Cannot do anything with my photos

[danp50242379]

I moved some folders from LR CC to an external hard drive and renamed them. I could still see them in LR and in the external drive but I cannot develop/import/export them. I tried to re-link them in LR but having difficulty because the files had been re-named and hard to locate. Tried to call support and I was on hold and waiting for 45 minutes, unable to speak to anybody. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Jao vdL]

Do you have a backup? If you rename files outside of Lightroom it is hard to relink them. You could name them back and then link the images to their new location (click on the exclamation mark and select locate).

[danp50242379]

I tried doing this but can't find and re-link them as the folder's names were changed. Thank you for your reply.

[Just Shoot Me]

danp50242379  wrote

I tried doing this but can't find and re-link them as the folder's names were changed. Thank you for your reply.

And you don't remember what the folder names where changed to? Didn't you change the names?

[Jao vdL]

Two approaches. You could rename the folders back to their old names. You should be able to see the old names in Lightroom and then do a find missing folder. You can then rename the folder in Lightroom to whatever you want it to be. Other approach is to take a single image in a folder in Lightroom and point it to the new location. Lightroom should automatically delink all the neighboring files too to their new location. I say should because I haven’t seen this work well in practice.

[danp50242379]

Thank you for your suggestion but still having problem. Here is the problem: When I click on a specific folder, the photos are there but all of them have ! on them. When I click on the ! and click locate, it does not give me a choice where I could find the photos. Tried calling support again just so, they could get in my computer but been on hold for about an hour and unable to speak to anybody. Sorry if I have to voice my frustration on you. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks a lot.

[Just Shoot Me]

The Exclamation mark is because the images are missing from the location they were in when imported. You moved or deleted them or if they are on an external drive the drive letter has changed.

[dj_paige]

"When I click on the ! and click locate, it does not give me a choice where I could find the photos."

Lightroom won't show you where the photos are, because it doesn't know. You, the human user, have to navigate to where the photos are. In essence this is how you tell Lightroom where the photos are.

[danp50242379]

Thank you for your reply. This may sound stupid but how do I navigate where the photos are? i know they are in LR but when I open LR I cannot find the original files. Tried finding them using Metadata and Text and searching for the pictures one by one, all I could see are the pictures with on them. I searched the external drive and still cannot find the original files. Thanks again.

[KR Seals]

In the Library module of LR, right click on one of the folders with a question mark. Choose the "Update Folder Location" line. That will bring up a file manager window (Finder on Mac and File Explorer in Windows). Use that to navigate to the external drive where your image file are now located and look for the folder with the new name. Repeat for each folder with the question mark.

[danp50242379]

Thank you for this info. Followed your instructions but "update folder location" is not one of the choices. They are "Find Missing Folder", "Remove" and "Export this Folder as a Catalog"

[KR Seals]

If you right click on a folder in LR Library module, you should see this:

[Jao vdL]

Use find missing folder in this case. The menu changes depending on whether the folder is actually missing. If not missing it will say "update folder location"

[KR Seals]

Thanks for that clarification. I don't have any missing folders so I couldn't try it on one of those. I helped a friend relink to folders that had been copied to an external hard drive but now I realize none of those folders were not missing either.

[Laura Shoe]

In this article, the second video tutorial is on resolving missing file and folder issues in Lightro... The first video shows you how to reorganize files and folders using Lightroom's Folders panel so that you don't encounter these issues.

[cmgap]

How did you rename them? Did you run a script or change the name of the folder or each file?

[danp50242379]

when I dragged and dropped each folder into the external drive, I renamed each folder in the external drive, however, when I tried to look for the pictures in LR, they are there but can't do anything. Thanks for your reply.

[danp50242379]

I dragged and dropped them into an external drive and changed the name in the external drive.(this was the start of the problem! I should have known better! Thanks.

[Jao vdL]

So aren't they simply in the location where you dragged and dropped them on the external drive? Just navigate there in the locate dialog in Lightroom and point Lightroom to the file in its new location.

[JP Hess]

If you haven't done a lot of work on them in Lightroom, it might just be easier to remove the folders from Lightroom and import them again from there current locations.

[danp50242379]

Thank you, I will try this and will let you know.