Lightroom catalogue screwup on external drive

Question

Help!

I have my photograph files (CR2s and JPGs) as well as my Lightroom catalogue on an external USB flash drive.

For a reason too longwinded to post here, I needed to change the name of the external USB drive from "Photographs" to "Seagate." As soon as I did this, I realized that Lightroom could not find my photos. Foolishly, I tried to fix the problemm by reverting the external drive back to "Photographs."

Now Lightroom does not seem to know most of my photos exist, Usually if a folder is missing, there is a little question mark beside the folder name. In my case, the folder names are not even listed in Lightroom. It's like they don't exist. If I look at the external drive, I can see that all the photos etc are still there. How can I get Lightroom to recognize them?

Also, for the future, what is a better way to rename an external drive so Lightroom does not get confused?

Rob_Cullen · Answer

"the folder names are not even listed in Lightroom"Most likely is that you accidently started a new (empty) Catalog.On the Lr top menu- choose FILE > OPEN RECENT...  and look for other Catalogs, one of which might be your catalog with the 'missing' folders.Or- use your OS file browser to find all .LRCAT  Catalog files and open each to find the one with data.Or- Restore a recent Backup Catalog from its zip folder that may have the data. When you find your missing Catalog, then you can relink the folders in Lr (with a ? ) with the folders on the external drive (whatever its name!). Start at the very 'Topmost' folder shown in the folder panel.MISSING FILES & FOLDERS (Adobe link)MISSING FILES & FOLDERS (Lightroom Queen)

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