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Participant
October 31, 2019
Question

LR cant find my photos and i upload them straight to LR

  • October 31, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 374 views

Hello, please help

My computer doesnt take raw photos so i upload them straight to LR. I have a folder i am currently trying to export onto my computer however it say it cant find my photos. I realize it is asking me to look for the original folder but i dont have one as i uploaded straight to LR what do i do?

 

Thanks

Sunshine

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 31, 2019

Your first post indicates to me that you have a total mis-understanding of how Lightroom-Classic works.

 

"My computer doesnt take raw photos"

?? You can save any type of image file in a computer! (using the operating system)

 

"so i upload them straight to LR"

Photos are NOT in Lightroom neither are they in the Lightroom Catalog. They must be imported (copied) to a folder location that is recorded in the Lightroom Catalog. Read the answer from Jim Hess "The Lightroom catalog is a database........"

 

"however it say it cant find my photos. I realize it is asking me to look for the original folder but i dont have one"

Then you must have moved or deleted all your 'original' folders with files from the camera! (Moved to another hard-drive!)

 

I suggest you start by reading the free Lr-Classic eBook from the Lightroom Queen-

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
JP Hess
Inspiring
October 31, 2019

The Lightroom catalog is a database. It keeps track of where your images are located. If you move those images using your operating system, you are doing so outside the operating parameters of the database or catalog, and consequently Lightroom loses track of where the images are. That is why Lightroom notifies you that the images are missing.

 

In my opinion, the most efficient way to move images within Lightroom is to create the folder on the drive that you want, within Lightroom. Then go to the folder of images that you want to move and highlight them all. Then, in the library module, scroll until you find that new folder on the hard drive where you want the images moved to and right click on it and choose the option to move the images to that folder. If you use that method then Lightroom will move the images and will keep track of them as well as maintain all of the adjustments that you have made to those images.

Participant
October 31, 2019

Ok thank you for your help. I will definintly try to do that in the future. Would you know how i can find these since i dont have a seperate file? Maybe it just lost it somewhere when i moved the other photos to the hard drive?

JP Hess
Inspiring
October 31, 2019

If you know where you moved the image to on the external drive, you could check that folder to see if the image is still there. In the folder where you think the image should be, you can try the option to synchronize the folder to see if it's possible that the image has simply been removed from the catalog. If neither of those options work then you can check the trash or the recycle bin to see if the image is there. If it is you will have to restore the image and import it again.

JP Hess
Inspiring
October 31, 2019

Did you move the images using the Lightroom program, or did you move them using your operating system, outside of Lightroom?

Participant
October 31, 2019

I moved them from my computer to an external drive, outside of lightroom. 

Im confused to why it says the file cant be found if i never had a file on my computer with these images. I'm not very tech savey so i'm sorry if im not making since. 

JP Hess
Inspiring
October 31, 2019

Please explain "upload them straight to Lightroom". Are you using the Lightroom import process?

Participant
October 31, 2019

Hi Jim,

I put my SD card into the reader and open LR and use the import process. I will then edit my photos and export them in jpeg.

I have edited the photos and have exported some of them. Now that im ready to export them all it says the file can not be found.

I recently tried to move some pictures to an external drive so i could make room on my computer. I thought that might have been the problem so i put them back on my computer from the external drive and still nothing. When i removed some of the photos from my computer all the catologs on lightroom went away to not being found, once i put them back they all came back except the one im trying to export it still says file not found.

Thank you so much for the help

Sunshine