Inspiring

Answered

Relink a missing folder.

Forum|Forum|3 days ago
September 11, 2026
12 replies
46 views

I spaced and moved a Lightroom Classic folder in my external hard drive instead of in Lightroom so now the images can’t be found. But, when I right click on the folder or the parent folder in Lightroom the “Find Missing Folder” option doesn’t appear. What’s going on? Thanks!

Correct answer aadoerr

Thank you all for your time and suggestions! I figured out what happened. There was a nested folder on the external hard drive that didn’t appear in Lightroom. Once I figured that out Update Folder Location worked. Thanks again!

A

aadoerrAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

Thank you all for your time and suggestions! I figured out what happened. There was a nested folder on the external hard drive that didn’t appear in Lightroom. Once I figured that out Update Folder Location worked. Thanks again!

Conrad_C

Community Expert

Let’s confirm what you’re seeing, because there are multiple ways for folders and files to “missing,” so first we have to make sure what kind it is, as shown in the image below.

If a folder is missing, there’s a question mark on that folder. This is circled in orange.

If a file is missing, there’s an exclamation point on a file’s thumbnail icon, not on a folder icon. This is circled in red.

If a subfolder is missing, the folder icon has an exclamation point in a black circle. This is not shown in the picture below.

From your description, you should not be trying to relink any folders because what you are seeing is B, a missing file, right? Your screen shot shows that its folder does not have an exclamation point, therefore, you don’t need to relink the folder, you need to relink the files. Click the exclamation point in the top right corner of a file’s thumbnail icon to get an opportunity to relink it.

If a folder is missing, its context menu has the Find Missing Folder command on it.

If a folder is not missing, its context menu has the Update Folder Location command on it.

A

aadoerrAuthor

Inspiring

Sorry, this seems to be getting so complicated. When I click on the folder the images appear with an exclamation point in the upper right hand corner. When I click on an image in the Library it appears, but when I go to Develop it says The File Could Not Be Found and I can’t access the Develop controls.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Like I said before, that sounds like you copied the folder, and then moved the images to the new folder. The result is that Lightroom still sees the original folder (so no missing folder), but it doesn’t see any images anymore in that folder. UPDATE FOLDER LOCATION will do the trick in this case. It will relink the empty original folder to the new folder that contains the images.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

A

aadoerrAuthor

Inspiring

If I understand, Adobe’s instructions. I should be able to relink the entire folder, not just individual images. This according to the Julieanne Kost video.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Yes, you can relink it. But because it is not missing, you won’t have a “Find Missing Folder” menu to do that, but an “Update Folder Location” menu. Both menus do the same, the first menu for a missing folder (but you folder isn’t missing), the second menu for a folder that was copied to that other location, so the original folder is still there and seen by Lightroom.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

A

aadoerrAuthor

Inspiring

Actually, the screen shot does show the New York City-2023-10 folder greyed out, i.e. missing. From the Adobe site, I should just be able to right click on it and a Find Missing Folder option should appear in the dialogue box in the photo. I don’t know why it doesn’t.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

That greyed out triangle does not mean it is missing. It means the folder has no subfolders. A missing folder has a question mark in front of its name and its name is in italics.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

The folder in your screenshot isn’t missing. ‘Update folder location’ is shown in the menus (the 10th menu), so I’m not sure why you say “it doesn’t do the trick”.

It looks like you didn’t move that folder, but copied it. That explains why the original folder isn’t missing. If you moved the images however, then they will be missing. ‘Update Folder Location’ (select the new folder in the dialog you get) should solve that.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

dj_paige

Legend

I think more explanation and clarification is needed.

You said LrC can’t find the folder but actually LrC can’t find the images. These are not the same thing. The folder is not missing, according to LrC. So it may be that the folder still exists but the files are not in the folder. Can you show us a screen capture of what happens when LrC says the images can’t be found? What steps result in the message that the images can’t be found?

Also, please provide any other details that might help us figure this out. Thanks!

A

aadoerrAuthor

Inspiring

Update Folder Location doesn’t do the trick. Here’s the dialogue box that appears when I right click. It’s the same for the parent folder.