Lightroom does not display previews in Library

[Robert34944605u4af]

I am a new Lightroom user, watching a Youtube video, I imported 4096 jpg images into LR, and it has choked. It is unable to display the images in the Library. I run a Macbook Pro with 16 Mb of RAM and 400Mb free on disk.

I have tried deleting perviews.lrcat, to no change. I do not know what to do now.

[Rob_Cullen]

Hi @Robert34944605u4af    Is that Lightroom [Lr] or Lightroom-Classic [LrC] ?

Post a screen-clip (or copy the visible text) of the report you see in Menu > Help > System Info...

A link to the youtube video?

And explain more what "unable to display" means.

[Robert34944605u4af]

Sorry. I mean Lightroom Classic. A screenshot shows the issue I am having.

[Rob_Cullen]

Two (three?) things I see in your screen clips-

1) You don't have the Folder Panel open (Click the disclosure triangle) so we cannot see a clue about the Folder when Lr-Classic believes the image files to be located.

2) The preview thumbnails show an exclamation mark [!] indicating the image files are "MISSING" and NOT where LrC believes them to be. Have you used Mac Finder to Move, Rename, Delete, and folders or files? MISSING FILES AND FOLDERS-(Computer Darkroom) 

3) For 'System Info...'  requested- Find the info in the Lr-Classic Help Menu.

  

[Robert34944605u4af]

The YouTube video was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLX27yyDiIs

The images are on a external hard drive, which was connected when LRC opened. Could this be the problem?

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

Now that youtube video link is a Scott Kelby recording that covers a LOT of topics and is likely confusing to many 'newbies'. (And he has some ideas that do not agree with many power users of LrC.)

We would need to know-

1) In the Lr-Classic Folders panel-  Where does LrC show your original camera files to be located.?

    If you hover you mouse over a Folder in that panel it should show you the full path to the folder.

2) If there is a Question mark on a folder then LrC does NOT know where that folder is located. (Remember that LrC is a database, not a file bowser. It only knows the information you added to the catalog.)

3) Does the Folder panel show you the External disk-drive with a green light? (The green light indicates a drive is connected.)

    Do you see the external drive in the folder panel with a green light?

4) Did you [Move] the original camera files to the external drive AFTER importing to Lr-Classic?

5)  Where did these files exist originally ? On a camera card? On the internal hard-drive?

6)  Have you looked at the link? - https://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

Back to your first post- What is meant by "choked"?

Screen-clips of the LrC interface to describe a problem are always most helpful in arriving at answers.

[Robert34944605u4af]

Rob, I would like to thank you for all your support in working with me on this problem. I appreciate all your help. I am just going to delete all the images from the library and start fresh with a small group of images. I suspect this is all about how I disconnect from the external hard drive. I need to be more concious about it.

[dj_paige]

So @Rob_Cullen says that the exclamation point icon indicates that LrC cannot find the photos, and provides a link that shows you how to fix it. You don't even address this point and provide a link to a Kelby video (which by the way I disagree with on some issues, and doesn't address this point either). Please see if the instructions at the link provided by Rob Cullen fixes the problem.