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I was selecting a file in Bridge when my elbow slipped and I may have swiped the folder left. The folder has now disappeared from the entire system. It contained 232 photos. I had created the folder a short while before in the process of doing some "house keeping" in Bridge so it had not been backed up yet. It had been put into Lightroom CC but the folder now shows a ? mark and is unable to find the location of the folder. Any ideas on where it might be hiding?
Hi John,
there are two stories here: Bridge and Lightroom Classic. I'll start with Bridge.
it is impossible for Bridge to make your files disappear. The files are SOMEWHERE on your computer. I suggest you search by date or something, anything to find the files on your computer.
FWIW, I think we've all did an "oops" while moving something and the hand jiggles at the wrong time and you inadvertently let them fall into another folder. BUT THEY ARE NOT GONE!!
Now, LRC: LRC is a database and it
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Hi John,
there are two stories here: Bridge and Lightroom Classic. I'll start with Bridge.
it is impossible for Bridge to make your files disappear. The files are SOMEWHERE on your computer. I suggest you search by date or something, anything to find the files on your computer.
FWIW, I think we've all did an "oops" while moving something and the hand jiggles at the wrong time and you inadvertently let them fall into another folder. BUT THEY ARE NOT GONE!!
Now, LRC: LRC is a database and it works by knowing where everything is. It doesn't make a difference where things are as long as LRC knows that location. If you move things in the Finder/Explorer than LRC doesn't know about that move and you get that exclamation symbol. Once you find the files and re-link them, you'll be good again. But this also means that your original action of moving the files outside of LRC was gout to cause the same end result.
do a google search for "how to find missing images in LRC, you'll find a lot of answers because this is a common issue that people have until they stop moving files that are part of LRC while in the Finder/Explorer.
I hope this makes sense, good luck finding your files, they're somewhere.
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Hi John,
I'm glad I was able to help. If I can impose upon you to please tap my response with "Correct Answer" it will also help others who have the same issues.
I'm not fully sure why you are using Bridge on LRC's folders. As you've found out, it has it's "issues." FWIW, I find working in LRC's folder system fairly easy. I've taken a screenshot of a portion of my Folder structure to give you an idea of how I've laid it out. I do both a tight folder structure AND keywording. It's important for me to have both.
There are some folks in these forums who are adamant that they dump all images into one or several folders and rely upon keywords to find everything. I do not work that way because that's not the way my brain is comfortable. Obviously, the way I work is not comfortable for their brain. My point is you need to find a structure that works for you. But going into Bridge to do LRCs duties is not a good way to do it as you have just demonstrated.
One of the things I often do is if I have a folder of MANY images and wish to break it down into unified components, I go into the Library menu (in Library mode) and turn Off, "Show Folders in Subfolders." When you do that as you remove images from the main folder, the total number of images see in the main folder goes down AND what's more important: you do not see them. Put another way, let's say you have images that are about to be placed in sub-folders with categories AAAABBBBBBCCCCCC, etc. Once you move the A images into the A folder, all you see in the main folder is BBBBBBCCCCCC, etc. If you turn that "Show Folders…" back on, you'd see all of the images.
For me, one of the big reasons for Keywording is that you will have subjects that appear in different folders and this is how to unite them. For example, let's say you have a Aunt on your father's side, Auntie Gravelda. And you have photos of your father's side in a folder. But then you have a family get together, also with Auntie Gravelda. Now, later, you want to find ALL photos of Auntie Gravelda. With Keywording this is a snap. By folder's only, it's a pain.
Lastly, notice that when you right-click on a folder, there's an option to "Create Folder inside Folder XYZ." When you open that window (that also lets you name the folder), there's a checkbox to add all selected images. Be sure to uncheck that if you do not want that. Plus, you can also drag folders around in the Folder Panel as well.
Hope all this makes sense. Here's a portion of my folders:
 
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I'll have to have an open mind when it comes to certain file handling chores in LR. I keep folders by location and extensively keyword. I do a fair amount of keywording on my laptop when I am in the field. Since it is not going to reside on the laptop for long and I don't need to catalog any of it I use a relatively simple and quick program called Photo Mechanic to do rough edits and initial keywording. I amke back up copies of the data and when I get home upload it onto my desk top into LR. It arrives with much of the keywording in place and sometimes even a caption. I shoot primarily wildlife (mostly birds) so location and species works well with this system.
I think after last evening that I've let my system for managing my web images has (because of a lack or long range planning) get a bit complicated, with too much busy work. It is what I was working on last night when my clumsiness caused the folder to wander into the hinterlands. lol
My goal is to clean up and streamline that process next month. You have inspired me to see if I can make LR work harder for me rather than me for it. Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions.
John
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I do not have too much time but what I do when traveling is to make a new LRC catalog on my wife's laptop and start ingesting and doing what's necessary on the images. Once I'm done for the night, I copy EVERYTHING to an external hard drive. Once the images and everyting else is backed up. I then can reformat my image cards.
When I get hope I import the entire catalog and images into my primary catalog and image folder. This process has worked VERY well for me.
Sorry, gotta go (dinner)
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That's true.Bridge CC 2018 get same issue, holy!
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The same thing with me, a folder is gone that is no longer findable with a spotlight search and is also not in the trash.