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Jon_Kreski
Jon_Kreski
Known Participant
November 22, 2018
Answered

Find missing video files for Smart Collections after OS folder name changes

  • November 22, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 816 views

Nebie to Lightroom.  Had hundreds of videos that needed organizing, culling for saving JPegs from frames and or deleting.  In the process I renamed some folders both in Lightroom Classic 2019 and in the OS.  Now I have a number of gryed-out video icons with filenames, but they say they can't find the files.  Some others have an image from the first frame of the clip and it still can't find the files.  I use OneDrive and I searched for one file name via the web and found it.  It was a renamed file.  What is the best way to rebuild this Smart Collection?  Do I need to find the files one at a time and reconnect them?  I already tried Find All Missing Photographs.

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Correct answer john beardsworth

Not one file at a time, unless you've really confused LR with the renaming.

First look at the Folders panel and see if they have question marks. If so, right click and Find Missing Folder. Point to the new location.

Then do a Library > Find Missing Photos which simply lists everything in the catalogue that is missing. So it shows you what is missing, rather than finding them. Click the photo/video thumbnail's question mark and point to where it now is. But notice the Find Nearby Missing Files in the bottom left corner. It will then look for missing files in the same folder as the one you are correcting.

In future, don't rename in the OS. But you've learnt that, I am sure!

1 reply

john beardsworth
Community Expert
john beardsworthCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
November 22, 2018

Not one file at a time, unless you've really confused LR with the renaming.

First look at the Folders panel and see if they have question marks. If so, right click and Find Missing Folder. Point to the new location.

Then do a Library > Find Missing Photos which simply lists everything in the catalogue that is missing. So it shows you what is missing, rather than finding them. Click the photo/video thumbnail's question mark and point to where it now is. But notice the Find Nearby Missing Files in the bottom left corner. It will then look for missing files in the same folder as the one you are correcting.

In future, don't rename in the OS. But you've learnt that, I am sure!

Jon_Kreski
Jon_KreskiAuthor
Known Participant
November 23, 2018

Thanks!  Summary - Process returned many files.  I was able to re-link a few manually.  Find Nearby box was checked but the nearby ones were not auto-re-linked.  Maybe because that file name was in multiple locations and the other location file was already in the catalog?  Details below -

Followed the directions and understand.  I thought that, since it already had the file names of what was missing and went and found all the files it considered to be missing - it would re-connect the missing files to the extent practical.  Perhaps it did that and these are other cases.  Regardless, it ran for some time and found a good batch of file.  I clicked on one lovely sunset photo, went to OneDrive on-line and did a Search Everything to find the file.  I noted the location, went back into Lightroom and told it where it was.  I also noticed the Find Nearby Missing Files box, which was already checked (I think I may have set that in some settings screen) thank you.  It would not link although it was the same "image".  I was able to re-link the one file.  The Find Nearby box was checked.  There were multiple files sequentially numbered and named in that folder that were delivered by Find All Missing Files but none of them were linked immediately after I linked the one right next to it.  I was able to go back in and manually link a few of them.  Do I need to re-run find all missing files or is there some other process to run?

john beardsworth
Community Expert
john beardsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 23, 2018

Re-running Find Missing Photos only tells you if any files are missing. It's purely for information, and ideally it should always say nothing is missing. You just have to fix the folders first, and then any remaining files. Run Find Missing Photos again to see if you are finished.

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