Found missing (!) photos, but is there an easier way to re-link them?

[Claire June]

Good afternoon, 

Let me say, I've never understood (well enough, anyway) the LR classic file/catalog/library concepts and needless to say, have run into trouble more than once. Recently, I opened LR classic to find almost all of my 50,000+ photos missing with the distressing (!)...after I calmed down, I realized that somehow my external drive had been randomly (or more likely, by operator error) renamed from 'E Drive' to 'D Drive' and went about re-linking them one sub-folder at a time. In my case, since I don't understand how this system works, this is one date at a time...very, VERY slow. 

So...3 questions...

1) Is there a faster way to re-link the missing photos? And, when I do re-link them, why doesn't the number of missing photos go down? It has remained the same number (42,461) since I started. 

2) Is there somewhere or someone who offers one-on-one help with getting my computer and external drive set up for LR classic once and for all? I'm absolutely willing to pay, because as wonderful as this on-line forum is, I really feel like I need to actually 'talk' with someone to understand it. 

Thanks so much, 

Claire

[GoldingD]

see:

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

[JohanElzenga]

---

@Claire June wrote:

Good afternoon, 

Let me say, I've never understood (well enough, anyway) the LR classic file/catalog/library concepts and needless to say, have run into trouble more than once. Recently, I opened LR classic to find almost all of my 50,000+ photos missing with the distressing (!)...after I calmed down, I realized that somehow my external drive had been randomly (or more likely, by operator error) renamed from 'E Drive' to 'D Drive' and went about re-linking them one sub-folder at a time. In my case, since I don't understand how this system works, this is one date at a time...very, VERY slow. 

1) Is there a faster way to re-link the missing photos? And, when I do re-link them, why doesn't the number of missing photos go down? It has remained the same number (42,461) since I started. 

---

The list of missing photos does not auto-update. You have to select the menu again to get the latest number.

The fastest way would have been to make Windows use 'E Drive' again, but that is probably too late now.

Always relink top folders. If you relink a folder, the entire hierarchy below that folder will be relinked too. If Lightroom does not show you certain top folders, then you can force it to do so by right-clicking on what is now shown as a top folder and then choosing 'Show Parent Folder'. That should make it possible to relink all your folders by only relinking a few, or even just one.