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tonya89983312
tonya89983312
Participating Frequently
March 2, 2018
Question

Missing linked files

  • March 2, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1838 views

I have a strange and complicated problem and I'm not sure how serious it is. I use Lightroom CC Classic to store and develop my photos. Occasionally I edit in Photoshop from within Lightroom and a second linked file is generated that when saved in Photoshop becomes a tif file in the appropriate hard drive folder and both files show in Lightroom labelled 1 and 2. I'm sure lots of people do this. Over the past few months SOME (only some of them not all those I generate) of the generated tif files have gone from the hard disc but the Photoshop modified image is the only one that Lightroom shows although it reverts to the original file name not the edit.tif version. Here's the strange thing. When I open the original file from the hard disc it does not show the photoshop generated changes but if I export it from within Lightroom it does. What is happening and where have my files gone?

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    1 reply

    Just Shoot Me
    Just Shoot Me
    Legend
    March 2, 2018

    Sounds like they are Stacked and the Stack is collapsed.

    In LR go to the Photo menu item, Stacking item then "Expand All Stacks".

    Do they show next to the original now?

    tonya89983312
    tonya89983312Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 4, 2018

    No, they are not stacked. As I say the linked files are actually missing from the hard disc for the affected images.

    tonya89983312
    tonya89983312Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 7, 2018

    tonya89983312  wrote

    To go through your points:

    The third screen shot was just the opened raw file of image 1712Rattray-131 from screenshot 1 just to show that the image file that is on my hard disc with this name is NOT the image shown in the Lightroom library that has this name.

    Unless you have the option turned on in the LR Catalog Settings dialog to "Auto Write changes into XMP" all edits done in LR are saved to the catalog file only. So if you open that same file in ACR it will not show the edits you have done in LR because there is no XMP file for ACR to read to see the LR edits.

    I'm going to give you same examples.

    In LR with Auto Write Changes into XMP Off and Edit badges shown in red boxes.

    That same image file shown in Bridge and Adobe Camera RAW with the write changes to XMP off.

    That same image with the option to write changes to XMP turned back on.

    Notice now in the Bridge windows the thumbnail now has an icon, in the red box, showing that edits have been applied.

    So unless you have that Auto Write changes into XMP option turned on no other Adobe program will see the edits you made in LR.

    And even with it turned on the only programs that can read those LR edits are Adobe programs and specifically ACR.

    So it no wonder why you are seeing the LR edits in ACR. Any edits you made are only written to the LR catalog file and will not show up in Camera RAW.

    Just thought I'd point that out. It has nothing to do with your original problem of files gone missing.


    Hey guys, thanks for all the time on this. I realise that opening the hard disc file does not include any Lightroom edits but there is no way to get the image shown in these examples with Lightroom - you have to go to photoshop to do this. I know the lightroom image shows edits but these are just cropping, slight clarity and saturation mods after saving back into lightroom. So the images shown as  raw files in the affected folders cannot have been generated by Lightroom.

    There is no way I or anyone else could have carefully selected only the tiff files that are missing and deleted them by accident. It is just not possible and I'm the only one that uses this computer

    Anyway, it is very hard to explain and who knows what has happened but it is really strange - thanks again for your help

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