external hard drive letter changed.

[ricka32571550]

I keep my photos on an external 500 GB ssd.  It was getting full so I purchased a new identical Samsung t5 500 GB ssd.  When I connected the new drive it bumped the existing drive from drive E to Drive F.  Now Lightroom can't find my photos.  How do I rename the old drive back to drive E, or point lightroom to the renamed drive F?

[kglad]

[moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Lightroom Classic CC — The desktop-focused app]

[JP Hess]

Do a web search to get instructions on how to assign drive letters for your operating system. It's best to assign a drive letter in the lower half of the alphabet. By doing that, the operating system will not change it. After you have changed the drive letter. You can right-click on your folders and choose the option to update the folder location. This would be done in the Lightroom library module. If you have your folders arranged within a single master folder, you can update the location of the master folder and all of the subfolders will update automatically.

Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

[dj_paige]

It's best to assign a drive letter in the lower half of the alphabet.

Should that say upper half?

[AxelMatt]

dj_paige  schrieb

It's best to assign a drive letter in the lower half of the alphabet.

Should that say upper half?

I think Jim is right, because, if you imagine a list from A to Z and A is at the top and Z at the bottom, then the drive letter of the external disk should be in the lower half.

[dj_paige]

Well okay, I use the language differently; and in any event, stating you want to use drive letters M to Z removes the ambiguity.

[JP Hess]

I meant what I said. I guess we have different points of reference. I consider A to be the top of the alphabet, and Z to be the bottom of the alphabet.

[cmgap · Accepted solution]

Here's how to rename a drive letter in Windows 10.

1. Ensure that the drive you're relettering isn't in use and that no files from that drive are open.
2. Right-click on the Start button.
3. Click Disk Management to open the Disk Management console.
4. Right-click the volume that has the drive letter you want to change.
5. Click Change Drive Letter And Paths.

[mastix]

Unfortunately we are in 2022 and Lightroom is still not clever enough to point to the right HD if letter has changed and nothing else. Adobe sensei and bla bla bla and easy tasks that should make life easier on us are neglected.

[D Fosse]

Letter and nothing else? The drive letter is fundamental to any navigation in Windows. Change the drive letter and you change everything. Expecting Lightroom to "understand" that is unrealistic to say the least.

The whole problem is easily avoided by simply assigning the same drive letter as the old disk.

You have more of a problem if you don't assign a drive letter at all. Then Windows will just pick the lowest free letter at any time, so it may change randomly. That's why you should assign a "high" letter in the second half of the alphabet, one that is normally not in use. That will stick.

[mastix]

Yes Adobe is 2 centuries behind other programs in that regard from image and video editing software to backup programs. The times you had 1 or 2 drives are gone. Now we manage easy a dozen drives connected internal and external plus cloud storage like Google Drive that also get their own letter. And those letters change from time to time depending on how many drives you have connected.

The "clever" software have an easy solution. If they don't finds the database he is looking for you just point to that drive in 1 click. The dumb software like Lightroom you have to point to all the multiple folders where the content is that can be again dozens of folder, so a lot of searching and clicking.

Sometimes  wonder why one man software is so much more useful and well thought that other software developed by hundreds of developers. Make you scratch your head.

[dj_paige]

If they don't finds the database he is looking for you just point to that drive in 1 click.

This has been in the old Lightroom and the new Lightroom Classic for at least the entire 13 years I have been using the software. And no you don't have to do this folder-by-folder, one action will re-connect the entire drive.

[mastix]

Not my experience, unless I am missing something. Once it does not see the files and you get all the interrogation marks you can point all the folders that cannot be found to the appropriate folders in the drives with the new letter but you cannot point the drive with the old letter to the drive that now has a new lettering.

And that would be the 1 click solution that is not.

[dj_paige]

And that's exactly the case I am talking about, you reconnect the parent folder and all the subfolder reconnect. Been there for at least 13 years.

[mastix]

Thats because you have a parent folder under the disk and inside many folders. Once you reconnect to that parent folder it finds the files. The problem comes that when you don't have a parent folder and inside one or many disk you have many folders that where imported to the catalogue you don't have that parent one folder but have many scattered folders that you have to connect, in my case eeven those folders spread on different disks.

This is because the best solution would be to pint at the disk and that Lightroom searches for the folders that have images in the catalogue.

[dj_paige]

Then I claim that's the user's fault, they have adopted a storage strategy that nullifies a capability in Lightroom Classic. (And easily fixed, if you want to take advantage of the capability in Lightroom Classic)

[mastix]

Well, you can claim what you want. It is a Lightroom weakness and I hope it improves in the feature, as lagging behind competition is never a good strategy for success.

[Todd Shaner]

I suggest adding your 'Upvote' and comments at the below 'Idea' post on this subject.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/working-with-multiple-external-drives-pc-win1...

[dj_paige]

And I congratulate Adobe for programming it the way they did, this handles most people's use cases. It was a smart decision by Adobe, to not try to cover every possible use case such as yours, which would have added complexity to the software (making it more bloated) and slowing down the software development process and increasing the cost. Good job, Adobe!

And if there was a way to "downvote" at that thread, I would do so. Adobe can't do everything everyone wants.

[Courtney foster]

I've pointed to the parent folder, and it found some file, however, I'm missing about 500k.  I can see them in bridge, and file explorer, just not in the lightroom catalog...I'm strongly considering uninstalling LrC, and  reinstalling it, and having it reread the drives, and then I thought about using a different backup catalog, and go forward.... I originally had 800k of photos, now i got a total of 350K visible in lightroom... Images are on HDD, just not in LrC catalog 

[dj_paige]

@Courtney fosterPlease start a new thread and describe your problem in detail. Do not continue to discuss it in this thread. Uninstalling and re-installing will not help.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

You’ve posted to an ancient thread. It is highly unlikely that the issue described in this thread, though not impossible, is the same one you are currently experiencing. Rather than resurrect an old thread that is seemingly similar, you are better off posting to a new thread with fresh, complete information, including system information, a complete description of the problem, and step-by-step instructions for reproduction. 

If the issue is the same, we will merge you back into the appropriate location. 

This thread is now locked

Thank you!