An internal error has occurred. Invalid Path error while finding raw folders on a NAS

[MemoMedina]

Hi guys, oldtime Lr User here, but new to the forums.

(My native language is spanish, so excuse me if my english is bad.)

System Specs: LR Classic 12.2 release, Camera Raw 15.2 (Build 202302032259-eb84d255) on a 2013 Mac Pro 6-Core 3.5Ghz Xeon with 16 gigs of ram Running MacOS Monterey 12.6.3 (21G419) and with a Synology NAS DS420+ Running the latest  version of DSM 7.1.1-42962 Update 3

In my studio we have 3 workstations; the first is my "trashcan" mac pro 6,1, and 2 assembled windows PC. We use several catalogs that are stored locally on each machine and synchronized with synology drive, so we always have the updated catalogs on every workstation, and all the raw files are stored on the NAS. Each client has his own catalog and directory with the name "-Name of the client- Medios" being "medios" the word we use to know that is the correct folder, and then it contains the usual LR structure that is year and then date folders. 

Each time one of my assistants opens a catalog on his windows workstation, they find all the photographs offline because the file adress is different on windows and mac and viceversa, so the only thing we have to do is clic on the "medios" folder cna clic on "find missing folder" and then we select the respective "Medios" folder. We've been working like this at least 3 years and it has been very easy and productive for us. 

Everyting worked fine until this week, when I tried to locate the missing folder i've found an error message that appears immediatly after clicking on the folder: "An Internal Error Has Occurred. Invalid Path"

I've tried restarting my system, the NAS, recconecting the network volumes, resseting the preferences while launching LRC, reinstalling LRC, and even the support team tried to remotely fix the problem granting full acces to the Library folders... but all without succeess. 

Funny thing is that I can import new photos to the very same directory that LRC says it's an invalid path, and i can locate individual photos succesfully, but not the Top Parent folder "medios", nor the year folder or even the day folder. 

My assistants can work normally on their windows workstations, but it's me who cant find peace of mind having all my photographs online. Hope you can help me with this! Thanks in advance for your time. 

[Julian29546389l1hp]

I copied the lightroom catalog from windows to Mac.

Updated the folder on my Mac to a path on my Mac SSD

and I get the same error.

So it's not a timing Problem.

I think it has to do with how lightroom on  windows sets the NAS-Path.

Because: as I mentioned in my workaround: change the folder-location on windows to a fake path before copy the catalog to Mac, and than on Mac update the folder to the correct NAS-Path...

works...

[kfh14546478]

Ahhh... what if...

Something changed in the file handling since 12.2, and your "workaround" could be a clue. I'm not saying, it is, but...

The "\" character is in certain connections interpreted as an escape character in macOS. When you altered the path from "\\something\legal\" to "D:\something_nonexisting\", Lightroom may see something different, if interpreting escape characters. IF since 12.2 interpreting "\" as an escape character in filenames, Lightroom probably never "sees" the backslash, except in server specification, that start with "\\" which becomes a hard "\", if the first "\" is interpreted as an escape character instead of a simple first backslash in a server specification. Example "this is legal" in Windows is usually entered as "this\ is\ legal" in the command line argument in the shell in macOS.

In a way, there's no reason, that a path starting with a "double backslash" indicating server notation, could not be simple converted in Lightning in macOS, by replacing all backslash characters with slash characters in the pathname. That would to a large extend remove the need for flagging an "illegal path name", when moving from Windows to MacOS, and the move would largely be transparent between platforms. Only the odd cases, where platform illegal characters crop up Lightroom needs to request help from the user.

Regards

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Note: on the Windows side, I map my NAS to drive letters and work from the drive letters and not the address. That may be the difference. I don't use the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx in either my Mac or my Windows paths. 

[kfh14546478]

That's it!

Try to use a direct "address" like "\\server\share\folder" instead of "D:/folder", where D: is mapped to "\\server\share".

Do you see the problem then?

Regards

[DamienDortiz]

well damn. add me to the list of people with this issue. never had a problem accessing my NAS through lightroom before and now.... it just wont mount so i can have access to the photos and edit. 

[Julian29546389l1hp]

Thx @Rikk Flohr: Photography 

That helped.

I mapped the NAS Path as a drive-Letter on Windows.

This is a good solution.

[Jesse29790328h4d8]

Using the technique described earlier by changing your windows location to a fake folder on your local drive versus your network drive, then relocating the library/catalog on your Mac 100 percent works. 

[Glenn Altern]

So a number of people are reporting the same error, which I am experiencing with a new Mac, and explaining how it arises. These people are, I'm sure, experiencing considerable frustration.

You repeated response is "It's fine for me".

Why do you bother ?

[Glenn Altern]

Thanks to everyone on the forum who proposed a solution. 

[MemoMedina]

Hi Rikk, I hope you're having a great day. 
I'll try to explain how my workstations are configured on my studio. All my catalogs files are stored on the local drive of each workstation, and of course, my wife -and business partner- and I, work only on one catalog at the time, so we're sure not to run into a corrupted catalog (we've been working this way for at least 3 years) so everytime we work on a catalog, it's synced to the other workstation. (one is the mac pro 6,1 I described on my original post, and the other is an assembled AMD system with Windows 10) and everytime the catalog is opened on the other system we only had to find the folder with all the raw files, because obiosly it appears as missing. In my understanding this is caused by the different file path structures on wondows and mac os, but this was not a problem until 12.2.1 and now it persist on 12.3. because, before the folder was succesfully linked or found to keep working.

