Participating Frequently

Question

Can Lightroom re-organize already-imported photos into dated folders?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
September 17, 2013
10 replies
43150 views

Hi folks...

I have some folders in my catalog where for whaetver reason, the import was not done by my usual method, into dated folders (organize...by date).

I would like to find a way to take an existing Lightroom folder, containing pictures already imported into Lightroom, let's just say it's called VACATIONS, and get those pics out into new folders where the photos are put into folders by date taken.

I thought about re-importing...trying to import photos into Lightroom that are in the already existing VACATIONS folder, but Lightroom doesn't want to do that, even when "don't import suspected duplicates" is UN-checked, and that would probably create a mess anyway.

So, anybody got any ideas?

Thanks so much.

--

Bill

How to

ManiacJoe

Inspiring

If the goal is to just move the old images files into a new dated folder structure, this can be easily done by:

- create a new temporary catalog

- import the desired photos, let LR move/copy them into the dated folders

- exit LR

- Open LR using the old master catalog

- In the Library module, repeat the "find missing images" procedure as needed.

mantspi

Participant

Thank you for this tip. I tried this and it works.

J

jabraham

Inspiring

To follow up on this old thread, it's actually way quicker than I expected to use the metadata filters to identify photos taken on a date, then drag them to a new folder in the heirarchical structure that you prefer. Takes maybe a minute per day, so if you have years of 3 week vacations to process, it would take you a few hours. Plus, you then have the bonus of being able to look at all your vacation photos day-by-day again, and live your vacation over. Presumably, one of the reasons you took all those vacation photos back in the day is so you could look at them again in the future. The future is now.

A

Anri Orlow

Inspiring

What a damn stupid comments!

Let everybody work the way he prefers! "date structure is the best", "use metadata", "you'll lose sideshows (what an importat feature! FP)", I simply could not stand still reading all that through!

I have the same problem. I have one folder with a miriade of folders inside "10-11-2015" and so on, with 1-2 photos inside. I need to reorganize it the way:

main folder>

year>

month>

day.

But I simply can't find a way to do it! What to complain more - LR even cant simply automatically delete empty folders (facepalm). Seems it has no solution other than manual reimport in new catalogue...

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

stupid comments!

Why "Stupid" ? we all have different opinions, and what might be your suggestions?

So how would you do the folder re-shuffle in your operating system? (AND keep Lightroom linked to the files)

Does Mac Finder/File Explorer offer a method?

If you want Lightroom to maintain the Library database links to your photos 'new' locations then there is only one way to do it AND preserve ALL your editing work, Collections, VCs, etc, in the Lightroom Catalog. I cannot see any other way to achieve the re-shuffle, and keep the Catalog pristine.

1. First keyword all photos with their current folder 'category' . eg. Vacation.

2. select "All Photographs" in the Catalog Panel.

3. In the Library module- choose 'Metadata' on the filter bar

4. Set one of the columns to "Date"

5. Now you can select a [Year] (eg. 2012)

6. Select all the photos filtered (by a Year) then-

7. Right-click on a 'parent' folder (Do NOT select it) in the LR folder panel and [Create a folder inside "Parent"]

7a. Name the new folder (eg. 2012) and check the selection to "include selected photos"

8. Repeat for each Year, and later can do similar steps to move photos into [Month] folders if wanted.

LR even cant simply automatically delete empty folders (facepalm).

This is to prevent the 'stupid' from deleting folders that may also contain Word Documents, PDF files, or ANY file that is NOT a photo. Even photos that have not been imported to the Catalog would also be deleted if LR would 'automatically delete' folders that appear to be empty in the LR folder panel. (LR only shows IMPORTED PHOTOS in folders)

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

K

kwschnautz

Participating Frequently

I know this is an old thread, but since no one else has bothered to address the actual question, regarding the automated process for reorganizing by date, here is the process that I used:

1) Select all photos in Catalog

2) File > Export as Catalog. Place in a folder entirely separated from your original photos.

3) For the sake of having a backup, create a brand new catalog and open it.

4) File > Import. Select the folder with the exported catalog and 'include subfolders'

5) Upon importing, all photos will be reprocessed and sorted into folders as per your current settings

PLEASE NOTE:

You will lose the following from your images:

Virtual Copies
Historical Edits

R

richardplondon

Community Expert

kwschnautz wrote
I know this is an old thread, but since no one else has bothered to address the actual question, regarding the automated process for reorganizing by date, here is the process that I used:
1) Select all photos in Catalog
2) File > Export as Catalog. Place in a folder entirely separated from your original photos.
3) For the sake of having a backup, create a brand new catalog and open it.
4) File > Import. Select the folder with the exported catalog and 'include subfolders'
5) Upon importing, all photos will be reprocessed and sorted into folders as per your current settings
PLEASE NOTE:
You will lose the following from your images:
Virtual Copies
Historical Edits

Which is to say, throwing away all your work on Virtual Copies / Proofing Copies without the option.

