moving photos lightroom classic "file already exists"

[ron lavoie]

When I try to move photos, I get the error that they already exist in the destination. The problem is that those photos don't appear in the destination when I check. For example moving photos from location A (93 photos) to location B (23 photos), LRC claims that they are already in location B, even though location A has many more photos than location B.

Also similar when I try to move a whole folder - LRC claims that the folder already exists in the destination. I can't see the folder in that destination.

Can anyone help?

[ron lavoie]

As shown in this screenshot, the destination location has only 88 photos, but the source has 257 photos.

[JohanElzenga]

Check that folder in the MacOS Finder. Lightroom Classic is not a file browser, it is a database app. If a folder contains photos that you did not add to the Lightroom Classic catalog, then Lightroom Classic will not show them. But if you try to move the same photos from another folder to this folder, then you'll get an error saying this could not be done because the photos already exist in that destination. It is in fact MacOS that stops Lightroom Classic from doing this. 

This often happens when people import photos from a folder, but select 'Copy' at the top center of the import dialog. That means that these photos are copied to another folder, and only those copies are registered in the Lightroom Classic catalog. So if you now try to move those photos back to the original folder, then you'll get this error.

The same applies to a whole folder. If Lightroom Classic says that a folder you want to move already exists in the destination, then that folder does indeed already exist. That other folder will not show in the Lightroom Classic catalog however, if no photos inside that folder were imported.

[ron lavoie]

It looks like you nailed it. Do you have any suggestions on how to rectifiy this, assuming affected folders are multiple days over multiple months? I need to free up space on my mobile drive by moving photos to my destop drive. Note that the catalog currently resides in the mobile drive.

Thanks a lot.

[JohanElzenga]

Photos that are in a folder, but not shown in Lightroom Classic in that folder, are most likely duplicates. Double check this and if they are indeed duplicates, then you must delete them in the Finder. Lightroom Classic does not know them and therefore cannot deal with them.