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Participant
January 8, 2019
Question

Lost file folders in Lightroom CC but photos remain on computer hard drive?

  • January 8, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 3987 views

File folders under my 😧 drive have disapppeared under FOLDERS in Lightroom CC. My photos remain on my hard drive within the correct folders. I think I may have accidentally clicked a command under the FOLDERS on the left side of Lightroom. I have not exited Lightroom so  am hoping to get the folets back. HELP?

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4 replies

Andy Aronson
Participating Frequently
January 10, 2019

I am having the same problem on multiple Win 10 PCs running LR Classic 8.1 which I recently updated to. I just noticed the problem  today and it appears with older and newly-created catalogs. I have called Adobe support and they have escalated the issue. I'm supposed to get a call tomorrow after 1 PM PT.

In the new catalog, no folders in the pictures folder on my C driver appear in the LR library. The photos in those missing folders are also not showing in the overall parent "pictures" folder (they have also never been imported). However, all of the folders how in the import interface. In older catalogs, some, but not all, of the older folders show in the library, but not the new folders--even if they have photos in them. Also, LR now seems not to be able to see my servers and the photo-related folders on them even though the servers are mounted and I can see them through File Explorer. Re-syncing does not help at all, even with the new catalog. I have "show photos in subfolders" checked, so that's not the issue. I will post back once I hear from Adobe support. I've been using LR since v1, so I feel comfortable that my settings are not causing the issue. Stay tuned.

Regards,

Andy

Geoff the kiwi
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 10, 2019

Photos that have nevef been imported will not show nor will their folders. You must know tha Lightroom is not like File Explorer.

I’m curious why you have many catalogs??

Andy Aronson
Participating Frequently
January 11, 2019

Geoff the kiwi,

Thanks for replying. I've always been able to see folders that do not include imported photos, though those folders are greyed out. In fact, this is how the relatively new feature of being able to use existing folders as a collection or collection set works. That said, I'm not even seeing all my folders that include imported images. When I go to "All Photographs" I can see the imported images. But when I select "Go to Folder in Library", there are no folders shown that include that image despite the folder being on the hard drive.

dj_paige
Legend
January 8, 2019

PLSPL  wrote

File folders under my D: drive have disapppeared under FOLDERS in Lightroom CC. My photos remain on my hard drive within the correct folders. I think I may have accidentally clicked a command under the FOLDERS on the left side of Lightroom. I have not exited Lightroom so  am hoping to get the folets back. HELP?

Click on All Photographs in Lightroom. It's in the Library module on the left, under Catalog. Now, using the filter bar, can you find one of the photos in one of these folders, by searching for it by file name?

If so, then your photos are still cataloged in Lightroom and they have been (accidentally) moved to somewhere else. Right-click on the photo and select "Show Folder in Library".

Unless you can't find the photos in Lightroom, and you don't have a backup, DO NOT RE-IMPORT, DO NOT SYNCHRONIZE FOLDERS. These steps do not help, and will make the problem worse.

PLSPLAuthor
Participant
January 8, 2019

The photo above illustrates my problem. All of my downloaded photos appeared on a D: drive. I had some file folders that were not located in the correct place. I moved the folders to the correct folder location. This left left a number of file folders containing zero photos. I clicked on one of the folders and I believe I clicked the "remove" command. As you can see under the Folders panel the D: drive is missing. However, I can click on "All Photographs" under the Catalog panel and the pictures will appear in the middle panel of the monitor. Not all of my photos are in the "All Photographs". In addition, the C: drive will not open.

Geoff the kiwi
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2019

We cannot see any photos or screen shots... you must post them on the forum as you cannot send via email.

Scott Masterton
Inspiring
January 8, 2019

I would right click on the folder and select synchronize and that will find anything that isn't in the catalog and then offer you the option to add it to the catalog.

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2019

If the folder has disappeared from the folder panel in Lightroom, then there's nothing to right-click and to synchronize. Removing a folder from the folder panel means you have removed the images from Lightroom, and all their edits. The best method to restore this is to replace your catalog with a backup copy.

-- Johan W. Elzenga
Scott Masterton
Inspiring
January 8, 2019

ok then... my fault, sorry I thought it was obvious.... click on the parent folder to the missing folder and synch so that anything under the parent folder is found...

Inspiring
January 8, 2019

Click on a photo and select “show in folder” and then “show in explorer”. Are they seen?

Try “import photos”, focusing on the said folders. Are the photos grayed out as in “duplicate”? If not, then you can re-import but loose the original collection settings and correction ( I think).

If they are greyed out, then close the import window without doing anything and  in LR navigate to the folder to which the missing folders are attached and  click “expand folder“or similar. If that does not work, then place a dummy photo in one of these folders, import that photo. Then you will see the folder again.