Adding folders changes directory structure

[gyro22222]

I am a long time user of lightroom.

Recently, when I created a new catalog, I added (not imported ) folders from my win 10 folder called 3Scan.

However, instead of maintaining the exact folder structure in win 10 explorer, several of the folders are promoted to parent status at the same level as the 3Scan folder I imported. In the attached, the 3Scan folder is the proper parent folder. All the other folders should be under this; as you can see they are not.   The attached shows the parent folder and the folders at the top and below which should be under 3scan. In this case these folders should be under Travel. I tried 3 times.

Thanks for your help

[richardplondon]

You apparently have got several different folders, each called "3scan" but under different parent folder names? It is not feasible to present folders as nested within a common parent folder name, unless the higher levels of each one's full path are all identical.

Not sure what is going on with "2 - dropbox" and "3 - dropbox" etc, but it seems this may be the confusing factor. In that case the repeated use of "3scan" and "travel" folder naming is of no help to you. Things may now need to be physically moved into the simpler arrangement that your post seems to speak of; outside or inside LR. If outside LR. the Catalog would then need to be re-addressed so that it regains connection, onto each moved tree of subfolders.

Once the files are physically rearranged in this unified way, and once LR is "conscious" of those changes, the hierarchy listing seen in the Folders panel will automatically follow suit. If your Dropbox local app has been responsible for these varying folder paths, this issue will continue arising until you stop that happening.

[JohanElzenga]

This looks like a well-known problem, called the 'Capitalisation problem'. Basically, what happens is that you have two different folders, one called ‘XXXX’ and the other one called ‘xxxx’. In other words, the names are the same, except for the capitalisation. Because MacOS and Windows are case-insensitive, your OS sees those two folders as one and the same folder and so it deals with this without you even being aware of it. You will only see one version. But Lightroom is case-sensitive, so Lightroom does see two different folders.

Let's assume that 'XXXX' is the folder you see in the Finder/Windows Explorer. Here's how to fix the problem:

1. Backup your catalog.

2. Create a folder directly on the root of your internal hard drive, call it whatever you want, say "Capitals Fix". Note: do this in Windows Explorer/Macintosh Finder, not in Lightroom.

3. Right-click on the “xxxx” folder in the Lightroom Folders Panel and select "Update Folder Location". In the file browser that then opens, browse to and select the "Capitals Fix" folder.

4. Don't be alarmed as the ‘xxxx’ folder will disappear from the Folders Panel, "Capitals Fix" will appear but all the sub-folders that were listed under ‘xxxx’ will now have "?" marks.

5. Now right-click on "Capitals Fix" in the Folders Panel, and again choose “Update Folder Location". This time browse to and select the “XXXX” folder. You may get a "Merge" dialog box, select "Merge" and everything should resolve itself.

[gyro22222]

I went through the steps 2 more times and got the same results. I made a short video.

please let me know what I can do

Thanks,

Hal

[JohanElzenga]

It does indeed look  like the capitalisation problem. I have heard about people getting that error when they try to fix it, but I’m not sure when and why that happens sometimes. One thing to check is that you are trying to fix the correct folder. It may not be the Pictures folder, but another one. You hover over the folder hierarchy very quickly, so I can’t see this. What you need to do is hover over individual misplaced folders, and look at the folder path that Lightroom shows. Look for a folder name with a different capitalisation than the one you see on disk. It often is in ALLCAPS, but not necessarily. It could be a single letter as well.