Catalog not seeing photos after moving a large number of images.

Report · Jan 29, 2025

I got a new SSD to replace an older HDD and moved a few thousands pictures from the HDD to the SSD. Performed the move from within LrC. That was very slow but it seems to have worked properly.

Went back to the LrC and it was no longer seeing/listing images in various places.

I even tried to reimport pictures but LrC would not import because LrC could see that it already had them.

But LrC would not show them. For example, a folder with 450 pictures (on file explorer), LrC would show only 12 pictures.

Read forums, deleted the preview file and restarted LrC.

No change.

Re-read forum for another solution and created a new catalog file (!). And then imported from the old catalog file.

LrC now showing all images in some folders that did not show previously.

But there are still folders that don't show at all!!

"Synchronize Folder" does not work. At least it does not see folders/images to be imported.

Trying to use "Synchronize Folder" on an entire drive does not see folders/images to be imported.

It seems like importing from the old Catalog imported the problems.

Should I create a new Catalog again and not import from the old one?

Moving images from folder to folder (within LrC) hangs after a few images and the progress bar stops.

What is going on?

I have reasonably performing machine/SSDs and transferring images in file explorer works very well (like 40GB in a few seconds).

Please help. (or provide additional swear words :-))

------------------------------------------------

Lightroom Classic version: 14.1.1 [ 202412150940-551fb044 ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 11 - Business Edition

Version: 11.0.26100

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 16

Processor speed: 3.6GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 1.0%

Power Source: Plugged In

Built-in memory: 65348.6 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 6490.9MB / 12012.0MB (54%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 65348.6 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 8598.7 MB (13.1%)

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Graphics Processor Info:

DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (32.0.15.6636)

Init State: GPU for Export supported by default

User Preference: GPU for Image Processing Enabled

Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: C:\Users\User\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

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Report · Jan 30, 2025

I got a new SSD to replace an older HDD and moved a few thousands pictures from the HDD to the SSD. Performed the move from within LrC. That was very slow but it seems to have worked properly.

Went back to the LrC and it was no longer seeing/listing images in various places.

The last sentence contradicts the sentence that says everything worked properly. Perhaps everything worked and you are looking in the wrong place, or perhaps everything did not work properly, we can't tell which is the case from your description.

I even tried to reimport pictures but LrC would not import because LrC could see that it already had them.

But LrC would not show them. For example, a folder with 450 pictures (on file explorer), LrC would show only 12 pictures.

This is a very good sign that the move didn't work properly, although I don't know why.

Please try this (all four steps, in order) in LrC to locate the photos:

1. In the Lightroom Classic Library Module, on the left, under Catalog, click on All Photographs
2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
3. Turn off all stacking (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
4. Search for at least one of these photos by file name using the Lightroom Classic Filter Bar

Report back the results of these 4 steps.

Also, please note that Importing file more than once is never a solution to anything. Creating a new catalog does not solve this problem either. You need to follow the 4 step search that I described.

Report · Jan 30, 2025

I got a new SSD to replace an older HDD and moved a few thousands pictures from the HDD to the SSD. Performed the move from within LrC. That was very slow but it seems to have worked properly.
Went back to the LrC and it was no longer seeing/listing images in various places.

The last sentence contradicts the sentence that says everything worked properly. Perhaps everything worked and you are looking in the wrong place, or perhaps everything did not work properly, we can't tell which is the case from your description.

I could see in Windows file explorer that all the files/images were moved properly. They just did not (all) show up in LrC. 🙁 I believe I said something like that in my original post.

@dj_paige a
@dj_paige a écrit :

This is a very good sign that the move didn't work properly, although I don't know why.

I know from checking in Windows file explorer the the files were properly moved. It just seems that LrC catalog lost track of them. 🤷🏼‍

Report · Jan 30, 2025

@SdeGat

Do you have a backup of your catalog?

When you moved your files from the old HDD to the new SSD, is the only change in location the drive letter?

If you do have a backup, can you make a copy of the backup catalog (don't mess with your backup), open the copy in LrC and try locating all the missing folders/photos.

Report · Jan 30, 2025

@SdeGat
Do you have a backup of your catalog?
Yes, I backup my catalog every time I get out of LrC. I have plenty of backup catalogs.

When you moved your files from the old HDD to the new SSD, is the only change in location the drive letter?
Basically, yes.

If you do have a backup, can you make a copy of the backup catalog (don't mess with your backup), open the copy in LrC and try locating all the missing folders/photos.
LrC is not letting me do that as it doesn't know it's missing files/folders. See below.

By @drtonyb

Let me show you:

1: what I see in LrC in the 2024 folder

2: what is actually available/present on my SSD in that same 2024 folder

So I went back into File Explorer and dug into each of the folders in screenshot #2 below and found out that the pictures were all gone. The folders are there but the images are gone. When I re-created a new Catalog, LrC moved all of my image files into dated folders. 😞

1:

2:

Report · Jan 31, 2025

When I re-created a new Catalog, LrC moved all of my image files into dated folders.

This is a good sign that you Imported the photos to create a new catalog, which is completely the wrong thing to do. And worse yet, you used COPY instead of ADD when you imported.

Even though you said you performed the move entirely in LrC, your results indicate this is not what you did, there was no "move", you used Import.

So, the solution is to find backups of your catalog file and backups of all your photos (in their original folders) from just before this "move", and restore those. Then, get that running properly, do not Import any photos, but re-connect in LrC if necessary. Then do the move of photos in your operating system and reconnect, following these instructions (scroll down to "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location")

Report · Jan 31, 2025

When I re-created a new Catalog, LrC moved all of my image files into dated folders.

