P: Moving files, resulted in deleting the files

[jkborys]

I am using Mac OSX and LR CC 2015.

I have a workflow that involves importing thousand of raw photos and then sorting them. In order to sort them, I take a group of photos of the same subject and move them to a temp folder and then repeat until all the photos have been moved to sub categories based on there names. I then move the photos out of the temp folder into the original folder and delete the temp folder.
While attempting to move the folders containing the photos, one of the folders and the 97 photos under it was lost. There is also a descrepancy in the number of photos copied 97 vs 76. And I can no longer find the photos on my hard drive. i did NOT delete the photos. LR seems to have deleted them. This is a HUGE problem. KimBenchProblem_inline-81a5d584-d717-4e35-ac1b-a8c550acdee7-631396214.jpg

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Do they end up in the Trash Can?

[jkborys]

no. They are just gone.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Can you share more details? More Screen Shots?

On the drive where the Temp folder resides is it local, external or networked?
On the drive where the organized folders reside is it local,external or networked?

Prior to deleting the Temp folder, do you verify via the OS that it is empty?

[jkborys]

Both folders are on an external hard drive. I did not verify via the OS that it was empty because I did not delete the folder. I simply moved it's contents to another folder. I used LR to do this because, as you know, if I do that in the OS LR will lose the link to those files and I will have to find them again inside LR. I do not know what other screen shots I can provide.
External HDD. Move from one LR folder to another about 5,000 photos and one of the folders contents disappear it the gist of it.
I have been a software engineer for the last 17 years so I am not a newb when it comes to user interfaces or how directory structures work. I am mystified. And one of my clients is heartbroken.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thanks for the additional information, John.

[Chet Drarvik]

I notice that one of your folders is named 'kimberly Bench' while the other is named 'Kimberly Bench'. What were the exact steps to get to that point? (Doesn't seem like just drag/drop would case a change in case. Did you manually create the 'kimberly Bench' folder, then drag selected images back from the (temporary) 'Kimberly Bench' folder?)

Also, I'm assuming this is not the case, but is the file system on your external drive case sensitive?

[jkborys]

No I didn't. I dragged all of the folders from the temp directory to the perm directory. I have no idea how the case changed. I too see no reason why LR would be responsible for changing the case on these directories. Now I am questioning my own sanity...

[dj_paige]

There are many similar reports in the Lightroom Forum, these are rare but persistent.

I have compiled a list of such reports here

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Rikk,

I just encountered a similar problem. I am really panicking because my files on my backup HDD (that was connected to my PC) ware also deleted.

I used the video instructions from Julianne Kost to transfer my files from my OS HDD to an external HDD. Some of my files transferred some disappeared altogether; they are not in the recycle bin either. In addition, the files on my backup HDD were also eliminated- I did not even touch that one.

I need to talk to someone at Adobe directly. What number should I call?
I use windows 7 and I have LR 5.5.

Please help me!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

This cost me nearly £300 in obtaining a restore of some extremely important images from a wedding I had shot. I would like someone from Adobe to contact me to discuss how I could be reimbursed for this loss due to the software issues.

[ryanm8688462]

Hi,

I decided i really should start backing up my image files to an external HDD. In preperation of this I tried to move 5 old image folders into one subfolder (Still on my internal HDD).

My images have always been organised as follows when imported by LR:

     Pictures/'Year'/'dd-mm-yyyy'/imagename001.DNG

So I tried to move 5 year folders into one main 'Archive' folder, so like this:

    Pictures/Archive/'Year'/'dd-mm-yyyy'/imagename001.DNG

I created the 'Archive folder in Finder, then I thought the best way to complete the move would be within lightroom to retain ties between the catologue and DNG files.

However after moving the folders lightroom flagged up an error message (I can't remember the wording but may have been about duplicate directory naming) and after clicking OK it seems that 4 folders were successfully moved but 90% of my files from 2014 have vanished.

They are not in the original location,they are not in the new location, they are not in the trash. 

I've paid for and run disk rescue software to find them but none of these files could be found. The only thing i've managed to do is run a script to save the LR previews as .jpg.

