How to rearrange photos in folders corresponding to collections ?

[Tokumeino]

Hi, I'd like to batch rearrange a whole photo library.

My photos are in date folders as created by LR on import. Most are in collection folders corresponding to events (no photo is in multiple event collections). I'd like to rearrange photos on disk with folders corresponding to event collections, with unsorted photos in special "unsorted" folders.

How can I do ? I guess I'll have to use one or multiple plugins.

I'd be grateful to get a practical help, without comments such as "why would you do that" which I didin't develop here to keep my post as short as possible. Trust me, my request makes sense. 

[dj_paige]

https://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/collection-publisher

By the way, this does not "re-arrange" as you asked for. It creates new exported copies of your existing photos in folders that correspond to your Collections.

If you want a true "re-arrange" of the original photos, I don't think such a thing exists other than by (tedious) manual effort.

[Tokumeino]

Thanks for the advice. My SSD is not large enough to duplicate everything so I'll have to process in several batches. But it sounds to be a solution that has the advantage of not altering the original catalog, for safety.

Do you know if this plugin also exports sidecar XPMs with all the metadata ?

[dj_paige]

It exports JPG files. No XMP. The metadata is written into the exported JPG files. (At least, that's how I remember it works, perhaps there is the option to export the original RAW with XMP and I just don't remember that part.)

[Tokumeino]

I've tried and with RAW files, the plugin exports XMP sidecar files with all the metadata. Great ! And thanks again.

[Rob_Cullen]

I agree with @dj_paige  "I don't think such a thing exists other than by (tedious) manual effort." and the fastest way I can think to do it manually is-

1) Open a Collection

2) Select all photos [Ctrl+A]

3) [Right-Click] on a parent folder in the Folder panel

4) Create a New folder, include the selected photos (that will be MOVED!)

So my answer is to your request despite my preference for a dated folder structure with Collections and keywords for organization.

[Tokumeino]

Thanks. With hundreds of collections, that's exactly what I want to avoid. But the plugin advised above works fine. It is even possible to make a smart collection and then mirror it by replicating the collections hierarchy !

However, it takes ages and on Windows, it fills UserData\Local\Temp very quickly up to a point where there is no more space on the drive. So the publish porcess needs to be under surveillance. But very doable though.