Lost Edits when Transferring Photos

[Explore]

Very frustrating!  First, I transferred photos from my Macbook, where I had edited them, to my external hard drive.  I dragged a selection of photos to the external drive header within Lightroom, where unlike in the past, they weren't automatically assigned to a new folder using the date convention.  I was told that this was because the entire folder wasn't dragged there.  Still, the photos were transferred with edits intact.

Then, when I'd set up a new folder in the external hard drive with the correct date and dragged the relevant photos over there, again within Lightroom, new photo labels were created (e.g. AAB_2758-2) and the edits were lost!  I can locate the original photos in Finder, but the edits have been deleted there too.  Q: are the edits gone for good, and how can I avoid this problem in future?

Thanks.... 

[dj_paige]

Then, when I'd set up a new folder in the external hard drive with the correct date and dragged the relevant photos over there, again within Lightroom, new photo labels were created (e.g. AAB_2758-2) and the edits were lost!

What are labels? There are no structures in Lightroom Classic that are called labels.

Why do you say the edits were lost, what do you see, where did you look? Please be specific and detailed. Did you look in the History Panel? What does the history panel say? Show us a screen capture of the history panel of one of these photos so we can see (use the "Insert Photos" icon, do not attach files)

I can locate the original photos in Finder, but the edits have been deleted there too.

Edits should not be seen in the Finder. They are only visible in Lightroom Classic.

[Explore]

Where is the history panel?

[Explore]

So I found the history panel location in Develop (ignore the reply below), but it only describes the history of unedited photos that were apparently imported a second time, and were assigned a -2 suffix.  The only history is that importation.

Meanwhile, the original photos without the suffix are still visible in Finder, but I have no idea where to locate them in Lightroom...

[dj_paige]

The only history is that importation.

So you did import a second time, despite the statements you made that you lost the edits when you did a move via drag-and-drop. Importing causes Lightroom Classic to think this is a brand new photo it has never seen before, with no edits. That's why you don't have any edits.

Meanwhile, the original photos without the suffix are still visible in Finder, but I have no idea where to locate them in Lightroom...

In Lightroom Classic, you can search by using this method (please follow all 4 steps in order):

1. In the Lightroom Classic Library Module, on the left, under Catalog, click on All Photographs
2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
3. Turn off all stacking (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
4. Search for at least one of these photos by file name using the Lightroom Classic Filter Bar

[Explore]

Thanks.  Searching with this method within Lightroom, using the original file name, e.g. AAB_8758, produces only e.g. AAB_8758-2.  So I guess the edits are lost, unfortunately.

Obviously I should have dragged an entire folder in Lightroom from my Macbook to the external driver header, rather than a selection of photos from that folder.  The photos ended up stuck in the header and there was no dated folder to transfer them to.  How could I have created a dated folder in Lightroom that would not initially have included any photos, so that I would have had a place to drag the photos to from the header?

[JohanElzenga]

There is nothing wrong with dragging photos from one folder into another. That should work just fine. I don't know what went wrong, but something definitely did go wrong.

[Explore]

I was told by someone else that when dragging from a folder on my computer to the external drive header, you need to drag the entire folder rather than a selection of photos in that folder.  When I've dragged the entire folder in the past, it was then assigned to its place in the external drive.  When I dragged some of the photos, they remained in the header, and when I tried to get them out of there to a dated folder, I couldn't find a way to do it within Lightroom because no folder existed for that date in the external hard drive.  Maybe I should have subsequently dragged the folder with its remaining photos to the header, and that would have solved the problem?

[JohanElzenga]

You were told wrong. Of course it's easier to drag & drop an entire folder, but you can drag & drop selections of images just the same. All you need to do is the following:

1: Create a new folder at the destination if necessary. Do this from within the Lightroom folder panel, otherwise Lightroom won't show this folder.

2: Select the images in the old destination. You can do this any way you want. The obvious way is to select the old folder in the folder panel, and then select the images in the grid, but you can even select them from within a (smart) collection.

3: Drag the images (drag one of the selected images, not the image mount) from the grid onto the new destination folder.

That is all. If you selected the old folder, then you will see the images disappear from the grid while they are moved out of the old folder, so you can watch the process taking place. If you selected a collection, then obviously you will not see anything happening in the grid, because moving them from one folder to another folder will not affect the collection. Of course the old folder will remain in the folder panel. You moved images, not folders. If you moved all the images out of it, then you can remove the now empty folder (right click on it) from the catalog if you want.

[JohanElzenga]

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@Explore wrote:

Meanwhile, the original photos without the suffix are still visible in Finder, but I have no idea where to locate them in Lightroom...

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Most likely they are not in Lightroom anymore. It looks like the following happened: You somehow removed the images from the Lightroom catalog, but not from disk. Then you imported them again from another location, and told Lightroom to copy them to the location where the old images still resided. That is why the MacOS Finder added '-2' to their file names, in order not to overwrite the existing images. And that is why you do see the '-2' images in Lightroom without edits, and not the original images with edits.

[Explore]

Thanks...see my reply to an adjacent post.

[JohanElzenga]

Folders using the date convention are only created on import, not when you drag and drop folders. This has never been different in the past.

I'm not sure what you did with that new folder, but if images are created with a '-2' behind the name, then that is something the MacOS Finder did in order not to overwrite existing images. It created duplicates and obviously those duplicates will not have edits in Lightroom. The originals should still be in Lightroom and still have their edits, however. You say that you dragged the images over in Lightroom, but it sounds a lot like you actually did something else, like importing again. Dragging images should never create duplicates. If the folder you try to drag them to already contains copies, then you should get an error dialog.

Importing images again can indeed create duplicates if you copy them during import to a folder that already contains copies of the images, but Lightroom isn't aware of these copies.