I'm reading the answers and I see that the most common scenario is migrating a catalog from one system to another, and that's a very similar situation, but on my case is a day to day procedure that now I can't do anymore, so i'm stucked on 12.1. If there's somethins else I can do to help, please reach out to me! 

[Julian29546389l1hp]

@MemoMedina 

on the Windows-Workstation you have to map the NAS-Folder as a Drive-Letter.

So, if your NAS is     \\NAS-Server\shared-photofolder\

you have to map it to a drive on windows, for example with the letter    D:\

and than update the path in your lighroom catalog to this letter   (in this example  D:\   )

With this workaround, you will not get the error on Mac

[MemoMedina]

Thank you very much, Julian! I'll try to do this on thursday because I'm on my way to a work trip. I'll let you all know if it worked 🙂 

[paulo32214390]

thank you! I was freaking out when I ran into the same issue!

[paulo32214390]

has this been corrected for 12.3?

[Julian29546389l1hp]

nope.
I just tried it with 12.3

Still the same problem.

[kfh14546478]

No!

Still present. Just as in 12.2. Last working version 12.1.

What MacOS do you have installed?

Mine is as of this moment Ventura 13.3.

Maybe also Apple's Ventura has gotten even more - ahem - "personality" lately 😉

[kfh14546478]

Best approach is:

• Downgrade to 12.1
• Update Catalogue Missing Folders
• Exit
• Upgrade to 12.3
• Work with newly updated Catalogue
• Find a few "choice words"

This should not be necessary, really...!!!

Regards

[Jose Maria29733736et2j]

Greetings, I have the same problem, I have several catalogs created with windows 10 and the original ones on a synology DS910 NAS... I recently use a Mac Studio and when trying to import the catalog I get the error you mentioned

[hudsonhenry · Accepted solution]

(WORK-AROUND SOLVED MY ISSUE) Mapping the NAS shared folder with my images to a drive letter in Windows 11's File Explorer, then directing Lightroom 12.3's catalog in Windows to the images via the mapped and drive lettered location solved the issue for me. When I jumped back to my Mac Studio Ultra with the same catalog on the same 10Gbe network I had no problem locating the images in the NAS shared folder on the Mac too. Adobe should address this, but at least there is a relatively easy fix that lets you upgrade past 12.1

[MemoMedina]

Hi Henry

This work-around also solved the issue on my system. Hopefully with the help of @Rikk Flohr: Photography this can get solved with a future update. Thanks a lot. 

[RobertSmits]

This did the trick for me too.  However, when I was on my Mac, I still had to re-update LR to the correct folder (which thankfully worked then).  But does this mean I will have to update the folder location everytime when I go from my Mac to my PC and vice versa?

This would also mean I'd have to update folder location to Mac every time I leave the house, in order to be able to work on the go.  When the folder was not 'active', it didn't see all the smart previews that were rendered in my 80k+ images cat and on the other 130k+ catalogs (I am using two master catalogs, one for private work, the other for paid work).

[FurryHerbington]

I have my photos in multiple different folders by camera model, location, date etc. Do I have to direct the catalogue to each folder on my nas after assigning a drive letter to make this workaround work? Currently I have the same issue as described by others. Macbook pro for mobile editing, Windows PC at home, nas drive with files on and portable ssd with catalogue and preview/cache which is switched back and forth between mac and pc. If I import files to the nas via the macbook they are missing in Windows LrC and vice verse. 

Thanks 

[GennadyMeergus]

yes, if you have folders in the catalog that you want to be able to access on a Mac via "find missing folder" feature, they must start with a drive letter in Windows, otherwise lightroom will display "internal error" and you won't be able to remap them on a Mac. this started after 12.1 and the issue still exists in 13.0.1

[FurryHerbington]

So to be entirely clear.

1. I have now mapped my NAS drive on my Windows PC with a drive letter.

2. On Windows in LrC, the original NAS file directory exists in the library "Folders" tab and works just fine with all files linked, with my catalogue stored on a protable SSD.

3. I can find the mapped drive in LrC having assigned a drive letter, but it does not feature in my "Folders" tab, because I have not actually imported anything from that location yet. So I know it's available, I know it will be added to my "Folders" tab once I have imported from that location, but I just don't know what my next step is.

What next:

What do I need to do now to associate my catalogue with the files on the NAS via the new mapped drive folder without having to rebuild the whole catalogue and import all the files again, rebuild collections, etc. etc.?

It is the same folder structure, the same files, the same everything except the files will now be associated with the mapped NAS rather than just finding the drive in the "Network" tab in Explorer. 

Thank you

[FurryHerbington]

In answer to my own question, in case anyone is/was in the same boat as me:

I made a new catalogue.

I imported from my previous catalogue.

I selected the option to move files when adding to new catalogue.

I chose the newly mapped NAS drive as the destination.

The filing structure remained unchanged and therefore there no actual moving of files or duplication of files, they all existed in the same location as they always have, and now LrC shows the folder location as the mapped drive location rather than the network drive location.

I didn't have to rebuid smart previews, they pulled across and all edits/collections/keywords etc. etc. etc. remain in tact. 

All that is left to do is now plug the SSD with the catalogue in to my MBP and see if the files are found while connected to the same network as the NAS. Fingers crossed.