Batch Relink Missing Files

I replace my hard drives with newer, larger capacity hard drives every few years, by backing up old drive to new drive. This way all folders & images are organized in the same way as the previous drive. But, when I need to relink the LR catalog to the new location, it takes forever to select each and every folder to show LR the new location on the new drive. Is there a simple & fast way to have LR relink all the missing folders without manually having to do each and every one? I know if I select one image in a folder, it finds all the other ones in that folder, but I have a few hundred folders, and all of them are in different subfolders.

I know Lightroom can do pretty sophisticated things, so not sure why something relatively simple like this can’t be done, when the Finder has no problem doing it. It would be great if I could just point LR to the new drive, and let it search for all the missing images in the background, say overnight.

Or, if there was a script or plug-in of some sort to look for the exact same named folder in the same location on the designated drive, compare the image file names to make sure they all match, then relink all the missing files on that new drive.

Don't be surprised if you've deleted some images somewhere along the way as well as moved them.

Not totally automatically.

First look at the folders panel. If you have question marks on them, right click and Find Missing Folders, then tell LR where the folders are.

Then run Find All Missing Photos again. Fix one photo by clicking exclamation mark and notice the dialog box has a setting for nearby photos. Point to where the photo now is, and that setting with automatically find other missing photos in that folder.

In future, don't move stuff around outside Lightroom.