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jenniferg578690
Participant
January 27, 2018
Answered

Lightroom folders show as dates and not folder names

  • January 27, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 7245 views

I'm working in Lightroom Classic and always name my folders after the subject of the shoot when I import.  The folder names (i.e. "Bob's high school graduation") are reflected correctly on my hard drive, but the Lightroom folder structure only shows dates - no folder names.  The dates are not at all useful to me, and I have to believe that there is a way to get Lightroom to show me the actual folder names. 

Here is the view of Lightroom showing dates for folders:

But then I've noticed that Lightroom seems to know the actual folder names that I want it to show when I look to import files into the catalog, as shown in this second view below:

I'm thoroughly confused.  Is there some setting somewhere that I'm missing where I can tell Lightroom to show me the folder names in instead of the folder dates?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer Rob_Cullen

      I keep looking for the "right click"option that says "show folder names" instead of "show folder dates", but as far as I can tell, no such toggle exists.

      The Lightoom Folder panel shows the names of folders as they appear on a hard-drive. There is no "view" that toggles name/date.

      A menu item appears if you Right-click on a Preview thumbnail. So  select one of the 'Year' dated folders, then Right-click on one of the photos in that folder. Then you can select -  [Show in Finder] which will show you where that image is located, and the exact folder it is located in.

      Another suggestion-

      Right click on the very top-most folder in the Lightroom Folder panel and choose- [Show Parent Folder]. This may reveal a  better view of your folder hierarchy.

      3 replies

      R
      roberta_5032
      Participant
      September 15, 2024

      Select the {date} and than selct {Show Parent Folder} from the opening manu

      Theresa J
      Community Expert
      Theresa JCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 27, 2018

      The folder names inside of Lightroom will match the folder name on the hard drive where the images reside. It sounds like you moved or copied your images during the import. Try doing a right click (or control click for Mac) on any one of the folders shown here. You will get a contextual menu option to show in Explorer (PC) or reveal in Finder (Mac). That will jump you out to the actual location on your hard drive where the folder lives. I’m pretty sure you will find the same named folder when you do this.

      J
      jenniferg578690Author
      Participant
      January 30, 2018

      Thanks Theresa - I thought the same thing as what you mentioned here - that the folder names on the drive must have the same names, and all Lightroom was doing was reflecting the folder name on the drive.  So I went to the drive and looked, but the drive has the names of the shoots like I want.  The folder names on the drive are the same as the ones in the import screenshot I noted above, but not the same as the dated folder names in the Lightroom folders. 

      I'll upload a screenshot of the folder listing just so you don't think I'm completely nuts....

      The drive shows these names, but the Lightroom folders only show dates.  I am thoroughly perplexed....

      J
      Community Expert
      Jao vdLCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 27, 2018

      You're probably telling Lightroom in the import dialog to create these dated folders. This happens when you have Copy or Move selected when importing instead of Add. You'll get a destination panel that has options to organize the images by date. You probably have those options selected.

      J
      jenniferg578690Author
      Participant
      January 30, 2018

      Thanks Jao vdL.  I'm not sure if I've been doing that or not.  I'll check this the next time I go to import and see what the settings are in case this is somehow the cause of it.  But if it were, I would think the folder names on my drive would be the same as in LR and they are not.  I have never named any of the folders on the drive - these have all been created by what I told LR to call the shoot, and were created by LR as I did my import. 

      Somehow I have managed to take something that should be simple and make it complicated.  I keep looking for the "right click"option that says "show folder names" instead of "show folder dates", but as far as I can tell, no such toggle exists. 

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