Lightroom catalog and missing images problem

Report · Mar 31, 2010

I'm having a weird problem. Any ideas how to fix it?

As I did synchronize folder to my catalog in Library view, Lightroom says I have 1898 images missing. If I select any of those "missing images", Lightroom acts perfectly normally, and I can do anything to that image. If I select Show in finder, any image is located exactly where Lightroom thinks it should be. So actually it's not a missing image, Lightroom only thinks it is.

Also, synchronize folder wants to (re?)import those "missing images". I don't dare to do it because I'm afraid I lose all edits and collection data. Although Save metadata to images seems to work, so missing edits probably is not a problem.

And if I go to Photos Missing From Folder "2009" in catalog tab, Lightroom shows all "missing photos" normally. None of them e.g. has missing photo badge (question mark symbol) in them, and I can edit or export any or all images normally.

I'm a bit afraid what now.

Is my Lightroom catalog falling a part? Is my harddrive failing?

Some info:

My Images are in USB hard drive.
My catalog is macbook hard drive.

Most images are NEF.

OS: Mac Os X 10.5.8 (macbook)
Lightroom: 2.6

Total number of images in Lightroom: 33013
Images in synchronized folder: 6337
missing images: 1898

Report · Sep 05, 2015

I had the same or a similar issue whith many folders in my catalog are showing with the question mark which mean that folder are missing however if I go to one photo I can edit it in LR 6.1. The fix for me was very easy just renamed one of the missing folder then right click on the old one in the catalog and update location. then magically all question marks disappeared from other folder

Report · Mar 04, 2016

Essahar trick worked perfectly for me !

Thanks a lot for sharing it !!!

Report · Sep 22, 2015

I seem to get this problem with directory names containing the "ö" character (probably "å" and "ä" as well). Looks like it is working with "Ö" though. Weird. Lightroom 5.

Report · Mar 11, 2022

This problem appears to have multiple causes. If so there is likely to be no single fix. I assume that for the case below the source photo files aer alredy in thethe desired directories but it's the link with LR which has sonehow been lost.

However, a quick solution which worked for me and should work for some - at least in Win10. Note that - unless sidecar files are available, it's likely that any corrections made in Lightroom will be lost.

1. Take a back up copy of the source files which have disappeared from the Lightroom Catalog

2. Rename the folders concerned in Lightroom

3. Import the files that have disappeared from the catalog in the normal way from the directories in which they have been loaded (using Add) , with "Do not import duplicates" unticked. This should bring the files back into the right directories

4. Within Lightroom, drag and drop any photos which were not lost but live in the renamed folders into the correct folders and "Remove" renamed folder (these photos should bring the information on corrections with them)

Best wishes and good luck... and it would be lovely if Adobe could provide a proper explanation of the ways in which this problem arises and a full set of solutions.