Locate multiple missing subfolders

[Jakob5CAF]

Hi there,

This has been asked in the past, and yet there still does not seem to be a solution for this problem. If I move several folders from my laptop hard drive to a stationary backup drive into an otherwise identical folder structure, I have to manually relink every single subfolder rather than there being an option to batch-relink those folders.

I'm wondering why Adobe won't or can't implement this feature? Can anyone at Adobe elaborate on this? It seems to be technically possible, at least it is in Premiere when files/folders have been moved from or inside the project folder structure. Why not in Lightroom?

This is a very common problem that people have been asking for a solution for for years, and yet there seems to be none. Thanks in advance for sharing any insight!

Cheers,

Jakob

[dj_paige]

This has been asked in the past, and yet there still does not seem to be a solution for this problem. 

And yet, the answer has been available since I got my first Lightroom program (version 2.3) way back in 2008 or so. See Figure 4 here: https://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm This reconnects all subfolders.

[Jakob5CAF]

Thanks for the quick response, but this is unfortunately not the answer I was looking for. I am aware of the "Update Folder Location" option, but that doesn't help me here, as the parent folder and SOME of the subfolders are still on the hard drive. So in your example, folders "2001" through "2010" have been moved to a folder "DNG Photo Library" on drive Z:, and "2011" through "2013" are still in the folder "DNG Photo Library" on drive Y:. In that case, I need to manually relink folders "2001" through "2010".

[richardplondon]

You don't need to relink the individual subfolders, you can relink the parent folder. In this instance (say) using the OS file browser first move "2011" through "2013" from drive Y: to drive Z, so they sit inside the "DNG Photo Library" there, alongside the previously moved "2001" - "2010" whicih LrC already knows about. Now within LrC you will still see the "DNG Photo Library" within drive Y:, and inside that the "2011"-"2013" show as orphaned. Don't readdress those. Readdress the parent, which is drive Y: "DNG Photo Library", and select drive Z:'s "DNG Photo Library" as the target. LrC warns you that this is already within the Catalog, but below that offers a Merge button. In effect the two will become one again, and all the contents will have been re-combined in the new location.  

[Jakob5CAF]

Hi Richard, thanks for the quick response! Doing what you suggest will relocate all subfolders on drive Y: into the new location on drive Z: though, and that's not what I'm trying to do. Here's my concrete case:

I work for a magazine and shoot regular assignments. For every assignment, I create a subfolder in a parent folder "Archive". As time passes, I use the older folders less while still accessing the newer ones. So I backup everything to a NAS under the same folder structure and then delete older folders while retaining newer ones.

Once I move a number of folders to the backup drive, I would like to point LR to these while not touching the ones that are physically still on my laptop hard drive as I still need to be able to access these on the go. Here's where my problem starts. Rather than selecting all the moved folders and telling Lightroom that these were moved to the folder "Z:\Archive," I have to relocate every folder individually.

The same problem is solved more elegantly in Premiere, where when I open a project with missing files, it will open a window with a list of all missing files, and when I point Premiere to the first one of a number that are all in the same parent folder, it will automatically relocate the rest of them. I'm wondering why Lightroom can't do the same thing? What am I missing here?

[richardplondon]

Aaggh, sorry, re-reading your post it was maybe 2001 to 2010 you wanted to relocate, in which case it would not be merging but selectively splitting apart, is that right? A good aim is IMO to "chunk" your library in such a way that it will always be an entire "chunk" rather than parts of a chunk, that will need to be managed physically e.g. moving to a different drive - that way your single point of control can be the parent folder. If it was a matter of retaining a certain number of years worth in the laptop, it would become an annual task to move just one year at a time. It seems you have got a number of years accumulated and needing moving now. I'd just work through that and be done; that should be a one-off.

LrC is IMO optimally used when there isn't a lot of moving around going on - so yes it may have some holes in its behaviour of that sort. Still when readdressing photos in the case where they have been moved - not copied - in my experience LrC WILL selectively readdress other photos alongside or in nested folders, which are also "missing", but not for items that are not "missing", once it has been given that clue about the new location of the particular "missing" item you have readdressed. Perhaps that is all that needs to happen here. What may cause that to fail would be if the files and folders have been initially copied rather than moved - generally good practice,  but it does mean that your current location will not yet consider them as 'missing'.

[richardplondon]

For a number of subfolders to exist within the same folder structure, in two places, means there needs to be an equivalent  parent folder in each place. This is what gets readdressed in order to reconnect all the subfolders in one go - not the subfolders themselves. If this parent folder is not showing so you can do this, you can right-click or Cmd+click on one of the subfolders that are showing and choose "Show parent folder". Once that is visible you can right-click on that and choose "Update Folder Location" / "Find Missing Folder" as appropriate. And then browse to the equivalent parent on the other drive. 

[Jakob5CAF]

Hi Richard, thanks for the quick response! Doing what you describe will relocate all subfolders into the new location though, right? Here's my concrete case:

I work for a magazine and shoot regular assignments. For every assignment, I create a subfolder in a parent folder "Archive". As time passes, I use the older folders less while still accessing the newer ones. So I backup everything to a NAS under the same folder structure and then delete older folders while retaining newer ones.

Once I move a number of folders to the backup drive, I would like to point LR to these while not touching the ones that are physically still on my laptop hard drive as I still need to be able to access these on the go. Here's where my problem starts. Rather than selecting all the moved folders and telling Lightroom that these were moved to the folder "Z:\Archive," I have to relocate every folder individually.

The same problem is solved more elegantly in Premiere, where when I open a project with missing files, it will open a window with a list of all missing files, and when I point Premiere to the first one of a number that are all in the same parent folder, it will automatically relocate the rest of them. I'm wondering why Lightroom can't do the same thing? What am I missing here?