FILES CAN'T BE FOUND but associated with another catalog

[vdotmatrix]

In Scott's Kelby's Book LR3 on page 88 step 6, he talks about 3 options for importing a catalog.....

In particular he talks about option#3 and says he has NO IDEA wy anyone would choose that option of importing without the images.

SENARIO: I just switch to MAC. All my work for years was on Windows PC including LR and CS4 design premium. So now when I go to work on images in the same location on THAT windows hard drive I get the message that I cannot do JACk with those images because they are associated with another catalog.

I can't even click on the "?" in LR4 to find them without the same message coming up.

I was thinking of firing up the old Windows Box, somehow finding all the images through LR3 and then using option #3 to import all 10,000 images or at least their locations to my new shiny Mac system(s).

Objective: I am trying to access the images on an EXT. HD that gives me the "files are assiciated with another catalog message".

Windering if importing that catalogue would help?

IS THERE A WAY TO DISASSOCIATED A CATALOGUE FROM AN IMAGE?

[john beardsworth]

Folders panel question marks, not on the files....

[vdotmatrix]

I must be a moron really.

Of all the folders I have only 1 folder and 1 file has a question mark; there must be at least 50 folders.

i click on the question mark amd it brings me to my pictures folder on this computer-uh, withthe same dialogue boxes at the links above.

What does this mean?

That I should probably or should have imported all the raw files, dng, psd etc with everything from the ext HD instaed of ADDING to the CAT and trying to pretend that i know what I am doing...I am shouting but i don't need the cap locks LOL.

If I do this, i wonder if I can repopular those collections then?

[john beardsworth]

If you're getting the same dialog boxes, you're still trying to fix individual images. Sorry, I should have said right click (rather than click) the question mark on the folder and choose Find Missing Folder. Point LR to where the folder now is, cick Choose, and  the folder's question mark should vanish, as should and the question marks on files which are in that folder.

[vdotmatrix]

Ok. that is simply one question mark in the folders panel- the only one. So everything in the folders panel is OK with LR4.

LR4 doesn't like what has happened in the collections panel.

I guess I am trying to find resurrect the collections>find the missing images>arriving at the error message posted above.

****************************************

Why is it that when I go to the collections panel>click on a collection that has a question mark>click on a question mark>try to find the photos that I KNOW are on the ext HD that I imported, that I get those 2 error messages. I can go to every picture on the dard drive from LR4 with no problem; I just cant reassociate those images with those collections and their edits.

****************************************

There has to be a workaround and I am not contacting ADOBE for this.

thanks for taking the time to read this post.

[john beardsworth]

I'm sorry, but the Collections panel never has question marks. In Lightroom "Collections" are one thing, "Folders" are another, and I'm telling you to sort out the problem in the Folders panel, not anywhere else.

Without meaning to be unpleasant, do say so if you are not using Lightroom in English.

[vdotmatrix]

hahaha...no we are here in the good ole USA, Washington DC, that's all we should have for the most part...is English. And yes it would seem like I am not understanding what you write but that is just me...LOL

NO the collection's panel doesn't have question marks YOU ARE RIGHT, but the resulting question marks from the images contained in that particular collection do however.

herein lies the problem I am experiencing

[john beardsworth]

Go back to the Folders panel and resolve the question marks on folders.

Once that's done, run the menu command Library > Find Missing Photos to isolate all the missing photos in the catalogue. If any remain, then as I suggested earlier work on the question marks on individual pictures. When you get those messages about "already associated", jump to All Photographs and identify where that picture now is.

Surely you can find someone in the DC area who knows Lightroom, and English? Put out the call! Tell 'em it's all because you're moving to Mac and you'll find some wildeyed Mac evangelist eager to come to your aid.

[vdotmatrix]

As I said above...THERE IS ONLY ONE FOLDER, OUT OF 50, CONTAINING ONE QUESTION MARK in the FOLDERs Panel-ONLY ONE and ONE only.

THE FOLDERs panel is NOT WHAT the problem is or WHERE the Question marks appear.

As I said before, the problem originates from the collections.

I think you have exhausted most senarios and what you can offer and you are done dealing with this so we can certainly let someone else jump in if they choose.

