Lost my modifications after moving raw files

[aymericb28534045]

Hello everyone,

I have been working on a set of pictures on Lightroom 6, the original raw files being all in the same folder. When I was finished, I exported the pictures in JPEG, and then... I changed the location of the raw files using Windows, thinking that Lightroom would simply ask me the new location of the Raw files.

But it appears that Lightroom did not ask me that. I am still thinking that Lightroom saves at some place the modifications made on each raw file (I am aware of the "non-destructive" principle of Lightroom), but I can't find how to make the connection. So now, it is like I have simply imported the raw files in Lightroom, and I have to make all the work again.

I know that a solution would be to use a backup save of my catalog, but it is too old and it does not contain my most recent work.

Could someone help me with that ?

Thanks,

[Laura Shoe]

Your edits are still in the LR catalog, but the images are no longer connected to them. If you moved a whole folder of raw images, right-click on that folder (which will have a question mark), choose Find Missing Folder, and navigate to where it now is and select it. If it's just individual images that you moved, click on the exclamation mark in the top right of the thumbnail and choose Locate File, navigate to where it is, and check "Find Nearby Photos". (If you're on Mac, click on Options to access this.)

Next time use the Folders panel in Lightroom to move your images. Here are two video tutorials - one on how to use the Folders panel to perform reorganization tasks, ...

[aymericb28534045]

Thanks for your answer.

The situation you explain me is what I thought I would face... But I did not.

In fact I just created a sub-folder in the original folder, and moved the raw files in the sub-folder. Then (I am thinking more and more that this is the fatal mistake), I clicked on "synchronize" on the new sub-folder that appeared in Lightroom. And then... no exclamation or question mark anymore...

Is it possible that I overwrote the edits by doing that ?

Thanks,

[JP Hess]

Try right clicking on the images in their old location and choose the option to update the folder location and see if that brings back the adjustments. The adjustment should still be in the catalog.

[dj_paige]

Synchronize is never the solution to moving files inside your operating system or when photos/folders are designated as missing.

The solution, as explained, is to right-click on the folder which now has a ? icon, and select Find Missing Folder. But that may not be possible (I don't know) after you did the synchronize.

Of course, a better solution is to have a workflow that doesn't move photos from here to there, and then you never run into this problem.