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Gauthier.T
Participant
January 7, 2024
Question

Photos on second external hard drive not showing up inside Lightroom

  • January 7, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 327 views

Hello,
I moved my photos from one External Hard drive to a new SSD outside of Lightroom as a second back up.


Within Lightroom, the photos are not showing up on the new hard drive (Elements).
I am trying to have the same photos on both drives, I am not looking to remove them from the first drive (Lacie) but it would be easier for me to work on them while they are on Elements as its an SSD (faster).

I also tried with import but all the photos appear greyed out as they are already in one of my library.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    January 7, 2024

    I moved my photos from one External Hard drive to a new SSD outside of Lightroom [Classic] as a second back up.

     

    Moving photos does not create a backup. Maybe you copied the photos, instead of moving them? What did you really do?

     

    Within Lightroom [Classic], the photos are not showing up on the new hard drive (Elements).
    I am trying to have the same photos on both drives, I am not looking to remove them from the first drive (Lacie)

     

    Lightroom Classic does not know about your photos on the new hard drive. You have to tell LrC to look for the photos there. But why? now you are telling me you are going to have the same photos on both drives, just have LrC use them on the first drive. Lightroom Classic can't really work with two copies of the same photos on different drives anyway.

     

    but it would be easier for me to work on them while they are on Elements as its an SSD (faster).

     

    Faster drives where the photos are stored generally do not result in anything more than a trivial speed improvement in LrC, so small that you will not notice. Nor do I understand how having photos on a different drive would be "easier"

     

    So the big question, why are you doing all of this? What benefits do you expect? Are you trying to fix some speed problem in LrC? If so, a faster drive for the photos will not accomplish this. What is the exact speed problem you have — please be specific and detailed.

    G
    Gauthier.TAuthor
    Participant
    January 7, 2024

    "Moving photos does not create a backup. Maybe you copied the photos, instead of moving them? What did you really do?"

    I transferred the folders inside the first external drive to the second one. (dragged them)

    "Lightroom Classic does not know about your photos on the new hard drive. You have to tell LrC to look for the photos there. But why? now you are telling me you are going to have the same photos on both drives, just have LrC use them on the first drive."

    To have a copy if my first drive fails as it's more than 6 years old now.

    "Faster drives where the photos are stored generally do not result in anything more than a trivial speed improvement in LrC, so small that you will not notice. Nor do I understand how having photos on a different drive would be "easier"

     

    So the big question, why are you doing all of this? What benefits do you expect? Are you trying to fix some speed problem in LrC? If so, a faster drive for the photos will not accomplish this. What is the exact speed problem you have — please be specific and detailed."

    The SSD is a more recent hardware, thus working on it would be faster yes. I am doing this because I am trying to have the photos on this new SSD to work on them within Lightroom.

    The SSD is also lighter and portable so when I travel I can bring it and leave the older HDD somewhere as back up, I won't be using it within Lightroom anymore aftet the photos are on the new one.

     

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    January 7, 2024

    The SSD is a more recent hardware, thus working on it would be faster yes.

     

    Actually, it will be faster only by a trivial amount that you won't even notice.

     

    I am doing this because I am trying to have the photos on this new SSD to work on them within Lightroom.

     

    Please read the section in the link I provided, entitled "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location". The instructions for doing this are in that section.

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