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Participating Frequently
February 20, 2022
Question

global search for file names

  • February 20, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 2776 views

Is it possible to use the search/find function in lightroom 5.2 to search for files by file name in a drive. I saw this performed in a youtube video but it was on a mac. It appears to me that lightroom in windows requires that one search within a folder. The files have no keywords so I guess the "find" function will not work in this case. Thanks.

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3 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 20, 2022

"search/find function in lightroom 5.2 to search for files by file name in a drive."

Me Confused!  v5.2 your photos are stored in the Adobe Cloud. Why would you be searching a "drive"?

 

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
Community Expert
February 20, 2022

Perhaps this was a query about Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.2, and not about Adobe Lightroom Desktop 5.2?

 

Two completely different animals, as should be immediately obvious to... well... nobody really...!

 

the OP's references to searching in a folder did suggest the former option, to me.

jkjack47Author
Participating Frequently
February 22, 2022

 

At 3:28, he performs the global search that I have been unable to perform in LR 5.3 on Windows 10. If this is impossible I will proceed with the extremely more complicated steps suggested. Thanks.

 

Community Expert
February 20, 2022

Lightroom can use many types of search, as well as inspecting image attributes such as camera metadata or flags and keywords. One form of search is to look within the filenames. If you show the filter bar when in Library ( \  key), click for a Text search, you can opt there to only search within filenames, rather than across all image attributes.

 

That filter will work on whatever subset of images you are currently displaying (or, all the Catalog's images if you are viewing the "All Photographs" special Collection).

 

One kind of subset might be a particular subfolder. It might be a particular Collection or Smart Collection. It might be a Collection Set, and show all images within all Collections inside this Set.

 

Similarly for Folders, you can opt to show just the direct contents of a folder / the contents of all subfolders of a given folder, as well as its direct contents. Uncheck / check (respectively) the option "Show Photos in Subfolders". That's in the Library menu, or else in the drop-down menu of the + icon next to the title of the Folders panel.

 

So the question also was, how to limit your search to only the photos within a given drive, assuming there are other drives' contents also imported to your Library - that you don't now want to search within. Of course you will only be searching through the photos within that drive that are imported to this Catalog.

 

TO do that you need the top folder that encloses all of the desired photos, to be visible in the Folders panel. If that it is not already showing, right-click on current top level folder and choose "Show Parent Folder" until that does show. It is likely not necessary to go all the way up to the root folder of the drive, although you can.

 

So click on that parent folder for all your imported images within this drive. Ensure 'show photos in subfolders'. Filter this set down to show only those that meet your filename search.

dj_paige
Legend
February 20, 2022

Lightroom does not require that you search within a folder. Click on "All Photographs" (it's on the left under "Catalog") and then do your search.

jkjack47Author
Participating Frequently
February 21, 2022
Perhaps I'm missing something. I have tried this several times with
multiple files, before and after reading this reply. In all cases the
search turns up a thumbnail of the missing file in Library and when moving
to Develop, the file is indicated as Missing. Using Explorer, the file
location can be found. I'm using LIghtroom Classic 5.3. Below are three
screen shots.

1. SEARCH TURNS UP THUMBNAIL IN LIBRARY
2. CLICKING ON THUMBNAIL ENLARGES IMAGE
3. MOVING TO DEVELOP SHOWS FILE NOT FOUND

FILE CAN BE FOUND IN EXPLORER BY DRILLING DOWN INTO THE FOLDER IT IS IN AND
THEN AND WILL OPEN IN DEVELOP

Any idea where this is going wrong? Thanks.

[image: lr prob.png]


[image: lr prob2.png]

[image: lr prob3.png]


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jkjack47Author
Participating Frequently
February 21, 2022

@jkjack47 wrote I'm using Lightroom Classic 5.3.

No such beast!!

Start again, and tell us exactly what you are using. Post a screen-clip from MENU: Help > System Info...

 

There is Lightroom (Perpetual) versions 1 - 6.

Lightroom (Mobile & Desktops) now at v5.2

Lightroom-Classic  (Starting from v7.0) now at v11.2

 

 


Here is the info. My desktop is running Windows 10, latest update. Although
the search for folder is helping, I still cannot search globally in a drive
for a file as I saw done in a youtube video.

Lightroom version: 5.3 [938183]
Operating system: Windows 8 Home Premium Edition
Version: 6.2 [9200]



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