Feature Request: Locate using metadata

[kuantou]

I had a problem with a HD. I manage to recover most of photos but totally out of structure. 

It would be awesome for me if when i go to the catalog and try to locate the deleted files Lightroom could search the metadata of the files and match the date and hour of the files. This would be a huge help. 

{Moved from Lightroom Cloud to Lightroom Classic Forum by Moderator} 

[JohanElzenga]

This is a user-to-user forum. We are not Adobe. For feature requests, go to https://feedback.photoshop.com. Search for your feature request first. If it is already requested by someone else, then don't create a new thread but add your vote to the existing request.

[johnrellis]

For feature requests, as Johan indicated, post them in the feedback forum.

This issue has come up in the forums a number of times over the years -- recovery software generally doesn't recover the file paths of recovered photos, and there's no easy way to reconnect the LR catalog with their new names and locations.

If you're technically savvy and have  hours to spare (more if you've never used Exiftool), here's an outline of how to get the photos renamed and moved to the folders expected by LR:

1. Use the Any Filter plugin's Sort command to export a list of all the file paths of photos in the catalog, along with their capture date and any other metadata that you want to use for uniquely identifying photos.

2. Using a script (in Excel or the shell), create all the folders referenced by the exported text file.

3. Using the free Exiftool utility, create a text file of all the recovered photos' paths and their capture date and any other metadata used for matching.

4. Use Excel or your favorite command-line scripting to join the files created in steps 1 and 3, generating a batch file of commands to rename and move the recovered photos.