Can you find anything corrupted in this LCR catalog?

[bruceb76700895]

I had a backup drive fail and rearranged the photos into another drive.....actually all the photos since I started using Adobe.  But for some reason I can't get LRC to connect to any drive, let alone the one with the photos.  I'm to the point where I may have to ask you to coach me on a complete restart from the getgo.  I know, it would take me a month to re-enter all the photos, which would be fine since I've begun pruning the older files.

If there is an obvious problem with what you see below, that could indicate the catalog was somehow corrupted.  I know, it's a mess, but it's an accumulation over more than a decade of changes.

[Rob_Cullen]

"rearranged the photos into another drive".  How exactly? and where are they now?

A "restart from the get go" will mean you lose years of work, editing, keywording, etc, etc. -Not recommended.!!

Are you opening the current v13 catalog?

What does the Folder panel in LrC show?

Are there "Missing" folders with a [?]...?

Are there "Missing" photos with an [!]...?

I have tried to suggest an explanation for what you show in your screen-clip, but from that we cannot see where your photo files are.

It is possible you need to re-link the current catalog to the new location of your files. Info in this link:

MISSING FILES & FOLDERS (Lightroom Queen)

[bruceb76700895]

Thanks, Rob!

I rearranged all the photos into a new drive so all the folders will be available on LRC (long story, mainly because I couldn't store all the folders on the computer's basic hard drive).  There are no folders in the Folder file, but once I get the catalog together I think your reference to Lightroom Queen will find these for me.

Lord!  I owe you my life; you or the LR Queen.  I found the new folder and it's adding all my photos to LR.  Over 20K as I speak.  I haven't yet removed all the "Old Stuff" from the catalog, but I will soon.  If you lived nearby I'd buy you a bottle

of Macallan Scotch.  Thanks!  I may have another question concerning the catalog tomorrow.

Bruce

[bruceb76700895]

Well, LRC is still acting a bit strange.  For one thing I had to import all the photos from the new drive, the catalog has reverted to Cat 2, and the files have no descriptions (keywords.)

Photos....LRC-1

Catalog....ycat

[bruceb76700895]

I noted the catalog after loading did not have a Cat3 anywhere so I tried to correct the catalog, but all that happened was no photos and no access to any folders or files.  LR Queen says, "Don't import, click on the parent folder......", but I couldn't find a parent folder unless I pushed the import button.  So this is the second time I'm importing all my photos, even though LR Queen says not to, and yes they all have large block numbers.  I'm imagining the result will be the same as above in the two pastes I added, but if not I'll update that for you.  Thanks for your time and effort.  I'm just not doing something right.

[D Fosse]

I'm just not doing something right.

By @bruceb76700895

Yes. You're reimporting instead of relinking.

[bruceb76700895]

So explain how to relink, please. The instructions I was referenced didn't
work to finding a folder to link to. Help!

--
Bruce Bartrug
Nobleboro, Maine, USA
bbartrug@gmail.com
www.brucebartrug.com
•The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but
because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein
•In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence
of our friends. -Martin Luther King
•Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and give the appearance of solidity to pure wind. -Orson
Welles

[bruceb76700895]

Nuts, and sorry for posting from an email.  I can't delete the personal info, can you?  Thanks.

[bruceb76700895]

OK I stopped the Import.  Tell me how to connect to the folder than now contains all my photos and thanks very much. 

[D Fosse]

Don't know what to say, really. You need to know where your photos are. If you don't, you have a bigger problem and you need to find them. You set the destination folder in the import dialog.

[bruceb76700895]

I know where the photos are, I can see them in that folder on Pshop. How
to I get LCR to connect to it without importing the whole folder?
Thanks.

--
Bruce Bartrug
Nobleboro, Maine, USA
bbartrug@gmail.com
www.brucebartrug.com
•The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but
because of those who look on and do nothing. - Albert Einstein
•In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence
of our friends. -Martin Luther King
•Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and give the appearance of solidity to pure wind. -Orson
Welles

[Per Berntsen]

So explain how to relink, please. The instructions I was referenced didn'twork to finding a folder to link to.

How exactly did it not work?

You need to know the new location of the folder, and then navigate to that folder in the Find missing folder dialog.

Alternatively, If the photos are now in the exact same location on the new drive as they were on the old drive, and the new drive has a different drive letter than the old drive, you can, instead of using Find missing folder, change the drive letter of the new drive to what it was on the old drive.

Example: If the old drive letter was named D: and the new drive is named E:, change the drive letter of the new drive to D:.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-loses-photo-location-after-drive-letter-chang...

[bruceb76700895]

Can you direct me to the find missing folder button?  The direction I have is to right click on the icon just beneath the Folders button, then select find missing folder.  That is what didn't work.  Where do I click to find missing folder button?  I'm sorry, sounds incorrect but.....

[Per Berntsen]

Right click the folder itself, and choose Find missing missing folder from the context menu.

If you have one main folder that contains all the other folders, right click that, which should find all the missing folders.

[bruceb76700895]

This is what I currently have see below.  I know where the folder is, and I'm importing same currently.  But apparently I should be 'redirecting' instead.  I've clicked on everything when there is no folder under Folders and don't find a Find Missing Folder prompt. 

[Per Berntsen]

I'm confused, because everything seems to be in order in your screenshot, at least for the selected folder.

All the metadata seems to be present for the selected file, so this means that you haven't re-imported, but re-linked.

There are no question marks on your folders, so they are not missing.

Please clarify what issues you are having right now.

Re-importing is always the wrong thing to do. It doesn't solve any problems, it only creates new problems.

When you re-import, LrC wil see the files as new, and all your previous edits and other metadata will not be associated with the files.

When posting screenshots, please do not attach them, use the Insert Photos button in the toolbar to insert them directly in your post.

[D Fosse]

@bruceb76700895 

Yes, I've been confused about this too, because I can't see anything wrong in this. Maybe we should "reset" at this point and don't assume the previous posts have been correctly understood, because maybe they haven't. If you can try again to describe your issue as completely as you can, we should be able to get to the bottom of this.

[bruceb76700895]

I'm a bit confused as well.  This looks great to me, and I can even search.  Here's a photo I've been wanting to find for a show next month....

But what do you think about this Catalog...

i see no lr.cats anywhere  ???

[bruceb76700895]

Well, if I open "Lightroom" in this melange I get this....see below.  There's no cat.3, which may or may not have thrown a wrench in the works?  This could most likely be thinned, and then I should download cat.3?  Dunno, although I'm certain I will be getting some suggestions considering this monument to 14years of use :).

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

It seems you're storing your catalogs in a rather random way. You need to be systematic here.

What you're looking for now is a version 13 catalog file. It will look like this (depending on what you called the catalog when making it). Note the -v13. lrcat suffix.

And again, just to be clear, your photos won't be here. This is just the catalog database, the actual photos will be stored elsewhere, and the catalog linking to them.

Take a look in your Lr Preferences. Here you can set the catalog to open by default when starting Lightroom. You can set a specific catalog, or you can set it to open whichever you had open last.

Any catalog can be opened into Lightroom just by double-clicking it. You don't necessarily need to open the application first.

Older catalogs can be deleted. You may want to keep a version back, but not several. Make catalog backups and backup your photos.

[bruceb76700895]

Thanks much, Mr. Fosse, and everyone else who contributed.  The "catalog" currently installed in my LRC was copied from my backup to my backup (which I store outside our house) because I know it worked when it was last used a week or two ago.  I had no idea it was so diffuse.  I've thinned it and will load v13 soon. 

Thanks to all again!!