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skyrunr
skyrunr
Inspiring
January 14, 2017
Question

It would be REALLY nice to toggle the auto-expand folders on and off

  • January 14, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 911 views

For my larger catalogs I have a great system for sorting images which is three folders deep.  When I import images I may need to sort between the first and second levels, but rarely the third.  The third folders list may be 5-10.  When I drop a file into the 1st and 2nd deep folders SOMETIMES the folders auto-expand.  When this happens the list is too long for me to continue my 1st and 2nd folder sorting easily.  I have to stop what I'm doing and collapse  them.  There are a few times when I like the feature so I'd like to be able to easily toggle it on and off.  If they wanted to be really fancy they could say limit auto-expanding to x number of folders deep.

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      4 replies

      F
      funstraw
      Participating Frequently
      April 30, 2022

      I found this because I have the same frustration.  That should be a feature.  I don't think it has been remedied yet but I just thought of a workaround.

       

      Using the location example:

      Continent

      >North America

      >>USA

      >>>AL

      >>>AR

      >>>CO

      >>Mexico

      >>Canada

      >SouthAmerica

      >>Argentina

       

      So dropping all of your different photos of each North American country(Canada, USA, or Mexico) into North America expands the entire folder structure and does not collapse it back.  So you end up having to collapse the folder structure to regain your space.

       

      When bulk organizing photos I would suggest under the continent example making 7 temporary folders

      aaaNorth America TEMP

      aabSouth America TEMP

      aacAfrica TEMP

       

      Drop your photos into the respective folders.  Then take the files from each of those folders and drop them into the folder that you wanted to drop them into originally.

       

      Hope that helps.  Hope they change that setting.

        B
        bhousto90
        Legend
        January 14, 2017

        From what I can see Lightroom does not auto-expand folders or collection levels, rather it just restores the "last state" when you collapsed them.

        This is why you would say it sometimes auto-expands and others times it does not..

        For example if you have the following folders or collections:

        >Country

             >Canada

                  >Ontario

                       >Toronto

                       >Ottawa

            > USA

        and then collapse them by clicking on 'Canada':

        >Country

             >Canada

             >USA

        Then reopen "Canada' at any later date:

        >Country

             >Canada

                  >Ontario

                       >Toronto

                       >Ottawa

            > USA

        Hopes this helps explain it

        skyrunr
        skyrunrAuthor
        Inspiring
        November 1, 2017

        Try dragging a few images to your Canada folder.  If you do it slowly, which is sort of required on a really high resolution monitor, the folder will auto-expand.  I like to drop everything into the top level folder, then when I have more time move things to sub-folders.

          Just Shoot Me
          Just Shoot Me
          Legend
          January 14, 2017

          Have you thought about changing your folder structure so you don't have multi multiple subfolders under one Top Level folder?

          skyrunr
          skyrunrAuthor
          Inspiring
          November 1, 2017

          Sub-folders are a key part of my file structure.  I don't need to use keywords.  If I were to ever leave Lightroom I still have all of my content sorting done.  It also allows me to grab JPGS from those folders without opening Lightroom.  In my opinion it is an interface issue, having worked in development, software can easily be customized to meet the user's needs.  Sometimes I may actually want the folders to auto-expand.  I'm just saying that it should be an option.  Sort of like the "show items in sub-folders" toggle.

          skyrunr
          skyrunrAuthor
          Inspiring
          January 14, 2017

          I tried to leave this in the wishlist/suggestions but I run into a loop once I sign into the Adobe family, I can't continue an entry or get to the point to enter an item.

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