But also the new Catalog will silently LACK :

Collection membership for each surviving image;
Collection sets and Collections altogether;
Stacking;
Smart Collections;
any Catalog settings you've changed away from the default
Publish services and collections and image relationships;
Print collections;
Custom sort order within a folder
Remembered filtering or sort type for particular folders

plus, I think, some of your individual keywords' attributes such as synonyms or 'don't export' (their hierarchy may survive)

dj_paige

Legend

Add to the list of items that will not transfer this way:

Books

Slideshows

Web Pages

Related to the above, I feel that putting effort into creating nice and neat folders by capture date for ALL of your previous photos is an unnecessary goal, in my opinion. It is work that doesn't give you new benefits. Why do I say this? Because the Filter Bar in Lightroom can find your photos by capture date without any re-arranging of your folders.

Just for clarity, I also recommend putting NEW pohtos into folder by capture date. Why? Because this is the Lightroom default, it takes extremely little effort to set this up.

And if you follow my advice, now your folders are mis-matched, some are by date and some are in some other format. Big deal, it doesn't bother me, I organize using LR features such as keywords and other metadata, I don't use the Folder location for any organizing purpose. Folders are simply a place where I store the photos, and are not the method I use to find the photos (by the way, who can remember the capture dates of thousands of photos? If you say that you can remember the capture dates of thousands of photos, I don't believe you)

P

PAAASHEIM

Participating Frequently

You are proabably right, yes, but, from my point of view, Adobe Ligthroom is very close by doing something smart, but has not completed the process - That's the major problem! There is some functionality which do allow you to move files, but not in such a way that it preserve your metatags etc. in a correct way. And that is the main issues - Your collection of photos is growing and when bacem big, it's to late to go back and reorganize your collection without loosing a lot af information...

P

PAAASHEIM

Participating Frequently

The main reason why it is smart to save pictures in folders based on which camera you use and the date and time is because that is the normal way Adobe Lightroom store pictures when importing them to the catalog, and because you have the possibility to add keywards and other metatags to the pictures. Each pictures does represent a dozen of keywords where each of them can be the perfect name of the folder where you want to store the pictures. So, it does not make any sense to try create a smart folder name where you store your original photos in the archive - It is impossible. The only safe undiscussable way to give the folder a name is give the folder a name name when the photo was taken - It's a kind of a matter of fact! Use keywords and create different collections in Ligthrooms based on the keywords you have addes. NB! Do not save the metadata to any other photoformat than the RAW/NEF format because the metatags will then be stored in a sidecar to the original file. If you save the metatags to fx. a JPEG-file, the date oif "Last change" will be altered.

dj_paige

Legend

So leave the old stuff organized in whatever folders they are in, and change the way the new photos are imported so that you can have the capture date (which is a Lightroom default, takes no effort) and add keywords and other metadata to all.

Or to quote the esteemed John Beardsworth earlier in this thread: "Leave the old stuff as it is, and get new stuff right from now on."

You, PAAASHEIM, have not acknowledged that your procedure of importing again has major flaws, that re-importing will cause you to lose some or all of your metadata and edits.

P

PAAASHEIM

Participating Frequently

The point is that Ligthroom do not allow you to do a clean move of the pictures like Adobe Bridge do. But the main reason why I suggest the "Import" function of Ligthroom is mainly because the program move all the picrtures and place them in their respective folder where the date is the name of the folder. You do not import the pictures as such, you just remove them from the catalog and select the "Move" at the menu when you "Import" the pictures. Afterwards, you will recognize that the thumnails, previews is still there and Lightroom do not start a full import process as such.

dj_paige

Legend

You do not import the pictures as such, you just remove them from the catalog and select the "Move" at the menu when you "Import" the pictures.

This is an import, in fact it is the worst kind of import, a second import of the same photo, despite your attempts to describe it as not an import. And if users don't do this properly, they lose their edits and user-supplied metadata, and even if they do it properly they will lose their collections and virtual copies and pick flags and a few other things that I can't remember right now.

And again, I state my opinion that doing all this work is a relative waste of time, you'd be better off keywording and adding other metadata to your photos, and use the filter bar to find photos by date; and stop worrying about getting nice neat folders.

P

PAAASHEIM

Participating Frequently

Yes, you will probably lose your metatags if the metatags is not stored as sidecars to the main files in RAW-format. But, if the archive is a complete mess and you do not know how many trillions of duplicates, it is maybe necessary the reorganized the pictures as described.

P

PAAASHEIM

Participating Frequently

It's very easy to create a well organized photo galleri out of a horrible mess of a stored phoros in different folders.

Organize your pictures in folders where the camera model is the cornerstone in your library.
Identify with Adobe Ligthroom where most of your pictures is stored by using the meta data filter
Select the camera filter you want to use for a for collection shooted by that camera
Open Windows explorer and type the same TAG in the search field as the camera model or only the name of the camera
Start searching in the same folder as you in Ligthroom
In the end, you will get the same number of pictures as indetify in Lightroom
When finish the search, it's time to move the pictures to a temo folder
NB! Now you get the oppurtunity to stop almost identical pictures which can destroy your orginal pictures
When the process of moving pictures has stopped it's time to get back to Ligthroom and start the import process
Start importing the pictures from the temp folder into your new archive where your place the pictures in folders by date
Check that Lightroom is moving the pictures so you get confirmed that they are deleted in the temp folder

You see? Now wou will a new archive where the files is organized by camera model and date.

