How to change an entire path

[flip@guycali.com]

I made a backup copy on a different volume but when I use it on that volume. the path still shows the old volume even though the all the files reside in the same folders on the new volume. How can I change the Path of this copy to find the new volume and all the files? Or should I just remake all the LR catalogs all over again on this new volume?

[richardplondon]

No remaking catalogs, no importing at the new location. Just re-addressing what you already have, which can usually be done in a few seconds as a single action.

Typically the file system holds a whole 'tree' of image folders, and this has been bodily copied or moved to a destination. In the Catalog, is a corresponding 'tree' of image paths referring to these folders and to the files inside those, still referring to the source location for your copy or move.

Every 'tree' of folders has by definition one common parent. This parent may or may not be currently showing inside the Catalog. For example you might see only "year" folders as the top level items of that drive volume, in the Folders panel. In the file system, there will be some higher folder level above.  Right-clicking on one of the 'year' folders you can choose "show parent folder" and reveal this higher level inside the Catalog. That common parent folder can now act as a single point of control for all these 'year' folders - or whatever else you have - and for everything inside those.

Right-click on that point-of-control folder and choose "update folder location". Browse as prompted to the corresponding folder on the other drive volume.

Everything below that - the whole 'tree' - is immediately re-addressed accordingly. Provided the identical folder arrangement has been transferred, naturally.

Or if you had (say) moved only one year's worth of photos - one branch of the 'tree' - to another drive volume, you would only re-address that one 'branch'.

All of this is equally possible regardless whether this has been a move, or a copy. 'Show parent folder' still works inside the Catalog, even if that folder is no longer really there in the file system, because what the Folders panel shows depends only on the Catalog's retained records, not on the live file system. One detail: "update folder location' changes to 'find missing folder' in this case - but you would still re-browse in the same way; then everything in the Catalog reconnects using the appropriate new, working paths and you are back in business.

[flip@guycali.com]

The above post by richardplondon 

Is exactly what I'm looking for, However I'm having a problem of when in the catalog I don't know where to look for this 

folder

"Right-click on that point-of-control folder and choose "update folder location". Browse as prompted to the corresponding folder on the other drive volume. "  Can you be so kind as to direct me to where I look for this?

[JohanElzenga]

Contrary to what @richardplondon says, you do not necessarily have one single 'point of control' folder. This folder is simply the parent folder of your entire image folder hierarchy, which may or may not exist. If you stored all your images in one 'Lightroom images' parent folder somewhere, then that folder is this 'point of control' folder. By using 'Show Parent Folder' you can make this folder visible in the Lightroom folder panel, as explained by Richard.

However, there is no law that says this is the way you must store you images, so there is no certainty that you did so. It is also possible that you stored your images on an external disk and have multiple (parent) folders at the root of that disk. In that case you do not have this one single point of control folder, but multiple folders. You could say that the disk itself is the one and only parent. Lightroom does not have an 'Update Disk' menu however, nor a 'Find Missing Disk' menu. This is where the trick of renaming the disk (or in Windows giving it the old drive letter) comes to the rescue. Doing so means you match the current situation to what the Lightroom catalog contains, rather than the other way round.

[richardplondon]

to clarify, I was describing how to re-address a 'tree' of folders in one operation since that was what the OP asked about. Certainly one might have more than one such 'tree' involved, and not wish to climb all the way up the hierarchy to their common parent. Either the whole 'trunk' of each, or else just a chosen 'branch' thereof, can be re-addressed as a distinct operation.

It's worth adding, data spread across multiple drive volumes cannot have a single 'point of control'. 

Readdressing is all or nothing. What is not possible is to in a single step readdress a given folder with a chosen subset of its contents (images / subfolders), without also including the remainder of its contents. That outcome is still possible to achieve - but would take multiple more selective steps to carry out.

[flip@guycali.com]

Thank You all , Folks for the help.

I'm very new to Lightroom but I have been using Photoshop since 2.0 in the 80's

I have been a Professional Commercial Photographer ( with the same company) and retired after 50 years when we closed our doors. I got to keep our Adobe account however!

I decided that Lightroom would be a good way for my family to access all our old photos, along with me to access my archived works of the past 50 years

I still do not know where in Lightroom I can change the path to the volume but at this point after trying many times I just think I will rebuild the Catalogs on the backup drive because ( Even though I know what you are all saying, but I have not found the "magic place" to let me change this on my existing & copied catalogs)

Thank you 

Jim

[JohanElzenga]

I think Richard explained very well how to change the path, but perhaps this helps: 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

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

[dj_paige]

You could do the change one foder at a time, in the left-hand Folder panel. Right-click on each folder, select "Find Missing Folder" or "Update Folder Location". In this case, the "point of control" is the folder itself in the LrC Folder panel.

But if you have many folders under a parent folder, you just have to do this to the parent folder. In this case, the "point of control" is the parent folder in the LrC folder panel.

More instructions, with pictures (see in particular Figure 4): www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

[richardplondon]

YOu would do this inside the Catalog's Library module, in the Folders panel on the right side.

I keep my photos in YYYY/MM/DD structure (LrC implements this scheme for me automatically, as I copy-import newly taken photos off the camera card into the local drive) - and in this case my parent folder is called "library" and that could be my point of control if I ever moved the whole lot to another drive.

I am on Windows with a 3-button mouse but if on MacOS you did not have any right mouse button to click, I believe you may instead need to hover the mouse over the appropriate folder and do a Cmd+click. This opens up a context menu as below

[JohanElzenga]

It's Ctrl-click, not Cmd-click. Apple mice do have three buttons too nowadays, even though you may not see physical buttons but just press on one side of the mouse.

[richardplondon]

thanks for correction on mouse buttons - I am Mac-ignorant!

[flip@guycali.com]

OK Folks

I finally figured it out with the last few post!

Once I found out where to go, it was easy! Thank you all

Jim

[JohanElzenga]

The easiest way of doing this is simply to rename the backup disk (in the Finder while Lightroom is not running). Change its name to the original disk, and Lightroom Classic won't know the difference and happily use the new disk as if it were the old one. Do rename (or unmount) the old disk before you start Lightroom Classic. You don't want to confuse it with two disks having the same name.