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How to move the files in a catalog to a different drive?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 1, 2019
3 replies
6148 views

Hi,

I have been generating a catalog of photos thinking they were on an external drive, but it turns out that they are going onto my macbook. How can I move the files to the external drive, and have the catalog look for them in the new location?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer johnrellis

Thanks, but those all seem to be within the same drive. When I click on the Folders + button I lose access to the ones on the main hard drive.

I strongly recommend you use the method posted above by 99jon -- move the folders using Finder, not LR, and then relink the new location of the folders to the catalog. See option one in this authoritative Lightroom Queen article: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/move-photos-another-hard-drive-leaving-catalog/

As the article mentions, moving large numbers of folders is safer with Finder / File Explorer -- there have been infrequent but persistent reports of LR losing files when it moves folders:

Lightroom Classic: Deletes files when moving folders | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Lightroom: Moving files, resulted in deleting the files | Photoshop Family Customer Community

While one particular bug reported in these threads has been identified and fixed, many of us believe that there are other bugs still remaining.

AxelMatt

Community Expert

The easiest way is to move the file in Lightroom.

Here you'll find infos how to do:

How to Move Photos and Folders in Lightroom – Pretty Presets for Lightroom

Moving Files in Lightroom - YouTube

How to manage photos within folders in Lightroom Classic

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 5 - Topaz Photo

M

MarkAureliusAuthor

Participant

Thanks, but those all seem to be within the same drive. When I click on the Folders + button I lose access to the ones on the main hard drive.

johnrellisCorrect answer

Legend

Thanks, but those all seem to be within the same drive. When I click on the Folders + button I lose access to the ones on the main hard drive.

I strongly recommend you use the method posted above by 99jon -- move the folders using Finder, not LR, and then relink the new location of the folders to the catalog. See option one in this authoritative Lightroom Queen article: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/move-photos-another-hard-drive-leaving-catalog/

As the article mentions, moving large numbers of folders is safer with Finder / File Explorer -- there have been infrequent but persistent reports of LR losing files when it moves folders:

Lightroom Classic: Deletes files when moving folders | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Lightroom: Moving files, resulted in deleting the files | Photoshop Family Customer Community

While one particular bug reported in these threads has been identified and fixed, many of us believe that there are other bugs still remaining.

Tony_See

Inspiring

Move the files using your OS then relink / Sync folder in Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

99jon

Legend

I find the safest way to move folders is to drag your folder using Finder to the external hard drive. That will make a copy of the folder and files. Then in LR you right-click (or control-click) on the folder name in the left-hand panel and choose update folder location. Navigate to the external drive location and LR will re-link everything automatically. The beauty of this method is that you can ensure everything is OK before deleting the folder from your internal drive.

See this link – Part 2 & 3

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

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