OK, so I messed up and lost all keywords

Hi @Tim of the older variety, Welcome to the Lightroom Classic Forums! The safest and most metadata-preserving method is to move your photos within Lightroom Classic itself, not through Finder or File Explorer. Try this:

1. Connect Both Drives: Plug in both your old and new external drives.

2. Open Lightroom Classic: Launch the app and access the Library module.

3. Locate Your Folders: Under “Folders,” in the left-hand panel, find the folder(s) on your old external drive.

4. Drag and Drop Within Lightroom: Drag the folder directly from the old drive to the new one within the Folder panel. Lightroom will move the files and update the catalog paths automatically. This ensures that all metadata remains intact, including keywords, edits, and flags.

5. Wait for the Transfer to Complete: Depending on the size of your library, this may take some time. Lightroom will handle the file move and update the catalog references.

6. Verify the Move: Once done, right-click the folder on the new drive and choose “Show in Finder” to confirm the files are there. Check a few images to ensure keywords and edits are preserved.

Another way to make sure everything is transferring correctly is to create a temporary subfolder to test moving files before handling bigger batches. It’s a great way to double-check things, especially if you’re working with a lot of images or have had sync issues before. Let me know if any of these steps work! ^CH