"File could not be found" every time I open Lightroom (Mac)

[kayleehairel]

All right, so I know this question may have been answered before on an isolated incident basis, but Lightroom CC can never find my files. Every time I open up Lightroom, there are exclamation points on all the photos and it says "file could not be found". It's not just once. I'll go through and find them on my hard drive, and I've never moved the photos, but I have to go find them every single time I open the application. It seems like I have to make sure they're downloaded to iCloud before Lightroom will register that they're there. This happens every time I open Lightroom. How do I fix this?

[Theresa J]

Your photos need to be on a local hard drive for Lightroom to manage them. It sounds like you are importing photos from Apple Photos. It’s possible that your Apple Photos is syncing the images with iCloud and only storing preview images on your computer. If the original files are in iCloud, Lightroom would require you to download the photo so that it can be seen. You need to move the photos out of iCloud.

[GoldingD]

First up let’s verify what Lightroom you have, the cloud or the desktop.

In Lightroom, click on Help, click on System Information.  What is the version stated?

[kayleehairel]

Looks like I've got 8.3.1, which should be the most recent version, right?

[JohanElzenga]

davidg36166309  wrote

First up let’s verify what Lightroom you have, the cloud or the desktop.

In Lightroom, click on Help, click on System Information.  What is the version stated?

Missing images and exclamation points means the OP is using Lightroom Classic. Lightroom (CC) does not store originals locally, so it cannot have this type of problem. I think Theresa is right on the money. Apple iCloud can move photos to the cloud and leave only links and previews locally. Lightroom Classic cannot work with that, it needs the originals locally.