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Firislander
Known Participant
April 25, 2024
Question

Difficulty Importing Photo into LRC from an external drive.

  • April 25, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 740 views

Hi. I am using LRC 13.2 with Mac OS Sonoma 14.4.1.

In an attempt to free up storage space on my internal drive I used the Finder to copy image files from a Folder A on my internal drive to a Folder A on an external SSD drive. LRC displays these files along with their metadata on the SSD drive. Using the Finder I then moved Folder A from my internal drive to a separate external drive, Drive B. The Finder shows the image files from Folder A existing on Drive B. In the folder window in LRC I see both the SSD Drive and Drive B. 

While I can see Drive B displayed in the folder window in LRC there is no Folder A visible nor is the Parent Folder holding Folder A visible. When I attempt to import Folder A into Drive B in LRC the images all display in the import window but are grayed out. 

How do I get LRC to recognize the image files in Folder A on Drive B?

Thank you in advance for any help with this.

-Firislander

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 25, 2024

DO NOT IMPORT FILES  I will say it again!

DO NOT IMPORT FILES

DO NOT IMPORT FILES

In the LrC catalog Re-link 'Folder A' to its new location on the External Drive B.

See this link for instructions.  In particular Step#4 re-link Folders.

MISSING FILES & FOLDERS (Lightroom Queen) 

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.0, Photoshop 27.0, ACR 18.0, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0 .
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dj_paige
Legend
April 25, 2024

Please read this document carefully, the explanation is in there: https://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

 

Also, please do NOT re-import these photos. Re-importing is almost always a bad thing to do and it makes the problem worse. DO NOT RE-IMPORT!

F
FirislanderAuthor
Known Participant
April 26, 2024

Thank you for your response. I am confused. I have, but did not mention in my original question, 3 separate external Drives with all my image folders on them going back 30 years. The Finder shows that each Drive contains a Parent Folder for each year. All 3 drives appear in the LRC Folder window but none show all the Parent Folders that are on each Drive (as seen in the Finder). I organize my images in monthly folders which are grouped into a Parent Folder for their corresponding year.

 

In LRC's Folder window none of the Drives display all of my Parent Folders contained in each Drive. In the Folder window all the Drives do display Parent Folders for several years in common. Each Drive, as an example, happens to have the Parent Folder for year 2015.

 

On each of these drives when I click on a given month in 2015 the images appear in the grid view and when I right click on any given image and select "Show in Finder" they always are shown as being on the selected drive in the parent folder for 2015 and in the correct monthly folder. All metadata is present. So for example, each Drive shows the same image for Jan. 1, 2015 as existing in the Jan. 2015 folder of that particular Drive being looked at.

 

Here is one of the difficulties I am having: As an example, on Drive T7 the Finder shows that I have 30 separate folders corresponding to 30 years each consisting of 12 monthly folders with their images. In the LRC Folder Window the Drive T7 appears with 12 of the 30 Parent Folders. So, LRC is not displaying the remaining 18 Parent Folders existing on Drive T7. When I attempt to import one of the Parent Folders existing on Drive T7 (shown in the Finder but not displayed in the Folder window) the import window shows all the missing Parent folders. When I click to import one particular folder the import window  then shows  all of the images in that Parent Folder as being grayed out. Thus I cannot import this folder so that it displays in the LRC Folder window.

 

What am I missing here?

 

Thank you again for your help.

 

Firislander.

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dj_paige
Legend
April 26, 2024

In LRC's Folder window none of the Drives display all of my Parent Folders contained in each Drive.

 

In LrC, right click on a folder and select Show Parent Folder.

 

If this doesn't solve the problem, show us screen captures to illustrate your point, we need to see a screen capture in LrC and a screen capture of Mac Finder. Please use the "Insert PHotos" icon to include your screen captures in your reply; do NOT attach files.

 

When I click to import one particular folder the import window then shows all of the images in that Parent Folder as being grayed out.

 

Let me point out that at least two people have told you not to import. This will not fix the problem and will make it worse.

 

 

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