I was flammed for seeking answers across the internet and as you see this issue for me is not resolved.

I hope you and Victoria will be alright with me trying to find a solution from whomever is wiling to help; I can't afford to have all my eggs in one basket or inbox so to speak, and I appreciate your help John!

I thank you for your time!

[john beardsworth]

Make sure you resolve that one folder's question mark then.

But yes, I think we both need someone else to try to help resolve this.  Best of luck!

[vdotmatrix]

thanks JOhn!

[Jim Wilde]

vdotmatrix wrote:

THE FOLDERs panel is NOT WHAT the problem is or WHERE the Question marks appear.

If you have a folder containing a number of images (for argument's sake let's say 100), and that folder has the "?" in the Folders Panel, it means that not only is that folder 'missing', but also all the 100 images it contains are also missing. If you click on the missing folder, the grid will be populated with 100 thumbnails, each and every one will also have the "?" to indicate they are missing.

If some are all of those 100 images have previously been assigned to collections, then when you click on the collection you will again see the thumbnails with the "?".

To deal with the missing 100 images, you can:

1. Work within the collections to click on each and every missing image, and tell Lightroom where it is. If you are lucky, Lightroom will also see that some or all of the other 99 images are missing and re-link those as well. But you may not be lucky, so you'll have to relink all of those one by one.

2. Or, you can do what John has been advising you to do, and that is relink that ONE AND ONLY ONE folder (assuming you know where it is), and when you have done that all 100 missing images will be relinked automatically.

Do you understand that?

[Geoff the kiwi]

There is also a command under the Library drop down menu in the top Menu Bar "Find Missing Photos" that will put all of the missing photos in your catalog in a special collection where the All Photgraphs one is. This may help you. You can relink the files from there.

[vdotmatrix]

10,505

that's how many are missing.

I just picked one of the files and it says it is located on my old computer.

Now what?

thanks for the reply!!!!!

BTW that command is nice!!

[Geoff the kiwi]

Ok, what you are seeing is nt where the files are on the HD (that is why they are ? missing) but where they were when Lightroom was last linked to them. What you need to do isfind where they are on the HD and relink them through tha rightclick ? menu.

Select one in the Missing Files collection, then use Explorer/Finder to lovate the file number on your HD. Then use the Locate Missing File menu to relink through the resulting dialog menu.

You may find it quicker to do this same relinking with Folders. You can do this by again selecting a file in the Missing Files collection, right clicking the file (not the ?) and selecting Show in Folder. Then you can relink the folder to where it is on your HD same as you would with a file.

Trya nd keep this all in one thread too please.

Thanks.

[vdotmatrix]

HI JEOFF!!! I FEEL LIKE A DOOR KNOB! hahahaha

this is what happens when I follow the steps you describe above:

I will pick a file with a question mark. I will then follow the link to its location or find it in FINDER.

when I hit CHOOSE I get the second message

in this order ...

http://db.tt/SO0mj2dQ

http://db.tt/vCgkdoq5

[Geoff the kiwi]

That's ok, progress is being made. You have deteermined/discovered that you have duplicates in your catalog.

You may well have shifted these duplicates in Finder and then reiported them. Trick is to move files inside of Ltghtroom so as the links are not broken (most of the time!!).

Now you have a choice of which you want to remove from the catalog. I suggest you keep the latest version (editing) and remove the other from the catalog. The one you remove from the catalog (and from the catalog only) can be either the one linked to a file or not, if it is the "missing" file you retain in the catalog you will have to relink it after removing the duplicate.

Give this a whirl carefully and slowly and let us know after you have had a first attempt.

I've done this type of thing as have many, many Lightroomers so don't panic, it is usual to end up in this position once only!!

[vdotmatrix]

I fired up the windows box and tried to export the catalog from LR3.6.

I was prepared to transfer the 12,000 images.

In the end 8000 images were missing no doubt backup scattered and off my windows box for more space.

I imported that catalogue in to LR4.

All but 1 lousy image couldn't be found.

EVERYTHING ELSE WAS DETECTED ON MY EXISTING CATALOG IN LR4.

I can't go back and can't go forward with my collections. I cannot resolve the newly found "?" i the folder's panel even though they have drive letters that are out of this world and they were all but hidden to me. ( sorry John you were tright of course).

