Getting my two External Hard Drives onto Lightroom Classic.

[stevej46]

I was running out of space on my external hard drive that was connected to Lightroom Classic. I decided to attach a 2nd external drive to my iMac. In so doing, I had a few problems so a took the original external drive off LRC. Then I tried adding it back along with a 2nd external drive. Can't seem to get them on my LRC Left Side Menu.

My original external drive is LR 1. The second drive is LR 2

My scheme for my photos shows the year, month and then different titles for what ever I have shot.
Starting in 2014 .. 2014 09 .. Summit Scenes, Milky Way etc.

I've attached photos. I know how to remove folders from LRC but when I try to add my drives back to LRC, I am not getting everything as it was before. 

Hope the photos help.

 

[dj_paige]

My web browser refuses to show file attachments here. Please use the "Insert Photos" icon to include screen captures in your reply, do NOT attach files.

Instructions for linking LrC to files that have been moved: www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

[GoldingD]

I do not understand. You say you had Lr1, you added Lr2, then you disconnected Lr1, later reconnected Lr1, and after that Lr1 does not show in LrC.  BUT your screenshots show Lr1 and Lr2 in the Folders Panel. So, they or it are/is not missing.

Ahh, rethought, reread. Folder structure, and photo locations, and actual photos existing in catalog, in either drive, does not look like as before. I assume you moved various photos, perhaps entire folders from Lr1 to Lr2. How? Within LrC, or outside of LrC via Finder?

[stevej46]

Looks like LR1 and LR2 are from finder. Along with other attachments. Looks like I should have left LR 1 alone and not remove it. Now the edits won't be seen. All the photos are still on the two external drives. Lost a heck of a lot of work. But anything I printed or posted were saved in other places. I have all my prints saved under Costco on my iMac. 

[JohanElzenga]

Looks like LR1 and LR2 are from finder. Along with other attachments. Looks like I should have left LR 1 alone and not remove it. Now the edits won't be seen. All the photos are still on the two external drives. Lost a heck of a lot of work. But anything I printed or posted were saved in other places. I have all my prints saved under Costco on my iMac. 

By @stevej46

Like I already asked: Do you have a catalog backup from just before you did this? If so, this can be solved quite easily.

[JohanElzenga]

Please describe in more detail what you did. You say "I know how to remove folders from LRC" but you do not seem to realise that this will remove the photos from the catalog and also all their edits. You cannot simply add these folders back to the catalog and expect the edits to be back! Do you have a catalog backup from just before you did all this?

[stevej46]

No.. I screwed up. But all photos I posted or printed, are on other folders on my iMac.

[JohanElzenga]

No.. I screwed up. But all photos I posted or printed, are on other folders on my iMac.

By @stevej46

Edits are stored in the catalog, not in the files. So unless you mean that these are exported files, this won't help you. You are using a Mac. Are you saying you also do not make Time Machine backups?...

[stevej46]

I do have Time Machine back-ups.

[JohanElzenga]

I do have Time Machine back-ups.

By @stevej46

OK, then you probably do have a catalog backup from before this happened. Retrieve this catalog from the Time Machine backup and replace your current catalog with it (you may rename your current catalog or move it to another location, just in case). Start Lightroom. Lightroom will show you the situation as before, with all the images on the first disk. Some image folders will show as missing however. Those are the folders you have moved to disk 2. So 'reconnect' those folders using these instructions: 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

[stevej46]

Here are photos inserted.

[dj_paige]

These are attachments, which I still cannot see.

[stevej46]

I was able to move year 2014 and 2015 over to Lr 1 Menu. Started on 2016 and after I loaded 177 images, I got a error msg.. External Drive is full. The external drive was full before I started all this. So not sure how it could be full now on the LRC menu. I want every year from 2014 to 2023 to show on Lr 1 LRC menu. How do I do this>

I've got to arrange things differently on the Lr 2 menu page. So I should have under 2023 II the month 9 2033 and 10 2023.. And then I would place the actual photo names under the right month..

[dj_paige]

These are file attachments which my web browser will not open. I cannot see when is in these files. I provided instructions earlier in this thread to use the "Insert Photos" icon, please follow those instructions.

[Michael J. Hoffman]

Were you able to restore an older catalog and start Lightroom with that catalog? That is the only way you're going to restore all the edits that you did previously.

If you're dragging folders and images around between drives within Lightroom, I fear you are in the process of creating an even bigger dilemma. By moving the images around, your older catalog (if you can restore it and open it) will no longer be able to find the photos that you've moved.

I know it's late for this now, but Ideally you would have copied the contents of LR1 onto the (presumably much larger) LR2 drive, then changed Lightroom Classic to point to the new drive. That's all that was required, and you would have been able to continue happily along with LR2 as your new home for images...

[stevej46]

I am not too worried about losing my edits. I always save an edit before proceding. I'll attach three new photos. First one shows where I am at now. The 2nd shows what happened when I tried to add the 2016 folder to LRC. It did go into LR1 but it also faded out 2014 and 2015 so they could not be used. Now I am wondering if I remove all folders from LR1 and start over from scratch, do you think that when I add the original folders it will work? The third photos shows most of the folders now on my external hard drive. Just trying to get all my original folders back on Lightroom Classic.