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megan26056516m2g4
Participating Frequently
September 11, 2022
Question

Missing files (pictures) all of a sudden

  • September 11, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 664 views

I have a file with 112 pictures in it in that I was just editing last night. I closed my computer, shut it off, and went to sleep. This morning I tried to work on them and there is a "!" icon in the top right corner of most of the photos in two of my albums. 

Google said that's a missing picture, so I decided to just move the entire album to a new location on the PC and do "update folder location" on the folder that these pics are in on the right pane and choose the new location where I moved them to.

I do this, with a new location, and it STILL can't find the file. I have also clicked "Locate" on the error when you click the ! Sign. Locate brings up a file explorer window that lets you manually find the pic but then if you select locate and choose the picture, it says "The file you selected "filename.NEF" has a different name than the one you were trying to locate. Are you sure this is the correct file?" Now, all of the files in the folder on the actual PC are in .DNG. If I select "yes," it makes an XMP file next to that file in the folder..

Anyone ever see this before? The folder with all of these files does NOT have a ? Sign like the folder is missing (like all of the Google answers have). 

We have downloaded all PC updates, tried a restart, looked for LrC updates, but nothing has worked. No files/folders were changed between my editing yesterday and today, other than me moving the one folder locally and re-locating it in LrC. 

It's really getting to me the fact that it doesn't recognize the files in the folder that I'm trying to re-locate. I've done nothing to the files on the PC since I uploaded them from my card. Seems like there's a .DNG/.NEF issue here but I've been doing it like this for a few years now with no issues. Anybody have any fixes to this? 

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
September 11, 2022

Separate follow up (in case you are replying while I reply, as to not get the thought I am about to state from getting lost in the thread)

 

I should have noticed, your screen capture of your folder panel shows lots of sub folders with the sane name, many with ? marks. The w021 folders. Indicates a messed up structure, when you fix the folder locations for those folders, the ones without the ? marks may also get modified, hopefully you will be left with unique folder names under any particular parent folder. 

Now the folder panel in LrC. IS NOT A FOLDER MANAGER. It uses your OS folder manager, but can show fouled up info, it is actually a record in the LrC database  (the catalog) and can have errors, tyically when one goes and moves/renames folders outside of LrC.

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megan26056516m2g4Author
Participating Frequently
September 11, 2022

So are you saying that there may be an issue with having multiples of the same named folders, and I should delete the folders where the files are NOT located on the PC? I would also like to clean up the folders with the ? to remove them but just want to make sure that will not negatively impact anything in light room if those files are completed and I've already exported the completed product. 

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
September 11, 2022

Right click on those folders, and Update the folder locations, that might fix the duplicates. The folders of the same name might all have valid photos associated to them, and the folder without the ! mark may also be fouled up while having pictures associated to it they might not show up as missing. Would not be surprised if those folders merge into one corrected folder once folder locations are updated. I would not even trust a folder with a ! sign that states it has no photos, Fix the folder locations, see what happens.

 

P.S. you do have a back up, correct?

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
September 11, 2022

P.S. A quirk with posting in the Adobe community. A few key members, well at least one, absolutly refuses to open attachments. A preferred way to show screen captures, etc is to use the insert photo button, at the top of the interface

I do bot mind, but a more capable member does. Actually it is more efficient to do it his way.

 

 

 

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
September 11, 2022
I currently have the files saved in C:\Users\Me\OneDrive\Pictures.

Follow up, in the folders panel, scroll up, parent folder is likely to be named Pictures. It may even be any part of that path, but probably Pictures.

 

Also, once you have that parent folder fixed, minimize the sub folders, you want to see if other parent folders exist, perhaps with issues, perhaps with the same name (usually indicating a error fixable by locating the folder)

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megan26056516m2g4Author
Participating Frequently
September 11, 2022

I moved the folder in question with the issues to the "Desktop" parent folder. I tried to do an update folder location and selected this folder, but the photos within that parent folder are still showing missing.

 

Note taken on your photo comment, I think I did it right this time but if not I will try to get it right. 

 

It does seem like it's only both folders under this parent "Desktop" location that is having an issue. I would think it had something to do with the parent "Desktop" folder but I did try to move them to under another parent folder with the same issues. 

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megan26056516m2g4Author
Participating Frequently
September 11, 2022

So have your photos started to behave?

 


No, the two folders " L&M" and "Saleme Family 2022" in the pic above stil have a ! in most of the files' upper right corner. I've been trying to search on Google for hours now but the closest thing I've came to a similar situation as mine is somebody asking a question on YouTube video, but it was never answered. Seems like this is not a common occurance. Ever search I come across is just a simple "locate the file/folder and it's good to go." Still can't figure out why mine is different but it's really annoying. I still have the raw files so I'm thinking of just re-importing them and re-doing the work. I am still dying to know what actually caused this becuase now I'm goin to be worried about this happening to future uploads. 

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
September 11, 2022

 

 

photos in two of my albums.

 

You mention that word, albums, in several, places. Albums is not a term associated with Lightroom Classic. It is associated with Lightroom Desktop a.k.a Lightroom, the cloud version, that keeps an album on the cloud as opposed to Lightroom Classic that uses a catalog, on a hard drive.

 

Now your screen capture is defiantly from Lightroom Classic, so I do think you posted this in the correct community. You are just using a word in place of the proper term.

 

 

there is a "!" icon in the top right corner of most of the photos in two of my albums.

 

That makes me think you mean folder, correct? That the photos in a particular folder have a ? mark. But oddly, the folder does not have a ! mark.

 

I suspect your Internet search brought you to:

https://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

 

Inquiry:

In the folders panel, do you have the parent folder visible?

 

Inquiry:

As you have Windows, are the images located on an external hard drive, and if so, does the external hard drive have a drive letter assigned permanently?

 

Inquiry:

Outside of LrC, in Windows, via the file manager, where are the photos now? And specifically the separate NEF files and DNG files. I assume you made a NEF to DNG conversion at some point, perhaps at import via Copy as DNG. On your screen capture, you appear to be pointing to almost the correct photo, but not the correct format of the photo.

 

Recommendation for a followup reply:

Take a screen capture of LrC showing the folders panel, make the folder panel as large as possible, perhaps minimize the panels above and below it to make room. Have the central screen in grid view.

 

ohh, and a screen capture, not a photograph

 

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-take-screenshots-in-windows-10

 

If you are looking for a application for screen capture, I like PicPick, a free download is offered and it works great:

https://picpick.app/en/

 

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megan26056516m2g4Author
Participating Frequently
September 11, 2022

Yes, sorry, folder is what I meant by "album." I've apparently been asking too many people about this and trying to explain it in different ways, my apologies. 

 

I currently have the files saved in C:\Users\Me\OneDrive\Pictures. 

Inquiry one: I do not have the parent folder visible I don't think. I didn't think it had a parent folder since the parent  folder is "Pictures" (see attached pic, also please let me know if this is an acceptable screenshot. ). One of the folders with the issue is "Salame family 2022".

 

Inquiry two: The files are located locally on the PC, not any other hard drive externally. I've tried to move them out of the OneDrive folder onto the actual User\Picture (NOT OneDrive) and then re-locate them but I have not had any luck. 

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
September 11, 2022

In the folders panel, scroll up to the top, are all those sub folders under one parent folder? Could be multiple.

When fixing the ? marks indicating missing folders, try to fix the parent first, all those multitude of ? marks might go away if the parent folder is also fouled up and you fix.

 

At any rate, before trying to fix missing folders, the ! marks, fix the folders, the ? marks. Fixing a folder first can fix a huge amount of missing photos.

 

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