folder pictures missing after folder is updated

[leer44346667]

I'm new to Lightroom, so bear with me. I have imported a folder of pictures. All the pictures showed up until I update that folder again. Now only the most recently added pictures show up when I click the folder. What's going on and how do I get LRC to show all the pictures in the folder.

[Rob_Cullen]

FIrst let us establish which 'Lightroom' app you are using. This is the Lightroom-Classic forum so I suspect it might be Lightroom-Classic.

Go MENU > Help > System Info...  and post the result in you next post.

Now what do you mean by "update that folder again"  can you explain in greater detail exactly what you did?

Is it possible you are viewing the 'Previous Import' file in the Catalog panel?  This will only show photos from the last import process.

Can you view the folder in the 'Folders' panel? And does it have all the photos?

[leer44346667]

Yes, Lightroom Classic. I imported 40 photos from the folder 1989. Then I added 23 new picture files to the original folder. These new 23 are the only ones which show up in the Library grid. If I select "Synchronize", it tells me that there are 40 files to import. If I select "Synchronize" (probably not the correct thing to do) then the resulting grid is labeled "new" and only shows the new additions.

[leer44346667]

Lightroom Classic ver. 14.5

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

Is it possible that the first import of 40 photos were copied to the Macintosh HD ? (Toggle the disclosure triangle)

Curious that your Previous Import shows 0 photos!

Do you have more than one catalog?

A caution with the 'Synchronize' Folder action, if photos are 'Missing' then an option in the Synchronize-folder can remove these photos from the catalog. Also the 'Synchronize Folder' function is often wrong when calculating previously imported photos to import.

You might be better to use the regular Import dialog selecting the folder you want and use the [ADD] option to bring in the additional 'new' photos.

Plus I also see a discrepancy in your screen-clip between  'All Photographs' (224) and the total of the 'Pictures' folder (193). Are there other folders not visible in your screen-clip? In the Mac HD?

[leer44346667]

Really don't know what I'm doing. I decided to delete the 1989 folder from my imported folders and reimport the folder. So I selected the 1989 folder to import and the resulting screen shows many of the photos grayed out. All of these are listed as "duplicate" when I hover of the file name.

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

Greyed out previews suggest that those photos have already been imported to the Catalog.  LrC by default does not allow exact duplicates to be both imported to the catalog.

Check the filename of one of the 'grey' photos and search for the filname in Lr-Classic, you may find it already imported and residing in a folder you are not aware of.

To help your understand the workings of LrC  I suggest you start by reading the free eBook (Lightroom-Classic Quick Start) from the Lightroom-Queen:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

Really don't know what I'm doing. I decided to delete the 1989 folder from my imported folders and reimport the folder. So I selected the 1989 folder to import and the resulting screen shows many of the photos grayed out. All of these are listed as "duplicate" when I hover of the file name.

By @leer44346667

First, you should know that re-importing photos rarely fixes anything. Avoid doing this, and avoid thinking that reimporting will solve a problem.

Once you have a file name of one of these greyed out photos, exit the Import dialog box and in the LrC Library module, search for the photo by following all four of these steps in order.

1. Click on All Photographs (its shown in the screen captures from @Rob_Cullen )
2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
3. Expand all stacks (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
4. use the LrC filter bar to search for a photo or photos that have that file name

The above search should find the photo(s), and you can then find the folder it is in by right-clicking (control-click on a Mac) on it and select "Go to Folder in Library"

[leer44346667]

The problem was duplicate files. Most were in imported folders from the main MacOS drive. I don't recall importing anything other than what is on my external drive but obviously I did. Once I found and deleted the duplicates, all the pictures in the 1989 folder were present and editable. I've been adding a lot of pictures to my computer lately- scanning many old photos- and between that and learning how to use Lightroom, I made mistakes. Thanks Rob_Cullen for your help.