Automatic relink photos

[Lonny38534640sc39]

Twice now I've had to spend 2 hours relinking one folder at a time because LRC forgot where my phtos are. It's tedious and actually phuysically painful from the perspective of repetitive stress injury. 

It does not seem complex that once we've pointed LRC to the root folder that ALL the folders and photos are in it should be able to read the names of the folders and files and relink them automatically. 

In my opinion, having to do this manually is a nightmare and the very worse thing about using LRC. FIxing this would be a major upgrade and I would think be a priority becuase it's an issue of foundational functionality (as oppsed to having AI stick a bird in a photo for example). 

Im not a programmer so I don't know.....but this seems straight forward......

Thanks for listening. Comments? 

[GoldingD]

Where are these folders located?

• A hard drive connected to your computer?
• A NAS?
• The Cloud?

[dj_paige]

It does not seem complex that once we've pointed LRC to the root folder that ALL the folders and photos are in it should be able to read the names of the folders and files and relink them automatically.

This is a feature of LrC, so I'm not sure what you are trying to say.

[Califdan2]

If you have a misisng folder in LrC and you relink it,  it will relink that folder AS WELL AS all the subfolders and images nested under that common parent.  This is contrary to your post so there must be something else at play that has yet to be divulged.  

A second point is to figure out why folders are going missing in the first place.  LrC does not "forget" where they were.  Rather in alomost every case something outside of LrC changed resulting in the pointers inside of LrC to no longer valid.  So, in addition to GoudldinD's quesitons,  are you on Windows or a Mac?  

[JohanElzenga]

1: Lightroom Classic does relink the entire folder hierarchy when you relink the top folder, so why are you suggesting it does not?

2: Lightroom Classic does not 'forget' folders just like that, so why did you have to relink them in the first place?

[Conrad C]

This is going to sound like what the others are saying, but it’s a little puzzling because what you’re asking for is already how it’s supposed to work, and we have found that it does. For example, when you want to move a Lightroom Classic installation to a new computer, it’s standard procedure to simply relink to the topmost folder in the hierarchy, and all other folders further down in that hierarchy, any number of them (even hundreds) are expected to relink successfully from that single action, without any drama. That’s what’s recommended in step 6 of the following widely used guide for a computer move.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

I’ve used Lightroom Classic on the series of Macs I’ve had since Lightroom 1 in 2007, and in normal daily use, it’s never forgotten where the files are on my internal or external volumes. Only if I move or rename something. So one question to resolve is, why are your files are getting unlinked if it seems like it’s for no reason. That’s part of why GoldingD’s reply asks about how the files are stored, because some special or networked volume configurations may be less reliable. (Windows PC users have to additionally make sure their drive letters are set up properly.)

The other question to resolve is why relinking is so tedious on your installation. Relinking the top level folder should be very reliable and simple. But some subfolders could get unlinked if, for example, they were moved or renamed before the links were re-established.

But the bottom line is that more information and troubleshooting is needed, because what you’re requesting is supposed to already be the way the application has worked for many years. Something else is apparently affecting things.

[Lonny38534640sc39]

1. Im using a macbook pro M1 and folders are on an externa drive.

2. My Root folder is "2024 LR Photos"

3. In that are all my daily folders from 1/1/2024 to the present.

4. I relink "2024 LR Photos" and it sees that but it does not reling ANY of the included sub folders. In Fact, the first time this happened I called adobe support and the woman showed me how to relink them one folder at a time. I asked "cant we just do this automatically by relinking the root folder?" and she said "No."

[Conrad C]

I think all of us who have replied disagree with the tech, in that we all agree that reconnecting all folders by relinking just the root folder is a fundamental Lightroom Classic ability that has not changed. If they were a front line (lowest level) tech, they might have less experience with some details of the application.

Have you noticed any pattern to when Lightroom Classic loses track of the files? For example, does it happen after the Mac has gone to sleep and then awakened (some Mac users have noticed external volumes become unmounted on sleep, which is not desirable), or have you noticed another common condition?

[JohanElzenga]

1. Im using a macbook pro M1 and folders are on an externa drive.

2. My Root folder is "2024 LR Photos"

3. In that are all my daily folders from 1/1/2024 to the present.

4. I relink "2024 LR Photos" and it sees that but it does not reling ANY of the included sub folders. In Fact, the first time this happened I called adobe support and the woman showed me how to relink them one folder at a time. I asked "cant we just do this automatically by relinking the root folder?" and she said "No."

By @Lonny38534640sc39

Unfortunately, Adobe support is notorious for giving nonsense answers if they do not know the correct answer, instead of simply admitting they do not know. This is one example.

[GoldingD]

1. Can you post in a reply a screenshot of your LrC Folders Panel. As much of that panel as possible, Minimize the other panels too make room.
2. Can you also post in your reply a screenshot of your MACOS Finder view of the same folder. As to compare.
3. Was the folder structure on that external hard drive the same before your problem occurred in LrC. Were any of these folders, or shall I say sub folders, moved or renamed outside of LrC?
4. Were any of the photos moved or renamed outside of LrC?
5. LrC on it's own should not loose track of where you placed the photos at import, or after import if you moved or renamed them within LrC.
6. If you moved or renamed the entire folder outside of LrC, just that parent folder, then fixing that in LrC should fix all the subfolders.
7. Starting to sound like a corrupt catalog. .

[Lonny38534640sc39]

I've included two screen shots of mmf HD and my LRC Folders panal.

A. I quit lightroom two nights ago and the program was definitly closed. When I went to unmount my two drives that I keep photos on, one unmounted but I kept getting a message for the second one (the one with these photos) that it could not be unmounted  "Because it was in use by a program". I made sure that LRC was closed and closed any other program that might be looking at it. When I reopened LRC it couldnt find my photos. I reattached my "2024 LR photos" succesfully but there were still ? on every enclosed folder that I had to reattach manually one at a time. 

B. I NEVER move photos on the disks themselves and understand that it must be done within LR. 

C. I did not rename anything. 

D. Now that I reattached everything its behaving nicely. 

Thank you all so much for your time and continued help. Lonny

[Lonny38534640sc39]