But I am still wallowing in the mire.

[vdotmatrix]

I spoke with Matt Kozlowski today twice about this nightmare of mine during his LR4 seminar.

First he said, it sounded like a mess and i may have to create a new catalog and start over, but he said there was a way to save the information contained in the collections but he would cover some of that in his class, but after he breezed through that section I asked him again about it at the break. He said, theoretically, the collections should come back back I don't think he understood what I was talking about. He gave us his twitter account for questions but who knows if he'll respond after class.

I am sorta fine with stating over somehow especially since there is so many things wrong with my LR catalogue and how it is organized.

Te one thing I will have to research is what if anything can be done to re-associate the collections i have with the images if I do go in and create a new catalog.

Those collections are really priceless in the amount of time it took to build....but the edits on the idividual images still exist in the ALL pictures...i will have to go and see if this is true.

I spoke to 3 other poeple  at this seminar who had very similar issues with their catalogues.

thanks

[Geoff the kiwi]

Can you post a screen shot or two of your the Left panel of the Library showing the Catlog, Folders and Collections panels.

[vdotmatrix]

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/623364

djpaige worked on this very same issue about 2 years ago with very nearly the same exact symptoms I have. My problem is I have done some much OUTSIDE of lightroom, even outside of the original platform that light is about to explode. I have to stand back and look at this but i have such a huge deadline friday and this is such a distraction.

I will get a screen shot when i get downstiars..Oh wait....I have the same time machine backup here on my mac book pro with the same disaster.

Here are the screen shots and it is far uglier that I ever envisioned now that I noticed the volumes in that panel... the second through 4th link are heineous long collumns of question marks of death as Matt referred to them....

http://db.tt/adoEoVTy

http://db.tt/gt4N1HUU

http://db.tt/hF0ag3Ka

http://db.tt/EVdpT6ZV

http://db.tt/BEMbGzlh

• 6.jbleecker,May 15, 2010 2:11 PM   in reply to freefallReport

  Just for the record — I have had this problem too. I had to "remove" the photos from my LR3 (B2) library and then reimport them from disk to straighten it all out. Although I'm not entirely sure what would've caused this for just a few select photos, LR3 definitely did not want to import the photos when I had gone through the ritual of identifying where the missing photos were on disk. Instead, it insisted that the photo already existed in the catalog. Julian Bleecker

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  7.freefall,Community MemberMay 16, 2010 8:35 AM   in reply to jbleeckerReport

  thanks for sharing the misery. I have a manual method for fixing my Collection. I select a "missing photo" in the Collection, and then switch to the main Catalog where the "missing photo" will appear next to its idential "present photo." I then delete the "missing" one and drag the "present" one into the Collection.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Are all of these from the same catlog and computer? The C drive, etc look like Windows format and the MacHD is well a Mac HD.

Folders/files will show as missing if drives are not connected.

How many drives do you use and can they all be connected at the same time?

Also how many catalogs do you have???

[vdotmatrix]

i only have one catalog. the one updated to lr4.

I know it is painful to start at the beginning of this post for background.

I don't think it is possible to reconnect the drives....they may have differnt names, drive letters since it was all coming from windows xp-pro or connected to that box, thus the nightmare volumes. I posted last year about those volumes and someone explained what they were when I began to see these volumes looming but since they were always closed and I never had an issue seeing or interacting with my collections I never paid any atention to them. Now they are radioactive.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Great so you have one catalog.

1. The mac HD is ok for now but where are the other drives??

2. Are the folders/files on them still or now elsewhere?

3. You can upload screenshots from your desktop direct A§ link button in the reply box, much easier than links.

[vdotmatrix]

All the images associated with All the collections are on the ELEMENTS ext. HD shown .

I sorta made progress. I hooked up or woke up both network drive and attached two other external HDs and managed to tell LR4 where thisone image was located. It gave me the same song and dance but this time acknowledged the new location of the file on the network drive but still gave me the thing about the file was associated with another photo or the same photo.

[vdotmatrix]

SOoooooooo!

If I do start anew, and create a brand new catalog, can I recover or save the info within the collections from the current catalog?

Matt said there was a way to save the info but I think he was blowing me off.