This is a good sign that you Imported the photos to create a new catalog, which is completely the wrong thing to do. And worse yet, you used COPY instead of ADD when you imported.

I wish I had used COPY instead of ADD but that was not the case. When I started LrC with a new empty catalog, LrC moved all of my pictures into dated folders (like an import) leaving a bunch of empty folders all over the place. 😞

Even though you said you performed the move entirely in LrC, your results indicate this is not what you did, there was no "move", you used Import.

You are confused with my first step that caused the problem; I moved pictures from an older HDD to a new SSD all within LrC. It is then that LrC lost track of pictures. In step 2 only, did I restart LrC with a new empty Catalog.

So, the solution is to find backups of your catalog file and backups of all your photos (in their original folders) from just before this "move", and restore those. Then, get that running properly, do not Import any photos, but re-connect in LrC if necessary. Then do the move of photos in your operating system and reconnect, following these instructions (scroll down to "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location")

That's not possible anymore since my pictures are now all in dated folders. 😞

By @dj_paige

Report · Jan 31, 2025

That's not possible anymore since my pictures are now all in dated folders.

If you have backups of your photos in their original folder layout, it is possible.

Report · Jan 31, 2025

That's not possible anymore since my pictures are now all in dated folders.

If you have backups of your photos in their original folder layout, it is possible.

By @dj_paige

Good point @dj_paige🙂

My backup process is already (re)configured for the new drives though and I cannot see the older one such as the HDD whose files got moved to the SSD. 😞

Thanks for the help/advice.

Report · Jan 31, 2025

@SdeGat

I still struggling to fully understand what you did. Initially, you moved your photos from the HDD to the SSD using LrC. Although you said that seemed to work, can you be clearer about how you actually did that?

LrC is not the best way to move a whole disc of photos to another drive.

Once you completed the 'move', LrC didn't show all the photos, despite you confirming they were actually now on the SSD.

What you did next has ruined your folder structure on the SSD. Exactly what was this?

You need two things: a backup of your HDD with the images in their original folders before the move to the SSD; and a backup of the LrC catalog before you moved to the SSD.

If you don't have both of these, I'm afraid no one can help.

Report · Jan 31, 2025

@SdeGat

I still struggling to fully understand what you did. Initially, you moved your photos from the HDD to the SSD using LrC. Although you said that seemed to work, can you be clearer about how you actually did that?
Yes; dragged the "pictures" folder from drive E: to drive H:

LrC is not the best way to move a whole disc of photos to another drive.
Well, I guess I know that now but my thinking was that the Catalog would be updated with the move process when doing it within LrC.

Once you completed the 'move', LrC didn't show all the photos, despite you confirming they were actually now on the SSD.
Yes.

What you did next has ruined your folder structure on the SSD. Exactly what was this?
Started LrC while holding the "alt" key as indications were that my catalog was likely corrupt. That allows a user to start a fresh empty catalog. The problem was that pictures were moved by the new catalog import process (I don't remember seeing the option of leaving the files in place).

You need two things: a backup of your HDD with the images in their original folders before the move to the SSD; and a backup of the LrC catalog before you moved to the SSD.
I have plenty of Catalog backups but the backup of my images/folders is no longer available as it "disappeared" when I reconfigured my drives (no longer have the HDD from which the pictures were moved from).

If you don't have both of these, I'm afraid no one can help.
I think you're right. 😞 I should just close/delete this thread.

Thanks @drtonyb

Report · Jan 31, 2025

@SdeGat

Starting a new catalog and Importing was an unfortunate mistake, but you know that.

If you have a backup catalog, you could open a copy of that and use the folder structure under Pictures to reconstruct the original folder structure of your SSD. Then you would need to manually (outside of LrC) move all photos back to their original folders from where they are now located. A long process depending on your original structure and how mixed up they are now, but I think it is achievable.

Report · Jan 30, 2025

@SdeGat

"LrC is not letting me do that as it doesn't know it's missing files/folders. See below."

I don't follow. If you extract the last backup from before you moved your photos, and opened that catalog, LrC should have the orginal folders located on your HDD. They should be all missing if these are no longer on your HDD. Using Locate Missing Folders to relink them to your SSD should resolve this.

Report · Jan 31, 2025

@drtonyb the answer to that is above somewhere: "When I re-created a new Catalog, LrC moved all of my image files into dated folders." LrC actually moved them all leaving empty folders all over the place. 😞

Report · Feb 01, 2025

If I go back to my original problem that is still there, I found a good example to illustrate.

In case that @drtonyb, @dj_paige or anyone else would know how to fix this...

1. LrC shows 4 sub-folders in the 2021 folder

2. File explorer shows a lot more

3. LrC Synchronize can see the 203 missing pictures

4. LrC Import cannot import the actual pictures

Report · Feb 01, 2025

@SdeGat

When Synchronizing, check the "Show import dialog before importing" option so you can see the Import settings and what LrC is/isn't seeing. Without seeing the Import dialog, it's difficult to access.

Report · Feb 02, 2025

Thanks again @drtonyb.

I did and I could see the 200 pictures appear with the checkmark and then disappear one-by-one as if they were already in the Catalog. And thus, nothing to be imported. 😞

Could it be that I have those pictures elsewhere in another folder?

I did a test with one picture that I know is under 2021 on C: drive and the Catalog still has it under another folder on H: drive

So I re-synchronized H: drive and was able to import the folders under 2021 on C: drive !!! 🙂

How can I "force" an overall Synchronize for my entire Catalog?