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garycd
garycd
Known Participant
May 23, 2025
Answered

Program/catalogue loads, but no photos!!!

  • May 23, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 224 views

I created an external hard disk to keep all of my photos (6,242) and catalogues, to make space on my laptop.. I have not worked on them for a year+ but need to continue to work on them. I updated my program to the latest version, and when I open it, I see the full program -- full file structure, categories, etc. and the total number of photos and numbers assigned to each catalog category, BUT NO PHOTOS! I just get the identification numbers and a grey screen for each. How do I get the lrcat to find the photos? ( I can go to a file and see each photo ... they are there, but the program does not find them).

Correct answer AxelMatt
quote

I created an external hard disk to keep all of my photos (6,242) and catalogues, to make space on my laptop.

...

By @garycd

 

How do you move the images to the external hard drive? Do you use the move function in Lightroom or do you use the Finder? If you use Finder the thumbnails must show an exclamation symbol. Because Lightroom doesn't know about the new location. In this case you must pointed Lightroom to the new location.

 

See here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/locate-missing-photos.html

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

 

 

2 replies

AxelMatt
Community Expert
AxelMattCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 23, 2025
quote

I created an external hard disk to keep all of my photos (6,242) and catalogues, to make space on my laptop.

...

By @garycd

 

How do you move the images to the external hard drive? Do you use the move function in Lightroom or do you use the Finder? If you use Finder the thumbnails must show an exclamation symbol. Because Lightroom doesn't know about the new location. In this case you must pointed Lightroom to the new location.

 

See here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/locate-missing-photos.html

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

 

 

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 5 - Topaz Photo
garycd
garycdAuthor
Known Participant
May 30, 2025

Thanks to responses, I was able to locate the file and reconstruct the link to the controls and photos.

 

Appreciation, GaryCD

Ian Lyons
Community Expert
Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 23, 2025

Do the thumbnails have an exclamation (!) symbol at top right corner.

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