Adding empty folders from external drive to Lightroom Classic Catalog

[Suzanne Mathia]

I have a corporate client that has a very extensive folder structure "template"that they use for projects. Each project has its own catalog.  I know you can ADD an empty folder by clicking  the + (plus) icon on the Folder panel, select Add Folder, navigate to and select the desired folder. If the folder is empty, Lightroom will simply add it to the Folder panel. I have been unable to do this in a batch. I can only add one folder at a time.  Any way to add empty top level folder with all its empty subfolders.

Right now, they are adding FPO image to all the folders.

Lightroom Classic 12.4 on both Mac and Windows

[dj_paige]

Any way to add empty top level folder with all its empty subfolders.

Did you try it?

[Suzanne Mathia]

Yes, Hence the question. Is there something obvious that I am missing

[richardplondon]

If each project must have its own catalog, this could be made as a copy from a template catalog which already has got this folder structure imported and in place. As needed, you can then readdress the top folder within the copied catalog, for the project in question. But I think if you duplicated a whole project template folder comprising both a template catalog and the related structure together, you may find that this readdressing is not necessary.

[Suzanne Mathia]

After more exhaustive research I see that this was considered a "bug" in earlier discussions. It was then determined it was "as designed" and went to a feature request.  If it's OK for one folder why not multiple folders? Thanks for the possible workaround. Been trying to streamline their workflow. It sure would be great if this was doable istead of just one folder at a time. Creating a sort of template catalog stucture might work in the meantime.

[GoldingD]

Accomplish that outside if LrC, then in LrC, in the folders panel, add the parent (top) folder.

[Suzanne Mathia]

Thank you. I'm not sure I understand your answer. Right now, Any folder/subfolders that is empty won't be imported. Adding a dummy image to each folder is a tedious workaround. 

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

TBMK Adding a dummy image is the only way to achieve what you ask.

If your Folder heirarchy is like this clip-  then you only need one image file in the lowest sub-folder. (any tiny image file will do) for LrC to import it and show the folder heirarchy with empty folders.

If your Folder heirarchy is like this clip-  then, yes, you would need an image file in each sub-folder.

If your Folder heirarchy "template" is always consistent for new jobs, then you could Copy>Paste the original 'Parent' folder (with the dummy images) in Finder to recreate the template heirarchy. (And set [Allow Duplicates] in the LrC Import dialog! to allow the 'dummy' image copies to import.)

Hope my comments might be helpful.

[Suzanne Mathia]

Very helpful. That's what I was thinking. I appreciate all the feedback.