Missing files, unable to find in search attempts

[rickt51014092]

Hi everyone!

I have found myself in a situatuion as a fairly novice LR Classic user that I cannot seem to resolove.

After a recent import  I found exclaimatiom marks on every image (no changes to cat or file location or name changes  to files).

After several youtube tutorials I have since attempted to 'find missing files' on my portable drive but with no luck and have searched in finder on my apple mac drive with nothing - I have never stored images here but checked anyway.

Back ground info....

1) the only variation from 'normal' before this import is that I imported a couple of JPG's straight to my phone during the shoot via Fuji X app. I didn't think this would have an effect on my problem?

2) I don't recall backing up data as i didn't actually close the app before discovering missing images (I always do this when closing LR).

3) There is a remote chance that we had a power outage while LR remained open but asleap. Could this have corrupted the files on portable drive that is powered from imac? I cannot confirm this even happened

4) My memory if foggy now but there was a light grey cat folder under my previous imports with an exclaimation mark. I followed this link to find them but unknowingly told LR to look in a folder of a previous import and followed this by saying to merge with this folder...the previews are now located in shoot folder from a previous day.

5) I can still see all previews from the shoot but when searching any of the file names on internal or external drives, nothing comes up.

Please help!! This was a tricky to recreate shoot and i'm very stressed that they are unusable at the moment.

Many thanks in advance 🙂

Rick

[dj_paige]

For one such example file which has an exclamation point icon, write down the actual file name, and write down the folder that Lightroom Classic thinks the photo is in. Then in your operating system, use the OS search feature to search all folders on all disks for this file name. Write down what folder it is found in.

Then in LrC, click on the exclamation point icon (see Figure 2 here) and then point to the folder where the file is actually found in, which you just wrote down when the OS search found the file. 

If your OS doesn't find a photo by this name, you need to restore the photos from the camera card or recent backups.

Question: are there exclamation point icons on the folders in the Folder Panel? If so, the same linked document will allow you to fix an entire folders or entire hierarchy of folders with one action.

[rickt51014092]

Thanks for your reply but unfortunately I have already done these searches with no result.

Oddly when the images first came in I very quickly cropped a couple of them so I assume LR must have had access to the original file at that point?? A couple days later I can't access the develop module but these images remain cropped in preview grid with grainy detail

Cheers

[rickt51014092]

Have also noticed that the JPGS that went straight to my phone are not very sharp either. Not sure what this means? Possibly a focus issue or memory card issue?

[dj_paige]

Thanks for your reply but unfortunately I have already done these searches with no result.

Oddly when the images first came in I very quickly cropped a couple of them so I assume LR must have had access to the original file at that point?? A couple days later I can't access the develop module but these images remain cropped in preview grid with grainy detail

Cheers

By @rickt51014092

This sounds like the originals are still on the camera card, and were never on a hard disk. So, the first part of my instructions still are valid: "For one such example file which has an exclamation point icon, write down the actual file name, and write down the disk and folder that Lightroom Classic thinks the photo is in."

Does Lightroom Classic think the photo is on some external drive, which could be the camera card?

[rickt51014092]

Hi, 

You could well be right that the images never left the SD card..

Sadly I was too quick and cleared the card for the next shoot thinking they had imported as per usual onto the portable drive and LR cat. Still struggling with how I was able to crop those images though??

Feels like a re shoot is possibly my only option...

Thanks again dj_paige

[dj_paige]

With images on the camera card*, and at Import you select ADD (leave the images where they are), you can perform whatever edits you want. But they are useless unless the card is still available, or you have copied the images to your hard disk.

* — only certain types of camera cards allow this, I believe CFExpress cards are one such card that allow this. SD cards would normally not allow this.

[rickt51014092]

Thanks!

I always copy from SD card to my HD so I think somehow a glitch happened as have since taken more shots and have imported as per normal. Will attempt to recreate lost shoot tomorrow 😬

[dj_paige]

Thanks!

I always copy from SD card to my HD so I think somehow a glitch happened as have since taken more shots and have imported as per normal. Will attempt to recreate lost shoot tomorrow 😬

By @rickt51014092

Sadly, we see lots of examples of people accidentally selecting ADD instead of COPY (or vice versa), and not realizing what they did.

But you never gave me a direct answer to my earlier request for information: For one such example file which has an exclamation point icon, write down the actual file name, and write down the disk and folder that Lightroom Classic thinks the photo is in.

Please provide that information. Then we will know for sure if the photos were imported from the camera card by ADD accidentally.