Develop Module Says File Not Found

[wknight23]

This is a bug only on Mac M1 chip machines  - Please read the entire post before replying

Lightroom Catalog is not reporting any missing files in Library module, but when you move to the Develop module it reports 'File not Found' 

If you take the catalog and files and attach them to a Mac running on Intel the error is not reported and the picture can be worked on

I have also 

 - restarted the macbook 

 - I cannot tell it where the file is located because when I click on the Missing photo in the histogram section the only option it gives me is to build a Smart preview which also fails

 - I have tried on a number of different catalogs in the backups, including ones we know that were good and the error still occurs on Mac M1 chip 

 - I have rolled back from the lastest Lightroom version and error is still there 

 - I have updated to the latest version and error is still there 

 - I have created a new catalog and imported from the error catalog by keeping files in the same location and error is present in the new catalog 

 - Importing a new picture works fine

This is a major problem because we cannot work on any old images. The problem started about a week ago. 

I am an IT expert and posting this on behalf of a friend who I have been trying to help resolve this matter as when he first called I thought it was the usual, Lightroom has lost the location but that is not the case because there are no ? in the Library module, nor does it report that it can't find any photos. 

It is definitely a Mac M1 error because the catalog and photos work perfectly on an Intel mac.

Lightroom Classic 11.3.1

Mac M1 Chip on Monterey 

[KR Seals]

Is this happening to a single image, single folder or all photos in the catalog? Does this happen with newly imported photos?

I'm not seeing it on my 2019 MBP 16" M1 Max Max, Lrc 11.3.1 and OS 12.4.

[wknight23]

It happens on all photos in the catalog, however if we import a new photo it works fine. 

This problem started about a week ago. 

[Jao vdL]

Sounds like you are using an external disk. How is it formatted? Hopefully a Mac compatible format (APFS or HFS+ are the only ones that will work correctly) and not NTFS. Have you given Lightroom access to removable volumes in System Preferences->Security and Privacy-> Privacy->Files and Folders? If that doesn't work, try giving Lightroom Classic Full Disk access in that same control panel.

Also, this might simply be a wrong path problem. Sometimes with removable disks, the Mac will append a "-2", etc. to the end of the volume name erroneously and then the folder and file locations can't be found in Classic. Right click (or control click) on a top level folder in the file browser and select "find missing folder" or "Update folder location" and point it to the actual folder location. 

[johnrellis]

"Lightroom Catalog is not reporting any missing files in Library module, but when you move to the Develop module it reports 'File not Found'"

If the menu command Library > Find All Missing Photos is not reporting anything missing, then most likely you need to grant Full Disk Access to the Lightroom Classic app, as described here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

Something changed in LR 12.3.1 and many, many Mac LR users (Intel and Apple Silicon) are experiencing weird behaviors like this (skim the 262 posts in that thread).  

[JohanElzenga]

I have a MBP 16" with M1 Max, and I do not have this problem. Did you update MacOS during that time? Apple changed the security requirements in MacOS Monterey. Go to MacOS 'System Settings - Security & Privacy' and add Lightroom Classic and Photoshop to "Full Disk Access". Click on the lock icon to unlock the settings, then click on the plus icon to add Lightroom Classic and/or Photoshop if it isn't already listed. If it is listed, then just enable the checkbox.

[wknight23]

UPDATE 

We have updated to Full Fisk Access and the problem still exists 

[Jao vdL]

Have you tried the updae folder location thing? It really sounds like Classic simply has the wrong path to the files. This is a common occurance when moving external disks between computers. 

[wknight23]

ITS NOT AN UPDATE FOLDER LOCATION THING, please read the post 

I can take the drives and connect them to an intel mac and it works, move exactly the same disks to an M1 Mac and I get the error 

Lightroom is not acknowledging that the files are missing unless I am in the Develop modules and even then it doesn't give me the option to specify the location, only create a smart preview which fails because it cant find the file on the M1 Mac

[JohanElzenga]

---

@wknight23 wrote:

ITS NOT AN UPDATE FOLDER LOCATION THING, please read the post 

I can take the drives and connect them to an intel mac and it works, move exactly the same disks to an M1 Mac and I get the error 

Lightroom is not acknowledging that the files are missing unless I am in the Develop modules and even then it doesn't give me the option to specify the location, only create a smart preview which fails because it cant find the file on the M1 Mac

---

Can you do the following: select the disk in the Finder and then type cmd-i to get the info dialog for that disk. Look all the way at the bottom. Do you see a checkbox "Ignore ownership for this volume"? If so, is the box checked?

[Jao vdL]

This looks exactly like a file location issue. The fact that you can move the drive between machines doesn't actually tell you it isn't. What happens is that one machine has appended a "(1)" to the internal volume name (this happens all the time and is invisible to the user) and now Classic cannot find those images because it's internal path is wrong. What you will find when this happens is multiple copies of the same disk name in the /Volumes folder at the root level of your file system all with different number strings attached. This is a long standing bug in Mac OS X where it doesn't correctly flush previous mount points of external and network disks. In such a case, you will only be notified of missing originals when you go into Develop - exactly like you detail happening. 

Note I don't know for sure that this is the issue but the symptoms you describe are very consistent with this. The fact that it only happens on one machine does not negate that. The solution is to rebind the top level folder on the disk to the correct location using "update folder location/find missing folder". Interestingly what will happen is that if you do that, the situation will reverse and you will have the problem in the intel Mac instead of the M1. The long term solution is to manually delete the bad entries in /Volumes using the command line (make sure the disk is not attached when you do this) and rebooting the computer but that is not for the faint of heart.

[wknight23]

Thanks for this, I am quite use to working in linux where do I find the bad entries in /Volumes 

[Jao vdL]

Just open a terminal and do a cd /Volumes. Then do a ls -la over there to see the directories created to house the mounted disk. Make sure the disk is actually unmounted and remove the ghost directories using sudo rmdir. The ghost directopries are usually empty. Only touch the ones that have the name of your external disk that still show up when the external is unmounted.  

[Jao vdL]

If this is the problem you might see multiple entries there with the name of your external with simple numbers appended to the end. Do not touch any of the other directories there that are typicaly time machine backups, the macintosh HD (you'll see a number of entries for the root directory and the Data volume) as that will break your machine.

[johnrellis]

"In such a case, you will only be notified of missing originals when you go into Develop"

In this situation, why does Library > Find All Missing Folders report that the paths of photos on the volume exist but Develop fails to read the photo?

[Jao vdL]

Good point John, I would indeed expect missing folders to notice the problem. So perhaps this is indeed a permissions issue. Might be caused by the privacy thing in mac os X, this perhaps being a NTFS disk (not a good idea but common as most externals come formatted as such from the factory) and the M1 machine not having the drivers for it installed, or a simpler permissions issue on the external hard disk.

[wknight23]

SOLVED 

Huge thank you to everyone who replied your suggestions were very helpful.  It was a file protection problem. Under the covers I could see that not only did the external drives (there were 3 of them) have different ownership but,  not sure how Lighroom Classic was installed,  it couldnt access the files either. 

The easiest solution was to give Lightroom access to all files via Privacy & Security.