

After physical move of four HDDs and pointing LR to the new locations all seemed well.  However, I just noticed that for one drive (G) only two folders are present out of 46.  No indication that the missing folders can't be found (i.e. no ? icon), just not showing the folders at all.  But folders and images are present on the HDD itself and viewable in Explorer.

Going to backups after the move of the drives shows the same problem. 

Looking at a backup from before the move shows that G is supposedly empty of images according to LR.  Other drives show the expected folder structure and ? with each.  But for the G drive there is nothing for me to select and click on "find missing files or folders".

Any ideas other than re-importing all the missing folders (using Add from current location)?  But then of course if I hadn't save metadata to the XMPs then that info is gone.

I think all this happened around the time of the latest upgrade (I did it in August).

thanks, Bill

1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 18, 2025

"Looking at a backup from before the move shows that G is supposedly empty of images according to LR."
"However, I just noticed that for one drive (G) only two folders are present out of 46.  No indication that the missing folders can't be found (i.e. no ? icon), just not showing the folders at all. "

If Lightroom showed no images on the G drive in the past, then it should still show no images. Upgrades don't change that, so that is just a coincidence. If Lightroom now shows two folders, then apparently you imported those two folders after making the switch. If there are lots of folders on that drive that Lightroom should show but doesn't, then that sounds like what now is the G drive had a different drive letter in the past.

 

DO NOT REIMPORT FOLDERS. That is never the correct way to solve something like this. What you must do is check the folders on the G drive that Lightroom doesn't show, and check if it does show those folders (as missing) on another drive, because that is the most likely explanation. Then relink them.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
L
lasers100Author
Known Participant
October 18, 2025

Hi Johan, thanks for the response.  I have looked at all the other drives and none of the missing folders appear, either in one lump or scattered about.  Almost 1TB of files so difficult to hide all that.

Drive letter has remained the same.

Also still a mystery is the absence of any record of images on that drive in the backups, where the other drives do show referenced folders and images (with the ? icon asking to be relinked).  All was good back in the summer.

I know the correct procedure is to find the images and relink LR at their new location, but as mentioned any reference to these images has disappeared.  Re-import is a last resort, but that's where I seem to be.

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
October 18, 2025

Hi Johan, thanks for the response. I have looked at all the other drives and none of the missing folders appear, either in one lump or scattered about. Almost 1TB of files so difficult to hide all that.

 

If you expect the folders to be in LrC but you don't find them it is most likely becuase LrC has given names to the folder that you might not recognize. Why? Because the folders were accidentally imported using Copy instead of ADD and so LrC gives default folder names, which is probably capture date. Yes, this is a common problem reported here in the forums.

 

So I want you to search for one of the PHOTOS in these folders (in other words, do not search for FOLDERS) in the LrC Library Module, using the following 4 step procedure. Please be sure to apply all 4 steps, and let us know what the search finds.

 

1. Click on All Photographs (its on the left under Catalog)
2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
3. Expand All Stacks (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
4. In the Filter Bar, search for a photo by File name

 

If you find a photo, then in LrC right click on the Photo and select Go to Folder in Library. In the Library panel you will find that the folder where this photo is located is highlighted (you may have to scroll up or down to find the highlighted folder).

 

 

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