Help getting LR to point to new external hard drive

Report · Apr 28, 2019

Hi all:

I've been struggling with an issue that's probably easy to resolve but I haven't been able to figure it out. I've been storing my LR photos on a 2TB external HD, rather than on the internal HD on my iMac, and I've been running out of space so I bought a new 8TB external HD and formatted for Mac. Before I did anything, I upgraded the OS to Mojave.

First, I plugged in both of the HDs and copied the contents of the 2TB over to the 8TB HD by dragging and dropping. (It took hours). But LR couldn't find the copied files in the new HD.

I deleted all the files in the new HD to get a clean start and then tried to copy the old files to the new HD through LR by importing the files from the old HD to the new one. (This also took some time.) I was hopeful that LR could find the files in the new HD but when I unplugged the old HD, so as not to confuse LR, LR couldn't find the files I had copied into the new HD. I also need to say that my file structure is not very well organized, in case might play a role. I would love any help with this.

What am I doing wrong?

Rodney

Report · Apr 28, 2019

Re-importing or importing is not the correct way to do this and should NEVER be done.

What you should of done was Copy your image files from the older drive to the newer drive. That is best done by selecting the Folder or Folders the images are in, Pressing Command + C to Copy them then navigate to the new drive and press Command + V to Paste them on the new drive.

You use Finder for all of that.

Although I own a Mac I don't use it much but in my opinion Never Drag and Drop. IIRC at one time with Mac that only placed shortcuts (Mac Aliases) in the new location and not the actual files. That may have changed, not sure as I NEVER Drag & Drop.

Once you know all of the files are on the new drive and in the SAME FOLDER Structure Eject the old external and disconnect it from the computer.

Open LR and you will be presented with all your drives, Folders and Files showing as Missing. Folder will have a question mark and images will have an Exclamation mark on them.

Then you use the instruction from the links below to Reconnect them on the new drive.

Find moved or missing files and folders Computer-Darkroom

Find Missing Photos—how do I fix it? | The Lightroom Queen

Find missing photos in Photoshop Lightroom Adobe Help System

Once you have all that done then you can safely delete all of them from the old external and or Format it to erase all info on it.

Re-importing removes all existing edits you have done. All the edits are store ion the catalog file and won't correspond tpo the newly imported files even though that are the same files.

Report · Apr 29, 2019

Repeating the above advice, with emphasis

DO NOT RE-IMPORT

that is so important, i'm going to say it again in bold letters

DO NOT RE-IMPORT

For additional reading material on how to move the photos so that Lightroom will recognize them, see "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location" here: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

Report · May 02, 2019

Thank you very much for taking the time to try to guide me through this;

however, I’m still not getting it to work.

I reformatted the new external HD to start with a clean slate then I copied

the old folders to the new using Command C/V, as you suggested. I then

disconnected the old HD.

The problem the was that the folder structure in LR (which broke down the

photos into separate years) did not correspond to the folders in the new

(or, for that matter, the old) HD. So when I went to Find Missing Folder, I

couldn’t find it. I then tried Show Parent Folder but there was no option

to Find Missing Photos. I’m stumped again.

On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 7:50 PM Just Shoot Me <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

Report · May 02, 2019

Are you working in the library module?

Report · May 02, 2019

When you import, Lightroom records the entire folder path where each photo is stored. That usually includes a common parent folder, which your organisational folders (such as 2010, 2011 etc) live within. If this common parent folder is currently not appearing "above" your year folders, in the LR folders panel, then it can be made to do so using "Show parent folder".

Once you have got this showing, then it is this common parent folder which you would want to "redirect" to the corresponding parent folder within your new drive. These two can themselves have the same name or different names, and live at equivalent or differing folder paths, doesn't matter - the point is that the subfolder organisation within each one, needs to be the same.

If you go to this common parent folder for your current images in LR and right-click, there are different menu items depending on whether this folder is currently "found" or "not found" so far as LR is concerned.

If you have copied everything to the new drive, but an instance of this folder still remains on your current drive also, then the command for redirecting to the new drive, shows as "Update Folder Location" (IIRC).

Not as "Find Missing Folder" - since so far as LR can currently see, it isn't (at this moment) missing. LR can still find this folder at its prior location.

Report · May 02, 2019

Yes! The key is to copy folders to the new external hard drive. Then highlight the folders in the library module and choose the option to update the folder location and choose the folder on the new external hard drive. After you have done that then you can delete the folders from their original location.

Report · May 02, 2019

Just how are you trying to open hat catalog?

Report · May 02, 2019

The problem the was that the folder structure in LR (which broke down the photos into separate years) did not correspond to the folders in the new (or, for that matter, the old) HD.

This is your problem. Somewhere, you must have actual operating system folders with your photos in them that correspond to what LR shows. Those are the folders to copy to the new hard drive. It's really a simple process when you do it right.

Report · May 02, 2019

rodneyb5365045 wrote
Thank you very much for taking the time to try to guide me through this;
however, I’m still not getting it to work.
I reformatted the new external HD to start with a clean slate then I copied
the old folders to the new using Command C/V, as you suggested. I then
disconnected the old HD.
The problem the was that the folder structure in LR (which broke down the
photos into separate years) did not correspond to the folders in the new
(or, for that matter, the old) HD. So when I went to Find Missing Folder, I
couldn’t find it. I then tried Show Parent Folder but there was no option
to Find Missing Photos. I’m stumped again.
On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 7:50 PM Just Shoot Me <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

Sorry but I don't understand. How could the folders shown in LR not correspond to the actual folder structure on the drive.

LR only shows folders that images have been imported from. So if you have a folder name in LR there must be images in that folder or that folder name has a question mark next to it.

We REALLY need to SEE a Screen Shot of the Full LR Library module with the Folder section expanded. Like this.