Please just open a file if it's been opened before. "Previously added" message is NOT HELPFUL.

Question

It's an incredible time drain that if you want to open a file that you previously worked on in Lightroom the only result is a message: "Previously added". This happens why you go to a file in a project in your own filesystem and try to reopen it. A user filesystem organizes images by topics, by customer, etc ...

Lightroom knows where the file is in the Lightroom Library. So why not just open it?

Instead what you have to do is navigate the Lightroom Library. Which is by date only. You might have hundreds of files in a date, and many of them similar.

Navigating the Lightroom Library takes five unnecessary minutes. Because, again, Lightroom knows where the file is in its library. That's why it's saying: "Previously added".

So why not JUST OPEN THE FILE!

Over and over I have needs where an image just needs a tweak, weeks and months later, for a new use. and over and over I have to waste five minutes on this navigating the Lightroom Library by hand when Lightoom knows where the file is.

JUST OPEN THE FILE. Not helpful to block the process with a message "Previously added" and block the opening of the file.

JUST OPEN THE FILE.

Per Berntsen · Answer

The only files Lightroom Classic can open are catalog files.

When you view images in LrC, you are not looking at the original files, but previews created by LrC.

Any edits you do are applied to the previews, and to a new file when you export. The original files are never changed.

To "open" (actually import) a previously imported image from the File explorer, you would have to uncheck Don't import suspected duplicates in the Import dialog. LrC will then consider this a new image, and the edits you have done to the previously imported image will not be visible. Having two versions of the same file will lead to confusion, and LrC will also become confused.

To find an image quickly in LrC, search for the file name.

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