Lightroom Automatically Renamed Thousands of Images

[gregoryg60541415]

I rarely use lightroom these days, but still use the software for larger batches of images.  I had previously edited a batch of images for my neice's 6th birthday.   Some edits had already been exported with the typical naming convention of _DSC5620.dng which is standard for sony imports into lightroom.  Upon opening lighroom I get the prompt "images cannot be located" and so I search "_DSC5620" and don't find the images.  

I go to import my entire hard drive to track down where the images disappaered to and I now have 'THOUSANDS' of images named "0F766D44-4763-B714-5241E3879540.dng".  About two months ago, I had half of a newly imported session become disconnected, and well, I found those images renamed to this as well while the other half of that same import is named normally.  I attached an images of this naming convention while looking for the missing lightroom photos in capture one. 

The catalogs do not share imported images from the same folder as the photosessions stay designated in whichever software they were originally imported to. 

Has anyone else had this issue?  It's worth noting as well, not all images were able to be located and are potentially gone in the abyss.  

Im using a windows 10 laptop, 32gb ram, I7-8750h, GTX 1060hq. 

[PhiliusM]

I am concerned about this sort of thing happening, one accidental click and anything could happen. Although it doesn't solve your immediate issue, I invested in a network attached storage unit years ago. I drop a copy of my complete photo archive onto it periodically that way if anything happens to the working copies I can recover them fairly easily.

[JohanElzenga]

Images with names like "0F766D44-4763-B714-5241E3879540.dng" are almost certainly not renamed originals, but smart previews. The file size info in your screenshot confirms this. So it looks like you are trying to import from a smart preview folder rather than from the folder where the originals reside. And what application is that screenshot? That does not look like Lightroom...

[Rob_Cullen]

+1 to the answer from @JohanElzenga  I agree with his expert assessment.

And IMO there is no need to use Smart Previews at all, unless you have good reason to-

https://lightroomkillertips.com/five-reasons-lightroom-smart-previews-rock/

Now, if you have lost all the original camera files, and do not have backups (big mistake), then those Smart Previews may be useful to you.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/how-to-replace-missing-originals-with-s...