ManiacJoe

Inspiring

If I am reading your instructions correctly -- not a safe bet -- you seem to be suggesting doing an import a second time. This is never a good idea.

dj_paige

Legend

I agree, any method that advises importing the photos again is not one I would recommend, and this will likely cause more problems.

It also seems pointless to me to do all this work to obtain folders that are named by capture date, which in my mind is relatively useless as a way to find photos because no one can remember the capture dates of thousands of photos. But — if you want to find photos in Lightroom by capture date, you can use the Filter Bar, and get more powerful search capabilities than just find photos by capture date with zero effort to set this up because it is built in to Lightroom; with the filter bar you can search entire months for a photo, or search several days for a photo, or search on a specific date for a photo.

I will go so far as to state my opinion that instead of doing all this work to achieve folders named by capture date using a procedure that I don't recommend, resulting in a relatively useless tool for finding photos because no one can remember the capture dates of thousands of photos, you'd be much better off doing work to add keywords and other metadata to your photos, and use those for searching in the future.

M

mycroft_holmes

Participant

you can indeed change the folder structure of an existing collection, but it requires a bit of "low level" sqlite manipulations:

http://worldofthev1.blogspot.com/2013/01/lightroom-folder-batch-rename-with.html

http://worldofthev1.blogspot.com/2013/06/more-about-lightroom-and-sqlite.html

if you re-import with traditional methods, you will probably disconnect virtual copies and some other stuff.

MH

areohbee

Legend

My only idea isn't worth much: live with existing folder structure if possible and use metadata for in-Lr organization. At some point Adobe may robusten Lr and/or provide primitives for plugin solutions. If unacceptable, I see no automated solution short of re-importing (you may need to remove previous versions, create a new catalog, or use an import plugin which bypasses Lr's limitations, if Lr is being too finnicky).

dj_paige

Legend

My only idea isn't worth much: live with existing folder structure if possible and use metadata for in-Lr organization.

It isn't what the original poster asked for, but I think its a great idea if he really wants to be more organized. Organization isn't making the folders appear nice and neat, organization is taking actions so you can find your photos easily; metadata (primarily keywords, captions and titles) achieves this goal, whereas putting files into date-based folders does not.

In fact, in this case, date-based folders causes you to LOSE you existing organization which says "Vacations". I don't know about the original poster, but I cannot remember what date all of my thousands of photos were taken. Unless the original poster has a much much better memory than I do, converting his VAcation folder to date based folders causes him to be LESS organized than he was previously. Thus, if the original poster wants to see his vacation photos, right now, he can find them easily. If he were to be able to convert to date-based folders, now he cannot find them as easily. In fact, now he has to perform the difficult (to me) mental task of remember what date each photo was taken.

Now, if the original poster can honestly state that he can remember the exact date each of his thousands of photos were taken, then in that case date-based folders might make sense, but I still think metadata makes more sense. If he can't actually remember what dates his photos were taken, then to answer his question "anybody got any ideas?", I would say ... do NOT create date based folders, instead use metadata (primarily keywords, captions and titles) to achieve organization.

D Fosse

Community Expert

What you are missing in this argument is that the original poster already has a form of organization, a folder named "Vacation". By moving these photos into date based folders, he is becoming "less organized" in a significant way, that now there is no obvious way to call up and find his vacation folders.

I will fully agree with the impulse not to organise images physically by (e.g.) Vacation, but instead according to some inherent and enduring property of the images, especially if (as with capture date) LR can help us to file the images systematically, or even automate that totally for us.

A good idea to first batch-apply keywords such as "Vacation" to preserve those pre-existing classifications, before the folder reorganisation. The ease or difficulty of that reorganisation depends on: have Virtual Copies been used; has there been a big reliance on Collections and Smart Collections. If these features have not been used, there is currently a simple 1:1 correspondence between images in LR and images on disk, which is all one needs to worry about. In that case, after keywording all needed prior classifications as above, writing metadata out to all of the images and then re-importing them into a fresh Catalog using the Move (or Copy) options and implementing a date-based scheme from the start, should be relatively straightforward.

If Virtual Copies especially have been used, then the reorganisation will have to happen from inside the current Catalog AFAICT, since that is the only environment where these have any existence.

What's wrong with having the best of both worlds? Files organized in a folder structure and organized by metadata? I can't think of a single problem with that, in fact it renders this whole discussion moot.

When you import it has to go into some folder or another. Whether that folder is a fishtank or a dedicated folder with a name, sitting in a tree, is honestly not of any practical consequence. You still keyword the same way.

What does make a difference is that the files are easier to find if for example the keywords you first assigned aren't quite functional. Or a thousand other reasons. Knowing where the files are physically makes me sleep better.

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