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Ken Nielsen
Ken Nielsen
Legend
May 2, 2025
Answered

Last few folders missing in Lightroom for last year’s shoots

  • May 2, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 2203 views

I catalog my folders by year and then inside, by date of shoot. For some reason the last few folders for December of last year are not showing in Lightroom Library view. I've heard that Lightroom on Windows only allows 1600 folders in a folder. Is that true also for a Mac? The folders are there, and were cataloged at the times of the shoots but now they do not show up. Can I repair this or do I need to use a work-around using another program to view the folders? Any suggestion to how to fix this so I can see the folders and images that are there?

Correct answer Ken Nielsen

I've considered all that is being posted and it occurred to me to "Add" the missing folders to the catalog, as they were at one time. Nothing moved, no changes but it's working right now and adding the missing folders back into the catalog. When it's done, I'll come back here and proclaim success or failure... let's hope for success...

3 replies

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drtonyb
Legend
May 3, 2025

Thanks @Ian Lyons. It's a 32767 pixel limit equating to about 1600 entries.

Ian Lyons
Community Expert
Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 3, 2025

@drtonyb you are correct, not sure why I wrote px

D
drtonyb
Legend
May 3, 2025

@Ken Nielsen 

 

The limit of 1600 you mention is related to a pixel dimension limit for a panel in Windows, but I'm not sure about any such limit in MacOS. This limit is a display problem, not a limit on the number of folders that LrC can store in the catalog.

 

If the issue were happening for you, I would expect that you don't have 1600 years worth of Year folders! With the 1600 limit, collapsing all the years' sub folders should list them all. To do that easily, you would need to be showing the parent folder of all the year folders. You can then Alt/Option click the Open/Close icon on the parent folder to collapse all folders, then click again without the Alt/Option key to reveal one level of folders under the parent, i.e. the year folders.

 

All Photographs is in the Catalog panel. Turn off filtering in the Library Filter bar, which is only shown when in Library Grid view; select Filters Off from the drop down list on the right side next the lock icon. If you can't see the Library Filter bar, press the \ key to show it.

 

 

 

    Ian Lyons
    Community Expert
    Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 3, 2025

    The 1600px issue is Windows only, it does not affect LrC running on macOS

    D
    drtonyb
    Legend
    May 5, 2025

    I do use virtual copies and they are there too. All edits, all copies as I use other software on edits but from Lightroom as the 'hub' for everything done. I imported the missing folders and their contents into Lightroom, adding them to where they should have been. This worked for me and I've had more than 24 hours now to check everything and it's all there. Sorry if I appear dense, but it seemed logical to me that if the folders had been removed somehow 'subtracted' from the catalog that 'adding' them back in would be logical. To ensure I would not be duplicating I checked 'do not add suspected duplicates' just to be sure. Fortunately it worked. Everything is completely restored and working properly. Nothing missing and all in order.


    @Ken Nielsen 

     

    Re-Importing photos cannot re-establish Virtual Copies, let alone Edits without XMP sidecars.

     

    So, I still do not understand what you did to 'Add' your 'missing' folders back into your catalog, and recover all your edits and virtual copies.

     

    I am wondering if your catalog had got corrupted in some subtle way that caused the 'missing' folders not to show, but all the photos were still in the catalog. By Importing again, LrC somehow re-established the folders so that the photos were re-linked to the 'missing' folders and thereby fixing the problem.

     

    Without examining your 'before' catalog, we may never know.

     

      dj_paige
      dj_paige
      Legend
      May 2, 2025

      As an experiment, in LrC find the photos from one of these folders some other way.  Click on All Photographs and turn off all filters. Then use the filter bar, set it to filter for the capture date of one of these photos. Do you find them?

        Ken Nielsen
        Ken NielsenAuthor
        Legend
        May 2, 2025

        I will give this a try, will be looking for where to click on all photos... then turn off all filters... will come back if I need help with that. These were entered into Lightroom at the times they were shot with no problems so everything should be exactly as accounted for. I will report back...

        Ken Nielsen
        Ken NielsenAuthor
        Legend
        May 3, 2025

        Okay, I was able to enter 'text' into the filter bar and searched on the date which is contained in the missing folder name and nothing came up. I think I need to 'import' these foklders into the catalog again. Does that sound correct. should I try an import to bring them back in?

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