Automatic relink photos

I'm not sure that it matters in this situation, but in the Library menu item, do you have "Show photos in subfolders" checked?

Adding on the folder oddities. In the LrC folder panel (as shown):

Why is the folder name repeated? That is not how it shows up in Finder (or are we looking at different folders?)

In that folder view, is the parent folder shown? If you right click can you select to show the parent folder? Your screenshot from Finder would imply it is showing the parent folder, mind you not in a view mode that absolutely implies their are no other folders above the one shown. (no longer a MACOS user, so I cannot test that)

Followup: Double Folder Name, Just learned something new. In the Folder Panel, The very first part where it states Folders and you have the +/- symbols. Click on +, then change the view option. In the authors case "Folder and path" are apparently selected.

Ah, and that means the parent folder (root) is not shown. If it was, you would not see the apparent double folder name.

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. .

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.

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?

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?  

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.

Where are these folders located?

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