Photo import into defined folder structure: year (2024)/Folder-name/month (04)/day (26)

[Stefan36852143je01]

I want to import into the following folder structure
Volume/YYYY/ (selected as target folder)
LrC should then produce the following structure
year (2024)/[Folder-name]/month (04)/day (26)

For now I can only import with a second, vain year folder.
Is ist possive to define my own date format?

[Stefan36852143je01]

There was a mistake in my post:

It should say:
I want to import into the following folder structure
Volume/YYYY/ (selected as target folder)
LrC should then produce the following structure
month (MM)/day (DD)/Filename

[GoldingD]

Are you stating that you want to include / as part of a folder name. That would be normally treated as an illegal character. Not a MACOS User, but in Windows that would be very very bad.

It might be A-Ok in MACOS, but I doubt that Adobe would want to treat Windows and MACOS differently

Would be better to separate YYYMMDD by the use of the underscore, such as:

2024_05_08.

or dash

2024-05-08

The latter being an Adobe default

[Stefan36852143je01]

The slash was only meant to symbolize a folder-/hierarchy change...

[richardplondon]

these are the settings in my Import screen. Rather than putting the YYYY folder at the root (top) folder of the drive volume, it is in my opinion better to group all these 'years' inside a containing folder. Then if I ever wanted to move the whole lot to a different drive volume, this containing folder can act as a single "point of management". Otherwise I would need to re-address each year-folder as a separate operation.

Inside the 'year' folder, Lightroom Classic makes subfolders automatically, exactly as you describe. 

This setup is saved as an import preset. It executes the structure for my personal photos, but I also have an independent destination location with its own year folders, for my work-related photos. So I choose one or the other preset for each new import batch, and that recalls the suitable Destination as well as other Import settings.

[Stefan36852143je01]

Hi Richard,
thanks for your good remarks.
Coming from Aperture (!) I have organized my projects like:
year/
project/
month/
day/
[filename]

This is also the way the project show inside the catalogue view.
I was pretty astonished, the LrC would not let you to define own folder/date settings. (All Archive solutions I tested as possible successors could do this).
I want to add the project-name within the folder structure to be independent from the archive system. And this string fits best right underneath the year...
So I might end up accepting a second year hierarchy...

[richardplondon]

You do have some control. For example, you can select a named subfolder to be created inside the constant chosen destination (or if already in existence, to be used) within the import settings. Then you can choose a date scheme to be implemented inside that. If you want, you can have a given YYYY folder as your destination, a given project name as the subfolder, then further dated organisation inside the latter. Or else you can directly select a project as your destination, then do the same from there. And maintain a dedicated import preset per project. The only interaction needed from you might be to update the year annually (or, I would try to design this out) plus you'd inevitably need to choose the appropriate projectname for each import batch, since the Catalog cannot make its own guess at this.

All that said,  when you speak of the project-names as "independent" from the archive system, I wonder whether it is so logical to interleave those inside a strict date structure anyway. Perhaps project-name could sit at the top level, or perhaps be bulk keyworded on those photos - or be appended to the Day folder's automatic name and then filtered for within the Folders panel. Many ways to approach this, and even if some aspects are done in metadata not as physical folders, an import preset can invoke a metadata preset which does all the necessary in a consistent way. So pilot error and detailed micromanagement can be largely eliminated.

Multiple 'virtual' means of Catalog organisation can co-exist powerfully in parallel with each other AND alongside a 'physical' folder arrangement; the latter then does not need to be relied on as a single means of library organisation.