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George32622447519c
Participant
September 29, 2023
Answered

Edit history seems to be lost after moving photos from Timemachine

  • September 29, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 872 views

Hi: The bad news here is I'm a PC person and not a Lightroom or  Mac person but am trying to help a friend with Lighrroom Classic (I'm pretty sure -- all his photos are stored on his machine -- that's classic, right?)

 

He is truly bad with computers (iMac Ventura 13.31) so I've helped him with LR before but my understanding, especially of LR tools & catalog file structure, is tenuous... . He had filled up his hard drive and got a friend to clear out junk. For unknown reasons, the other person then brought over all his images that were on Time Machine (did he delete original folders? Don't know), and put them in a new folder structure -- as near as I can tell, not the original structure he had in LR. I believe this transfer was not done from within LR (e.g. an Import?) but just drag & drop (or whatever TM does).

 

LR did, apparently, catalog the new folder structure and his photos show up there (thousands). However, only the edits & histories of TIFFs and those done with Sharpener (?) show the edits & history of edits. Nothing he'd done entirely within LR show, only the original image but without any change's he'd made.

 

He's got backups of his catalogs. How can he recover those edits? Everything is still on Time Machine (I assume). It's a 5T drive so isn't even starting to delete old stuff yet.

 

While I'm here, it might help me to understand how changes to a photo are stored in LR. I've tried to explain that the images he sees in LR catalog are only pointers to the original, which can be anywhere on his main drive but I don't think that's getting through. Are the changes/change log, though, within LR or do they accompany the original photo in its folder? If the latter, how does he access them?

 

I hope that makes sense. I really appreciate any help here. My buddy has been banging his head -- and my phone -- about this for a couple of weeks. He's a great landscape photographer (Sierra and Bay Area foothills weamerphotography.com) but not a computer wizard.

Grazie!
George

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer JohanElzenga

    "Restore, from Time Machine, the last best catalog when everything worked (< 9/20)

    Restore from TM  his photos & original structure from < 9/20."

     

    Yes, if not only the catalog is backed up in Time Machine but also the image folders because they were on the same drive, then that is the way to restore things.

     

    2 replies

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 30, 2023

    Sounds like his friend did him a big disservice and should not be allowed to touch Lightroom on his computer ever again. They created a new catalog and imported everything, so all edits were lost because -as @F. McLion explained- these are stored in the catalog. XMP sidecar files are not created by default, and apparently were not available.

     

    So the only thing you can do is start with a catalog backup, and then use the instructions given in the link to 'reconnect' the images. Because that friend apparently also reorganised them into a different folder structure, this can mean relinking lots and lots of individual subfolders, rather than relinking a top folder to relink the entire hierarchy...

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      G
      George32622447519cAuthor
      Participant
      September 30, 2023

      Many thanks to you & F. McLion. I'm starting to get a better feel for LR catalog, structure etc. I just hooked into his computer with TeamViewer. He had tried to use the Find Folder/repair tool (not the right name but right click over folder) to restore the correct path. I joined in and tried just a small test folder but it didn't work, though the numberof edits on an image did show just not the photo itself. It confused me about where, in fact, his photos are but I didn't have time to explore & follow up. His friend named the new folder iCould so maybe he moved everything there and it's not even on his drive, thus the phtotos wouldn't show but the edits would?

       

      Anyway, I think -- and need the input of you wizards -- that he should:

      1. zap the photo folder structure that now exists on his computer's main drive.
      2. zap the current LR catalog and any created since this was done (9/20)
      3. Restore, from Time Machine, the last best catalog when everything worked (< 9/20)
      4. Restore from TM  his photos & original structure from < 9/20.

       

      Does that seem like the best approach? It turns out he not only has a Time Machine backup but a Passport drive with everything on it as well. Problem is the Passport drive was created by his buddy and with the new folder structure but, as above, I didn't have time to explore that drive so it's not impossible it's got the original structure as well.

       

      Can the recovery from Time Machine be carried out from within LR? I'm not familiar with TM either. I assume there's a Restore tool for it. I'll watch a vid or two on how to at least view files within TM. If the sub-folder structure wasn't changed much, maybe I can just drag those over from Passport, recreate the same structure, then bring in LR cat???

       

      My head hurts... .

       

      Considering what a mess he's got now (and he didn't know why the person created a new folder structure except, knowing what my friend had built over the years, he was probably offended by the hodgepodge he had and tried to straighten it out...). 

       

      Plan III: Does anyone know of a (trustworthy) service that could log in via Team Viewer and just straighten this out for him? 

       

      Anyway, appreciate your guy's help.

      Thanks again!

      George

      JohanElzenga
      Community Expert
      JohanElzengaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      October 1, 2023

      "Restore, from Time Machine, the last best catalog when everything worked (< 9/20)

      Restore from TM  his photos & original structure from < 9/20."

       

      Yes, if not only the catalog is backed up in Time Machine but also the image folders because they were on the same drive, then that is the way to restore things.

       

      -- Johan W. Elzenga
        F. McLion
        Community Expert
        F. McLionCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        September 30, 2023

        Basically, everything – except the original photo file – is stored in the catalog.

        There is an option that all work is also stored in a sidecar file (*.xmp) for every photo that shares the same name and is placed next to the photo.

        That said, moving around photos behind LrC's back, LrC obviously loses the link to the original which is shown by a question mark on a folder or an exclamation mark on a photo.

        Basic rule: Move photos to other location on your harddrive only from within LrC, except for when you know exactly what you do.

         

        Read here for more details or help: https://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

         

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