Hard Drive Disconnect and now Lightroom won't Recognize It/Can't Find Photos

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

All my photos are saved to an external hard drive and its this external hard that Lightroom recognizes. I was just working through a photo shoot I did, and my laptop was nudge a bit and I lost the connection between my external hard drive and my laptop. I went to my desktop screen and it appeared that my external hard drive was still connected, but I thought I should properly eject it just in case. I also re-started Lightroom to give everything a better chance to work. When I started Lightroom back up again and reconnected my external hard drive, Lightroom didn't recognize the external hard drive AT ALL. Normally, if the external hard drive isn't connected, my photos/folders are at least still on the left hand side with little question marks next to them. But this time, there is nothing. Its as if I am starting from scratch. I go into my external hard drive and all of my photos are still there, organized in all the folders just as I had left them.

I have ejected my external hard drive and restarted Lightroom and my computer several times and nothing is working.

So I don't understand why Lightroom doesn't even know my photos exist anymore. Did something happen to the catalog? I have clicked on "File" and "Open Recent" to get the most recent catalog open, but that didn't do anything. When I go to "Add a Folder" it recognizes my external hard drive as an option, but won't let me select any of my folders because Lightroom already knows that they have been imported into the system.

So I am at a loss and a little stressed.... please help!

[dj_paige]

YOu have probably opened a blank (empty) catalog file. Try going to File->Open Recent and open each catalog shown there until you find the one you want.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

I did that and selected "Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat" which is the one I have been working from (its the only one), and nothing changed. None of my photos have shown up on the left side.

[dj_paige]

No photos showing up on the left side? Left side of what?

Did you try opening ALL of the catalogs shown under File->Open Recent?

If that doesn't work, use your operating system's search feature to find all files on all disks whose name ends with .LRCAT. Double-click on each one found to open it and see if it is the one you want.

If that doesn't work, restore your most recent backup of your catalog file.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

[dj_paige]

So you found the catalog showing your photos??

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

This is what my Lightroom looks like. So it looks like all of my photos are in the catalog - all clumped together - almost 40,000 of them. But I had them organized into folders... that correspond to the folders on my hard drive. So how do I get those folders back in Lightroom?

[JP Hess]

What happens if you expand the folders? Click on the little triangle at the left of the folders.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

It just lists my computer hard drive.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

But these are the folders that should be there....

[JP Hess]

I am not a Mac person, so I won't even venture a guess.

[Bob Somrak]

Click the little black triangle to the right of Macintosh HD to open the drive to open the drive.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

This is what happens when I click the black triangle.

[Bob Somrak]

Well, keep clicking the little white triangles next to USER and on down to open the folders.  You will eventually get to "My Lightroom Master Photos" folder.  At that point you will have a BUNCH of folders above the master photos.  If you don't want to see these you can right click them and chose "Hide this parent folder" to reduce clutter.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

See my comment above - I found my LR Master Photos. Unfortunately they are greyed out and I can't click on any of them. Its as if Lightroom does not recognize that my external hard drive is connected.

[Bob Somrak]

I see Users is Gray too.  If you click one the / do your photos show up?  I says you have 40000 photos there.

[Bob Somrak]

They are all clumped together because you are looking at the ALL PHOTOGRAPHS collection.  Go to the FOLDERS or right click on a photo and select "Go to folder in library"

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

I right clicked on a photo and selected "Go to folder in library" and it didn't do anything.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

Ok so when I expanded the folders more under Macintosh HD, I found my folder... but I can't click on anything.

[Bob Somrak]

Instead of opening VOLUMES you should be opening USERS

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

I opened ever folder under USER and there is nothing there regarding my LR Master Photos. I've always saved my Master Photos on my external hard drive.

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

Nothing shows up when I click on the / .

[Bob Somrak]

I think the 3 dots next to the folders usually means the count hasn't been done yet but it usually fills these pretty quickly.  I am not sure what is going on.  Sorry

[Fancy_Gemstone15B9]

No worries - I appreciate your help.