New Lightroom 6 user

[beerbasket]

I  successfully imported 12800 photos from my external drive to Lightroom 6. I  clicked Smart collection so I can work on my MacPro laptop without my external drive connected. Many of the photos in the library when I click shows" photo is missing" in the Histogram. I assume I didn't setup correctly.

Can anyone help?

[Michael J. Hoffman · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I believe you've confused "Smart Collection" with "Smart Preview." In order to work with your images offline (hard drive disconnected) you'll need to build Smart Previews. You can do this by selecting the images (when the images are online and connected) and choosing from the menu:

Library > Previews > Build Smart Previews

A few things to note:

1. You don't have to build smart previews for every image in your catalog. If you think you're going to want to work mostly with the previous month's images, just build those smart previews. If you'll be working with a portfolio you've saved in a collection, just build those smart previews. If you build smart previews for 12,800 images, it will take a lot of time and space that may not be completely necessary.

2. Videos cannot have smart previews. If your catalog includes any videos, you won't be able to work with them when the external drive is offline.

I hope this helps!

Mike

[beerbasket]

Mike, your are correct I meant Smart Preview and your suggestion of not selecting all 12800 photos is excellent. I successfully was able to create Smart Preview on photos I need to edit.

Thanks

[Michael J. Hoffman]

I’m glad you got it sorted!

MICHAEL J. HOFFMAN

Adobe Community Professional

Tampa Bay, FL

[beerbasket]

Mike I went to the link you provided and there is no “correct” button to click. Had the same issue on another discussion response.

[Michael J. Hoffman]

The link you mention (I'm guessing in your email notification) was generated by the forum system software, and is just a link back to this thread. If you return to this thread, you should find the "Mark as correct" button embedded in each message.

You can get to the thread in your browser by clicking the link in the top of the email that says "View the full discussion."

Mike