Lightroom Classic Catalogue Folders Incorrect

[GaryAltoonian]

Greetings,

Using LRC on my desktop computer, I store my images in external hard drives connected directly to my computer through a switchable hub that allows me to turn on the specific hard drives I am working with.  When everything is working, they appear as folders in LRC as Vol2, Vol3, etc with the appropriate subfolder structure for each external hard drive.  I also back up LRC each time I exit as a safety precaution and periodically, I delete old backup folders because they occupy so much memory.  I delete all but about 5 or 6 of them while LRC is running and upon exiting, I create a backup.

Over the past month or so, subfolders of Vol2 would show subfolders of a different drive and all of the subfolders are grayed out, e.g. Vol5.  At the same time, the same issue would appear at other folders/subfolders and all of the folders would be grayed out.  Sometimes when this problem appears, one of the external hard drives does not appear in the list of folders.  There are times when I backup and shut LRC down and the next time I open LRC, all is correct.  Other times, LRC opens with the problem just described.

I spoke to three Adobe support people last week and after hours with them, none had a solution for me or could explain why this was occuring.  One suggested I right click on indiviual subfolders to update the subfolder location.  I followed that tedius process and after hours of doing this, all seemed to be fine.  I backed up upon exiting and the next time I started LRC, the same problem appeared.  The most recent recovered backup showed the same incorrect folder/subfolder structure.

I have the Photography subscription and keep everything up to date  I have two computers that this problem appears on - one is Windows 11 (primary computer), the other is Windows 10 (backup).  I keep both OS up to date.  See LRC System Info file attached.

When this first started happening, I was able to use a previous backup to restore the correct folder/subfolder structure.  Last week, I was unable to recover using a previous backup.  When the most recent backup did not yield the correct folder/subfolder structure, I used a backup from a week or so prior  and it appeared with the incorrect folder/subfolder structure.

I have switched cables, repositioned the external hard drives on the hub, connected a single hard drive to a port on the computer, used a different hub and nothing seemed to help.  I thought it my be a Windows System issue and tried recovering a backup on my backup computer and that did not seem to help.

I am at my wits end and would appreciate any help.  Thank you!

[Lumigraphics]

Quit turning off external drives. There is no benefit to this- simply let them spin down when not in use.

I have to wonder if Windows is dynamically reassigning drive letters and that is throwing Lightroom off the trail.

[GaryAltoonian]

Thank you for your reply.

I will try leaving the external hard drives on and letting them spin down.  I thought they continuously spin.  Thanks.

It does not appear that Windows is reassigning the drive letters.  I have opened File Explorer while LrC was runnng and the file structure for all external hard drives is correct.  It does not seem logical that Windows would reassign drive letters and still appear correct in File Explorer.  My level of knowledge about that is likely much less that your level, so I don't know.

I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone.

Thanks again for weighing in.  Maybe your comment might spark an idea in someone else's mind.

[Lumigraphics]

There are three ways that a USB drive is referenced. In Windows there is a drive letter and there can be a drive name. There is also a USB identifier that changes when devices are plugged and unplugged. Lightroom is designed to handle missing drives but yes its possible that something isn't working correctly with all of that.

[GaryAltoonian]

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

[richardplondon]

If you have not already done so, I strongly advise assigning a particular (and different) drive letter to each drive - besides whatever drive naming you give it. The former is definitive with Windows, the latter is just informational. Whatever drive letter you define will always get requested when the drive is attached / turned on, but if low in the alphabet there is a high likelihood it may already have been awarded to something else. But when a drive requests a letter further on through the alphabet (say P:) this will be almost certain to be always free in practice, and another drive might use Q:, and so on. That way all of these drives can repeatably appear under their own consistent drive letters without conflict. 

It will then be a one-off re-browse within the Catalog telling it to in future look for the affected images and folders inside (say) Q: instead of inside (say) E: 

[GaryAltoonian]

Thank you, Richard.  I did allow the computer to assign the letters.  I will do as you suggest when I get my new computer later in the week and will report the results.

To add insult to injury, the computer I was using crashed and I am waiting for a replacement...sheesh!

[GoldingD]

Also make sure for those external hard drives that they are not allowed to go into power saving, that they are not allowed to go to sleep (If I remember correctly sleep was a default) LrC just hates drives shutting down or going to sleep.

[GaryAltoonian]

Thank you.

Interestingly, I have been operating in the manner I noted above for over three years and this is the first time I have had an issue.

[GoldingD]

drives connected directly to my computer through a switchable hub 

Why?

Why the hub? Specifically why switchable?

[GaryAltoonian]

I have five external hard drives and do not have enough ports in my laptop computer.  I got a switchable hub to extend the life of the hard drives thinking they are better being turned off when not in use.  It was suggested I leave them on, so that is what I will do.

Any thoughts on how to resolve my problem?

Thanks in advance.

[GoldingD]

Get a different hub. You do not want to turn these drives on and off when the computer is in use.

Oh, and probably a hub with a power supply, that laptop USB port may not be up to snuff, especially if those external hard drives get power via the USB as opposed to their own power cable.

You may want to browse the Internet and search for "windows laptop usb hub reccomendations"

[GaryAltoonian]

I had thought of that and had planned to get one.  That was the only variable that I did not switch.

[Lumigraphics]

A newer computer will likely have USB-C and Thunderbolt. You can get a USB-C/Thunderbolt dock which is much faster than the older USB 3.0 and connect multiple hard drives. I would look into that.

Windows has power management features where you can set the time delay for drives to spin down when not in use. You may want to search online for instructions on how to use those options.

[GoldingD]

Like one from CalDigit (but $$$)

https://www.caldigit.com/

[GoldingD]

Library Path: D:\Pictures\Lightroom\Backups\Lightroom Catalog-2-3-v13-5.lrcat

Why is that catalog located on a drive that apparently contains backups?

Are you opening the correct catalog?

[GaryAltoonian]

Thanks again. 

I have two internal hard drives on my laptop.  C contains programming, some misc files and system files - 1TB and is about half full.  D contains mostly data - 2 TB and is about 30% full.