Lightroom completely re-organised my hard-drive on import

[DanielJS97]

I'm not a big fan of LR, prefering instead to organize my photos manually on my drive and open RAW files directly into CR and PS. This works especially well since I mainly scan my only 35mm film, so the metatada from my camera does not necessarily correspond to when the original was shot.

I just bought a copy of Negative Lab Pro however, so I have been forced to use LR for the first time in years. For convenience sake, I imported my entire collection of negative scans (contact sheets, frames and edits) into LR. They were organised in folders on the drive corresponding to roll numbers and numbered over 300.

After completion, I clicked "show in enclosing folder" on one of my edits, and was taken to a  new folder containing hundreds of unorganized photos. I assumed LR had simply copied my photos to a new folder, but when I navigated to the section of the drive where my photos should be, the folders were completely empty!

I'm hoping this is reversible since I've been organizing my photos with this system for years. It's especially infuriating since, as I've mentioned, the metadata on my photos is completely meaningless - they're all DSLR scans made years after the negatives were exposed. Now my photos are in random folders with incorrect dates.

I'd have thought LR would give some kind of warning - the word "import" doesn't necessarily imply that one's hard drive will be completely rearranged...

[DanielJS97]

Okay - thanks for clarifying. Have a great day.

[lcsklife]

So I just did this brilliant move, as well. I use Adobe apps (on a Mac OS Monterey) for fun and I am by no means a power user; so please: be nice.

Is there ANY way to undo this MOVE import? EVERY image on my hard drive has now been relocated to a Pictures folder. None of my app icons render, none of my graphic files are where they should be.... I'm pretty sure I haven't encountered all of the FUBARness this has caused. It's just a mess. (And yes, I know; it's of my own making!)

Short of Time Machining to a four-day old back-up (yes, it took me that long to figure out what I'd done), is there any way to walk this back?

[dj_paige]

So @lcsklife posted this problem in a new thread. All answers for @lcsklife should go in the new thread.