Lightroom not showing folders on external hard drive

[Kate26378898xawi]

I use an external hard drive for all my photos and have everything in specific folders. Yesterday when I opened Lightroom, all those folders were no longer showing up in Lightroom and in the ones that are there, it is saying the photos are missing. I know I have already imported all the photos so that is not the problem. Everything was working one minute and then the next minute it isn't. Any advice on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated!! 

[Kate26378898xawi]

*Lightroom not showing folders

[GoldingD]

How about a screenshot. Library module, grid view, with as much of Folder Panel visible as possible (might need to minimize other left side panels, depends on how long a folder listing)

[Ross Millikan at gmail]

Here is a screenshot from Lightroom Classic 12.4.  My external drive, which here is D: has a folder 2023 photos that shows up and another folder 2022 that does not.  I want to work on a photo from 2022.

[GoldingD]

Either that external hard drive is not on, or not connected, or the drive letter currently assigned to it changed (have you permanently assigned a drive letter to it? that is a Windows thing). Or, and hopefully not, the drive is kaput.

[Kate26378898xawi]

The drive is on and connected. And yes I have permanently assigned a letter to the drive. I can access my photos in the drive through my file explorer on my computer so that makes me think it is not the drive causing the problem. 

[GoldingD]

And, do you have multiple catalogs? Was the correct catalog opened?

[Kate26378898xawi]

Yes the correct one was open

[EricBier]

Library > Find Missing Photos

Missing photos will have an ! in a black circle on the top right of each missing file.  Click on the ! then Locate and navigate to the "missing" file on you external hard drive. Check find Nearby Missing Photos.  Be careful to select the correct files.

[dj_paige]

@EricBiersays:

Missing photos will have an ! in a black circle on the top right of each missing file.

Incorrect. Black circle with a ! means something different (photo is corrupted and/or cannot be used). If there is a square with an exclamation point icon, that means missing photo (as you can see in the screen capture later in this thread).

[Kate26378898xawi]

I am now getting this message when I try to open Lightroom. This was the original start of the problems a few days ago so I think it means I am trying to open the correct catalog. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[GoldingD]

You might include a link to this discussion in it. Describe what has been going on. Include e-mail address. Then send it to Adobe.

[dj_paige]

First, re-start the computer to see if the error goes away. If that doesn't work, try restoring a backup of your catalog file.