Skip to main content
May 17, 2014
解決済み

Lightroom all of a sudden says "This file could not be found"?

This happened over night and I don't know what to do about it?

このトピックへの返信は締め切られました。
解決に役立った回答 ssprengel

Photos aren't contained in the catalog, their locations and adjustment settings are, but the photos themselves are just on the hard-drive, somewhere.  If something else, outside of LR deleted those photos or moved them, then LR wouldn't know that, and indicate they are missing.

Are the photos still on your hard-drive or not?  And what is an example path where LR thinks they should be?

Are they in a different location on the hard-drive than they used to be?

When you Import photos into LR it remembers where they are, but if you do something to them outside of LR, not using LR's Folder Panel, then it will still expect them to be at the Import location, and if they are not, then you'll see question marks or exclamation points with a message about them not being where they originally were.

One mistake that could have been made, is that you imported photos into a LR catalog and that catalog remembers them one place, then you opened a new LR catalog and did a Move import, which would move them some other location and they'd be remembered in that second catalog correctly, but not in the first catalog, anymore.  If you only have one LR catalog then this is probably not what happened.

返信数 12

Participant
February 7, 2020

Possible answer for same issue. "File not found" and exclamation points. We tried to locate the photos but they wouldn't select. They were in a folder in the desktop made from tether capture. Turns out they were in the cloud (with the cloud symbol next to the image file names) and the laptop wasn't connected to the internet properly. Once we connected, it took a little bit of time, but the photos downloaded and everything finally started working!

Participant
August 8, 2019

Hi. I am having the same problem. Over 50k images on my hard drive - all in exactly the same place, I can see them in explorer, but Lightroom has changed the drive letter from E to D (it is still called Intenso - the hard drive brand) and cannot find them in develop module. All folders have a ? beside them.

I have tried plugging the drive in to different USB ports - same result. I have also tried the library>find all missing files command - no change.

Any ideas please?

dj_paige
Legend
August 8, 2019

Lightroom didn't change the drive letter, Windows did. If you change the letter of the drive in Windows back to what it was previously, your problem should be gone.

Participant
August 8, 2019

Thanks - that sorted it.

Participant
September 4, 2018

POSSIBLE SIMPLE SOLUTION

If Lightroom refuses to perform a task or recognize a file I have found that the simplest problem seems to be that I have used a character in the filename that is not allowed. It happens if you try to edit the photo, export the photo, etc.  Check it out. It may solve your problem.

jwyttenbach
Participant
October 15, 2017

I think I deleted the folder on my hardrive to make more space, not realizing it was the folder the pictures were saving to.  The images are still on my card (I HOPE!)  How do I get them back onto my computer?  LR won't let me even re-import.

dj_paige
Legend
October 16, 2017

Explain your situation in more detail. Lots more detail. Lots and lots more detail. Step-by-step what you did. Leave nothing out. Show us screen captures of what you see.

brionix
Participant
April 5, 2017

I did not move any images that I edited. I imported my images from my external hard drive, edited them, and then when I go to Develop after editing the image the 'file could not be found'. But only after I edit them. This is a bug that needs to be fixed because I have to keep going back and importing the original image and the re-edit the image.

dj_paige
Legend
April 5, 2017

I don't think it is a bug. I think perhaps you accidentally imported the photos using the ADD option instead of COPY. Please check to see what folder Lightroom thinks the photos are located in.

brionix
Participant
April 5, 2017

Hello, Thank you for your response. I clicked Import but did not see an option for copy or or add. How do you check to see where lightroom stores photos?

Participant
January 20, 2017

When importing images into the Library, is there a procedure to place the image somewhere that LR can access it when the CD or other origin is not on line.   When I import from a flash drive, the image is placed into a file accessible to LR; when I import from a CD the image is present in the library, but cannot be developed.  How can I avoid this?

Thanks

JP Hess
Inspiring
January 20, 2017

If you are importing from the CD using the Add option rather than the Copy option then you could generate smart previews that you could use for editing when the  CD has been removed. However, it would be necessary to have the CD inserted in order to export or print the  image.

Participant
July 21, 2015

my lightroom is saying this too!!!

dj_paige
Legend
July 21, 2015

jaclynk56738133 wrote:

my lightroom is saying this too!!!

My answer above applies to you as well

Participant
November 12, 2014

I am having the same problem.  I can view the photos in the Library but I get the "file could not be found" message when I view them in Develop.  This only has happened with pics that I imported from an external hard drive.

dj_paige
Legend
November 12, 2014
Conrad_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 18, 2014

nateisgreat1996 wrote:

This happened over night and I don't know what to do about it?

Did you by any chance update to OS X 10.9.3 since last night? There is an Apple bug in 10.9.3 that hid the Users folder, which has been causing some software like Lightroom to be unable to find what's stored in the Users folder (like your Library).

If this turns out to be the cause, run Software Update and get the iTunes 11.2.1 update that fixes this problem.

May 17, 2014

I checked and I found some of the photos on a backup but a large amount are still missing. I never moved any of the files so I'm not sure how they could have all of a sudden lost a connection to the library.

ssprengel
ssprengel解決!
Inspiring
May 17, 2014

Photos aren't contained in the catalog, their locations and adjustment settings are, but the photos themselves are just on the hard-drive, somewhere.  If something else, outside of LR deleted those photos or moved them, then LR wouldn't know that, and indicate they are missing.

Are the photos still on your hard-drive or not?  And what is an example path where LR thinks they should be?

Are they in a different location on the hard-drive than they used to be?

When you Import photos into LR it remembers where they are, but if you do something to them outside of LR, not using LR's Folder Panel, then it will still expect them to be at the Import location, and if they are not, then you'll see question marks or exclamation points with a message about them not being where they originally were.

One mistake that could have been made, is that you imported photos into a LR catalog and that catalog remembers them one place, then you opened a new LR catalog and did a Move import, which would move them some other location and they'd be remembered in that second catalog correctly, but not in the first catalog, anymore.  If you only have one LR catalog then this is probably not what happened.