Lightroom not automatically finding files stored on an NAS

[Antonin23554191lbdz]

Hi everyone,

I am using Lightroom Classic on my MacBook Pro M1.

All my RAW files are stored on a Synology NAS.

My problem is, every time I open Lightroom, it can't find the folders and files on the NAS, though I am connected to the NAS on my Mac (I have the warning "This file could not be found" on every photo in the develop panel, and my folder). So every time, in Lightroom, I need to manually search for the folder my photos are stored in on the NAS to be able to work back on it. I'd like Lightroom to find these folders automatically without me having to manually search for them.

Here we can see that my "photos" folder, which is located on the volume "home" on my NAS, can't be found. I have to right click on the folder and click "Find the missing folder" to find it back.

Do you know how could I solve this issue ?

[JohanElzenga]

The green light on the left of the NAS name is off, which suggests that Lightroom does not see it. Check that Lightroom has the necessary permissions to access it.

[Antonin23554191lbdz]

Hey Johan, thank you for the reply.

It seems my Lightroom already has all the permissions it needs to access remote volumes...

[The5ThMusket]

Have you ever solved this? I have exactly the same problem. Just switched from Windows to Mac, never had any such issues. 

[JohanElzenga]

You now need to give Lightroom 'Full Disk Access'. 'Files and folders' is no longer sufficient.

[The5ThMusket]

thanks. Didn't solve the problem. 

[Jao vdL]

I use a synology NAS and have never seen this. It always just connects. How are you connecting to the NAS? It should be through SMB filesharing not AFP. The synbology AFP implementation is not reliable, but the SMB one is and so make sure it is enabled in the setup of the synology. If both are on, your Mac should automatically choose to mount through smb as that is the standard for Macs for the last decade. The NAS vendors supply the AFP protocol for backwards compatibility but it is not needed.

Lastly, there is an old bug in Mac OS X, where it sometimes will mount network disks with a -1, -2, etc. appended to the name. Check if this is happening by looking in /Volumes on your main hard disk. If it is, unmount everything and delete all the crud empty folder copies there might be in /Volumes. Basically if it loses connection to the NAS for some reason and then later remounts it sometimes forgets to delete the mount point in the /Volumes folder and automatically creates a new one with -1 appended. When this happens, Lightroom Classic loses connection to it. You can also reboot the Mac to clean out these stale mount points.

[The5ThMusket]

thanks. didn't solve the prblem. 

And the problem is not connecting from the Mac to the NAS. After log-on, in Finder, everything is fine. Only in Lightroom it doesn't connect and I need to use the 'Find Missing Folder' feature to reconnect. 

[Jao vdL]

That's definitely not normal behavior. Does it do this with a new catalog too? 

[The5ThMusket]

yes. it is a brand new catalog and I have the issue on two new M2 macs. 

Didn't have Macs before. 

I will try again with yet another new catalog. 

[The5ThMusket]

no change with the new catalog. same issue persists. 

[The5ThMusket]

Solved it: you have to add the folder on your NAS to the login items in the system preferences on your Mac. 

[Jao vdL]

Solved it: you have to add the folder on your NAS to the login items in the system preferences on your Mac. 

By @The5ThMusket

That will only work if you reboot your Mac or log out/log back in all the time. If you move away from your home network it will have lost the connection and it won't automatically remount it when you get back. An alternative would be putting an alias to the network share on your desktop. Networking connections in Mac OS X are just really stupidly handled. This is a very long standing issue and one of the few areas where windows is just way better set up. Very little you can do about it.

[The5ThMusket]

when I do the following after restart it works: 

1. open Finder

2. navigate to the folder on the NAS where the images are stored

3. then open Lightroom

everything fine, folders are connected. 

When I first open Lightroom and don't do the steps in Finder, folders in Lightroom are not connected and I need to go through the Find Missing Folders process. 

[Jao vdL]

It should get connected just fine if after opening Lightroom, you then mount the folder in Lightroom by browsing to it. It won't mount the network drive for you. This is  a big (and annoying) difference from windows where network paths can get automatically mounted. Macs don't do that. After mounting the folder it will be sluggish realizing the disk is connected and you'll see the folders becoming solid one by one.

[The5ThMusket]

that^s the thing I am certanly not doing. Every single time mount the folder in Lightroom. 

[Jao vdL]

You will only have to do it if you for some reason unmounted the folder. It should not unmount by itself except if for some reason you reboot (Macs never need to be rebooted except for system updates) or if you moved away from the network where your NAS is.