Skip to main content
Inspiring
September 24, 2015
Question

Lightroom is not showing all the pictures in a folder

  • September 24, 2015
  • 14 replies
  • 73938 views

I am wanting to edit some images in a particular folder in Lightroom.  When looking at the folder in File Explorer there are almost 100 image files in the particular folder.  However, Lightroom only sees 22 files.  I've selected the folder and tried both IMPORT and SYNCHRONIZE however nothing happens.

How do I fix this?

    14 replies

    Participating Frequently
    June 5, 2017

    This is common it appears. After you've done the stand Mac troubleshooting: repair permissions, restart. Simply do this:

    Open Lightroom and the catalog in question. Go Under the FILE dropdown menu and chose "Optimize Catalog".

    This should fix the problem.

    All the Best,

    Steve

    March 29, 2017

    What seems to be the same problem in LR CC for PC appeared today but none of the suggested solutions work. Only 25 of 196 pictures are showing in a given folder.  All but one appear to be star-rated, although I have no library filters selected. When I try to synchronize the folder I am told there are no pictures to import and when I try to manually import them from the Explorer folder all the pictures are greyed out, suggesting that the pics are somewhere in the catalog. So far everything seems to be the same as previous posters. HOWEVER, when I search the whole library for one of the missing photographs get a null result. I don't stack pictures, so that is not the problem. Any help would be gratefully received.

    dj_paige
    Legend
    March 29, 2017

    Lightroom thinks the photos are imported into a different folder.

    Here is the search you need to do. Perform all of these steps, in order

    1. Click on All Photographs on the left hand side of the Library Module (under the word Catalog)
    2. Expand all stacks (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
    3. Turn off filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
    4. Perform a search in Lightroom using the Filter Bar, search for one of these files by file name
    March 29, 2017

    Well, that's bizarre. It may have worked, thanks very much, although if it did it did not do so for any reason I can understand. As I said in my original post, I *don't* stack pics, so expanding stacks should have made no difference. As I also said, I had turned off all filters, not that I had any active, and searched all pictures for one of the missing ones with no results. In other words, I had already done what you suggested. Anyway, I have my pics back so I'm happy.

    dkhyde
    Participant
    October 4, 2016

    Make sure you don't have any stacks.  This is exactly what I was seeing with CC.  OMG what a fright.  I saw this thread and searched other forums but always "no good answer."  I prepared myself to having to rebuild the database, trying out some exports and imports.  It was going to be a mess.  Then I realized ... duh ... that I had stacked photos.  The photo count at the bottom just counts what is showing, not the photos stacked behind.  My 13 of 21 had 8 hidden in a stack.  Photo stacks can be very subtle to notice.  Select all visible photos in the folder, control click (mac) to get the menu, go to stacking / expand all stacks.  That worked for me.  Back to 21 of 21!  Hope this helps you...

    flowerLaura
    Participant
    March 8, 2017

    Dkhyde - You're my HERO!!! The count of the folder said 248 but only 171 pictures were showing. I went into my Smart Collection of "All Pictures" and the pictures were all there AND in the right folder. I had stacked them. In LR5 they used to CLEARLY show they were stacked... in CC it's not as evident. Thanks for the great solution!

    Community Expert
    March 20, 2021

    tip: you can turn on "badges" for the Filmstrip - though if the Filmstrip is very small, its height and therefore the thumbnail size may need to be increased, until these badges show. These badges include a "Stack" indicator in the form of a number in the top left of the thumbnail. This both shows you that some stacking is present, and acts as a button for collapsing / expanding the stack (if you click on the badge of the top-of-stack image) as well as for promoting some other image to "top" (if you click on the badge of that member of this stack).

    Community Manager
    September 24, 2015

    Hi tonymuffin,

    It could be possible that those other 88 images are present in Lightroom and they are in some other folder depending the import settings that you chose.

    Would suggest you to pick up the file name of any one those left over 88 images and search for that file name in Lightroom.

    To do a search, choose all Photographs in Library Module and press backslash (\) to turn on the filter bar and type in the filename in the text box

    This will show the image if it would be there in Lightroom Catalog.

    You can right click on that image and choose Go to Folder in Library to get to that folder which contains that image.

    Regards,

    Chetna

    Inspiring
    September 24, 2015

    Ok but that doesn't solve the issue.  I found the picture.  The same picture is listed in another folder.  However, I want the 88 images that are missing from the LR folder to appear in LR in that folder.  How does one fix that and why is this happening?

    dj_paige
    Legend
    September 24, 2015

    It sounds like you might have imported the photos into Lightroom using the COPY option and so Lightroom is referencing a copy in a different folder.

    So, when you find the folder in Lightroom that contains the photos that Lightroom is referencing, right-click on the folder name, select Update Folder Location, and point Lightroom to the copy of the photos in the desired folder.