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brettp65
Participant
March 4, 2020
Question

Lightroom folders are suddenly empty

  • March 4, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 3487 views

I've been a lightroom user for many years, and consider myself pretty savy.  As of yesterday, all of my folders on my external harddrive just say no photos in selected folder.  There is still an image count in the navigator, AND my photos are all still there when I actually check the hard drive.  I tried un-installing and re-installing Lightroom yesterday.  I've tried re-importing all of the images, and it tells me the images have already been imported.  I'm at a bit of a loss on what else to do.  Photos on my computers harddrive are still showing up just fine.  I have also dismounted and remounted my external harddrive.

 

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    6 replies

    J
    jpjd
    Participant
    April 5, 2022

    I have this issue too. Random empty folders.

    Currently I have 12 dated folders with no images. I would imagine there were photos in there at one point becasue I rarely EVER delete images. I've seen this issue for years. I'm using Lightroom Classic. Wish I knew what was going on. I'm very careful with my library.

      B
      Community Expert
      Bill SpragueCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 9, 2022
      quote

      I have this issue too. Random empty folders.

      Currently I have 12 dated folders with no images. I would imagine there were photos in there at one point becasue I rarely EVER delete images. I've seen this issue for years. I'm using Lightroom Classic. Wish I knew what was going on. I'm very careful with my library.


      By @jpjd

      Without knowing more about what you do with Lightroom and how you do it, it is hard to guess.   It is normal for LrC to keep empty folders.  And, since you've been using it for years, it will be hard to guess.  Can you see images with the operating system in those empty folders?  Have you tried to "syncronize" those empty folders?   Are there other issues going on with your computer that may indicate a hardware failure?

      KR Seals
      Community Expert
      KR SealsCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 20, 2021

      Your issues sound suspicously like hardware problems with the drives. I recommend having a service facility check it out.

      Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.
      A
      Anonymous
      February 19, 2021

      My lrcat file a bunch of photos went missing today.... what is this!

      dj_paige
      dj_paige
      Legend
      March 4, 2020

      As of yesterday, all of my folders on my external harddrive just say no photos in selected folder.

       

      This seems to imply (could you please confirm) that you see this in Lightroom.

       

      Your photos are somewhere in Lightroom (because you can't import them again) but not in the folder you think they are in. This usually happens when you accidentally import using COPY instead of ADD. T

       

      You need to find these photos in Lightroom. Follow all of these four steps in order:


      1. In the Lightroom Library Module, on the left, under Catalog, click on All Photographs
      2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
      3. Turn off all stacking (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
      4. Search for at least one of these photos by file name using the Lightroom Filter Bar

       

      Once you find them, we can instruct you further.

      T
      Tubas Loekkegaard
      Participant
      September 27, 2020

      No photos in selected folder. I have the same problem. In All Photographs I can see all the photos, and I can search and get results. But clikking on a folder I get the message "No Photos in selected folder".

      Mac OS10.13.6 High Sierra. I don't have the folder option in SystemPreferences>Security & Privacy>Privacy

      Quote: "Once you find them, we can instruct you further". Please instruct me what to do.

      Tubas

      dj_paige
      dj_paige
      Legend
      September 27, 2020

      Quote: "Once you find them, we can instruct you further". Please instruct me what to do.

       

      well, sadly, there have been more than a few reports of this happening, and I'm not sure what the cause of this is now.

      Just Shoot Me
      Just Shoot Me
      Legend
      March 4, 2020

      Please show us a screen shot of what you are seeing.

      Just Shoot Me
      Just Shoot Me
      Legend
      March 4, 2020

      Are you using the Cloud Centric Lightroom or the Traditional LR Classic version?

      It sounds like you are using Classic so I am going to move this discussion over to the LR Classic forum.

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