LR no longer "finds" images in my dropbox

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
December 28, 2022
3 replies
1901 views

I am running LR Classiv v12.1 on a Macbook Pro with Monterey 12.6.2.

My catalog and photos are all in my dropbox and I have an external backup drive which backs everything up.

The problem (now that I have finally spent some time analysing it), testing old catalogues and backups ... etc

For some time I have noticed that LR cannot find many of my old JPG (and sometimes DNGs) files - the "!" appears in LR, and despite trying different options to find/re-import them, the issue persists.

If I go to the source file in my dropbox via Finder, or on my external backup drive, and try to open the file, the error "The file "IMG_nnnn.JPG" could not be opened" appears so I don't believe the problem is with LR.

However, if I go to dropbox.com and download the file, import it into LR, there is no error and the image is visible in LR.

Which I think leaves me with 2 options ... for which I am seeking some advice.

1. Do I go to dropbox.com and download all my JPGs and import them again into LR

or

2. in LR set my source files to dropbox.com, rather than via Finder - if that's even possible ???

If anyone has any suggestions I would be super grateful !!

macOS

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TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

I'll just add to what others have said: I've heard more users having issues using DropBox for anything LR related than I can count on two hands. Just don't go there.

I use Dropbox, it's useful, but not for this product in terms of a catalog etc. Work 'locally'.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

FWIW, I've been keeping my photos on Dropbox for many years without issues. My impression is that OneDrive is much more problematic. I even kept the catalog on Dropbox for some years to be able to use it with two computers in different locations. This also worked fine, as long as I let Dropbox finish syncing before opening LR, and after closing LR.

TheDigitalDog

Inspiring

I keep lots of photos on Dropbox, no issues. A catalog? I'm simply seeing too many people report issues. An external HD has so many additional advantages and that it's my recommendation too.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

Adobe does not support third-party cloud services. You cannot reliably use them together.

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

Most likely, this is caused by having Dropbox set to "save hard drive space automatically", which will delete local copies. LrC needs to have the original files available locally, and will report them as missing if they are not.

You can fix the problem by setting up Dropbox preferences > Sync as below. Set Save hard drive space automatically to Off, and New files default to Available offline.

Then download all the missing files (with a "!" on the thumbnail).

Do not re-import the missing photos. LrC will then see them as new photos, and your edits will be lost.

Downloading them to the location where LrC expects to find find them is alll you need to do.