I know i should have backed up sometime earlier, but it still stings that i'm trying to do the right thing here and still get screwed by LR deleting my files. What is going on here Adobe?

[John R Ellis]

Paige Miller has gathered many other reports of this "rare but persistent and nasty bug":

Moved files within Lightroom, 2/3 flat out disappeared?!

Hello, i have a problem with a folder vanishing whilst i was using lightroom

Tried to move a folder and it deleted the files on disk

Lightroom deletes photos while moving

Moving folders in Lightroom - lost all my pictures!

Re: The lost photos

Missing 6 months worth of pictures of my kids, HELP!

SAFE TO RENAME/MOVE FOLDERS WITHIN LIGHTROOM?

[John R Ellis]

Since there continue to be reports about this problem over several years, a number of us recommend that if you're moving more than a few files, especially if you're moving folders, do so outside of LR with Mac Finder or Windows File Explorer.  Then reconnect the LR folder with its new location by right-clicking the folder in the Folders panel and selecting Find Missing Folder.

[dj_paige]

Since there continue to be reports about this problem over several years, a number of us recommend that if you're moving more than a few files, especially if you're moving folders, do so outside of LR with Mac Finder or Windows File Explorer.  Then reconnect the LR folder with its new location by right-clicking the folder in the Folders panel and selecting Find Missing Folder.

I would recommend an even safer method. COPY (not MOVE) the photos to the new hard disk. Then, right-click on the top level folder in Lightroom and select "Update Folder Location" and point to the new copies. Then, once you are sure everything in Lightroom is reconnected and working properly, you can delete the originals. This is all explained in detail in the section entitled "Updating Folder Location" of this document: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm. This was also Ian Lyons's recommendation (he is the author of this document), and this recommendation is at least 4 years old now.

Nevertheless, how are we going to let users know about this?

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Ryan, can you go to Help>System Info... and get us your exact LR Version number?

Thanks!

[ryanm8688462]

Lightroom version: CC 2015.5 [ 1067055 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Operating system: Mac OS 10
Version: 10.11 [4]

[ryanm8688462]

Yes, it's difficult to find this solution until you know about the problem...

[jasona21784545]

I have CR2 (Canon RAW) plus JPG files, since I am shooting with both (for various reasons).  I will occasionally see this issue with the CR2 file not being moved.  It seems to happen more if I am using my second monitor for the Loupe view. 

My best guess is that the Loupe view window is trying to show the "current" file in the Library, but right as this is happening, the Move operation is trying to move it to the new folder, and there's some conflict between the two operations (which as a software engineer, suggests to me a threading problem in the code).  So far, no lost files, but I do need to retry the Move operation (normally after I remember to turn off the second monitor).

[John R Ellis]

See this topic for a possibly related issue: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/multiple_image_move_operation_bug_since_at_le...

[dj_paige]

A new report, this is the first one I am aware of where the move was between two folders on the same disk.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2174292

[dj_paige]

Another identical report, files disappear when they are moved inside of Lightroom
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2193842

[dj_paige]

Another report: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2264879
And another: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2132971

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

thanks for the report Paige.  We are still trying to repro here.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

The same just happened to me. I moved 11 folders, each containing subfolders up to two levels. All the folders/subfolders contained images.

Two folders with subfolders were lost, totalling in 216+128=344 lost images.

I am extremely annoyed that a function offered in Lightroom can have such disastrous consequences. My LR version is 2015.8, OS is 10.11.5. Conventional HD connected via ESATA.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

To be precise, the folder structure remained intact, just the images were lost.

I have a theory what might have caused this:

When I dragged the folders, one level of subfolders was still expanded. I simply highlighted the containing folders plus all the subfolders and dragged everything to the new location. I did so because I was lazy, the folders happened to be still expanded from what I had done before.

This might lead to conflicting tasks within Lighroom when it tries to move a folder and a contained folder within at the same time. The top level folder tries to move the sub-level since it belongs to it, but the sub-level folder has been highlighted additionally and also tries to move.

Perhaps one of the LR-Gurus could look into that?