Reading info from old library

[davidminehart]

I've used Lightroom for some years. Some years ago, I upgraded from an old Mac Mini to a newer one. My image files at that time were probably still on the internal drive, but I believe I migrated them to an external as part of the system upgrade. On looking over my Lightroom library, it seems that I may somehow have lost folder customizations at that point. Older folders now have just a YYYY-MM-DD format, while my newer ones have my usual edits of these that add on details like 2020-12-25 Christmas party. Three questions:

1) By copying the Lightroom Photos folder from internal to external drive and then having Lightroom relocate them, wouldn't the library by default retain the original enhanced folder names?

2) Is there some way I could have inadvertently overridden that default during the update, causing the folder names to be redone with just the date?

3) If I have a copy of the original drive with Lightroom library (not the original images, but the library), is it possible for me to copy it onto my new external drive and mount it within my new copy of Lightroom just to see the original folder naming? I might be able to print these out, with screen captures if nothing else, to allow manual edits in my new library.

[dj_paige]

1) Re-locating the folders within LrC means that LrC will show the names on the external drive, whatever they are

2) No, I don't think so, there is no such option, the folder names will be whatever they are on the disk LrC is pointing to

3) Sure — which leads me to a side issue — information like "Christmas Party", in my opinion, should be keywords or other metadata (titles, captions, etc.) and then the database always has that information associated with the photo, regardless of the folder name, and its also in the exported photo file if you want. The "Christmas Party" information (and similar) also can be written into the XMP for the photo, so that this information travels with the photo, rather than in the folder name which doesn't have to (and in this case does not) travel with the photo.