LR says yes, but fact is, no

[dennishmiller]

Lightroom seems to think that several photographs are in a particular catalog when in fact they are not. When I point to the folder in question, the photos are grayed out when I select Show ALL Photos (nothing shows up when I select New Photos), and I am not clear how to add them under the current circumstances. Any ideas on this? I suppose I could rename them, but that's sort of a hassle.  Thanks for any advice. 

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

When there is a disagreement between Lightroom Classic and the user, I believe Lightroom Classic.

The photos are greyed out at import because they are already imported into Lightroom Classic. Most likely, you have (accidentally?) imported the photos using COPY instead of ADD. Lightroom Classic then takes photos in folder A (where you are looking) and copies them to folder B. So Lightroom Classic knows about the copies in folder B, and won't import the same photos from Folder A again. (Changing the name of the photos is a hassle, and causes more problems than it solves. Importing photos a second time is a recipe for confusion.)

You need to search inside of Lightroom Classic for one of these photos by following ALL FOUR of these 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

Once you find the photos in Lightroom Classic this way, you can then fix the problem if you want.

[dennishmiller]

Got it. There had been a bit of a mixup in that I had orginally imported these into the wrong catalog, then tried to import them from that catalog into the correct one, so they weren't actaully in the proper catalog. But I just disabled Do'nt Import uplicates and got the job done. Appreciate your advice, which I'm sure I'll need in the future 😉

[dj_paige]

As I said, importing the photos more than once, which you have now done (turning off "Don't Import Duplicates") is a recipe for confusion, and although you think you have solved the problem, in my opinion you have made it worse. Now you have two copies of the photos, each with different edits and different user-provided metadata. When you have two copies of a photo and you edit one, the edits don't apply to the other copy. When you have two copies of a photo and you add metadata to one, the metadata changes don't apply to the other copy. And then sometime in the future you are going to come across one of these photos and thing ... wait, I'm sure I edited this differently; or wait, I know I added that keyword to this photo, why isn't it there?

[dennishmiller]

Well I understand the concern, but I can assure you that I do not have two
copies of the images in the catalog. Sorting by date, name, ... what have
you, there is only one copy of the shots in question. I'm sure that there
was some problem with my attempting to import these same photos from a
different catalog - can't really explain it, but the good news is that they
are now in the catalog and all is well. Thanks for the followup- much
appreciated.