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georg fiedler
georg fiedler
Participating Frequently
January 14, 2025
Answered

relative paths to images

  • January 14, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 1285 views

i can't find clear documentation about this, which baffles me, as i think this is important to anyone who has backups to big number of images, and maybe later wants to access them - e.g. every wedding photographer. if anyone knows where to read about it, please share!

lightroom catalogs can use relative paths to the images. so far the only way i found is having the image files in a directory under the one where the catalog resides. so 2025/kathy-and-john would be the folder where the catalog file is, and 2025/kathy-and-john/images would be where the image files are. and then import the images into the catalog. 

 

this works. now you can move the folder kathy-and-john to any other place, also to another drive, open the catalog there and it immediately knows that the images are in the subfolder. 

big question there: is there anyway to change this in an existing catalog? especially if i make a new catalog from a selection, can i place that new catalog into a directory that contains the directory with the images, and make that catalog use relative paths?

 

big thanks for any input!
also i think it would be great if there is better documentation about this in the first place - most people don't know how to use relative paths at all, and i think many would really benefit from them.

Correct answer johnrellis

hahaha, my mum used to ask me where her glasses are - and after some weeks she would enter the room, stop, tap on her head and leave the room without saying a word 🙂 

when importing images that lie in a subfolder of where the catalog is the paths to those images are relative: when you rename the folder containing the catalog (and the subfolder with the images), or move all that to another drive, lighroom will immediately know where the images of that catalog are. 

and thats very much not where they are before, since the whole pathname, including drive name, has changed. so the only way to know (or guess), is to use a path relative to where the catalog is. 

 


LR is weird in how it handles those relative paths.

 

1. Configure the Metadata panel Default tagset to include Path (the full absolute path of the selected photo). Hover the mouse over Path to see where LR thinks the currently selected photo is located.

 

2. Make a new catalog named "relative". In the catalog folder, make a folder "pics" and put two images in it, a.jpg and b.jpg.  Import "pics" with the Add option.

 

3. Exit LR and make a copy of the "relative" catalog folder named "copy1". Open "copy1". Use the Metadata panel's Path to observe that a.jpg and b.jpg are in copy1/pics.

 

4. Exit LR and make a copy of "relative" called "copy2". Before opening it, delete copy2/pics. Open "copy2" and observe that a.pg and b.jpg are in relative/pics.

 

5. Exit LR and make a copy of "relative"  called "copy3". Before opening it, delete copy3/pics/a.jpg but leave copy3/pics/b.jpg.   Open "copy3" and observe that a.jpg is marked as missing and b.jpg is in copy3/pics.

 

6. Exit LR and make a copy of "relative" colled "copy4". Before opening it, delete copy4/pics.  Open "copy4", and observe that a.jpg and b.jpg are located in relative/pics. Exit LR. Copy relative/pics to copy4/pics.  Restart LR, and observe that a.jpg and b.jpg are still located in relative/pics.

 

So LR is definitely not using simple absolute paths everywhere. Paths to photos inside the catalog folder are mostly treated as relative, except when you first open the catalog in a new location, when folder paths can be in a quantum state, either pointing to the old location or the new location, depending on whether the folders exist in the new location. But after opening the catalog in the new location, folder paths are fixed and won't change again.


No user could possibly figure out this behavior without doing experiments, and it can't be inferred from the existing documentation.

2 replies

R
Community Expert
richardplondonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 14, 2025

Yes people might as well know about this feature - still I suspect that many, even knowing about it, would not have that as an aim. The location of a Catalog and the location of image files (whether in one volume or spread across many) involve differing practical requirements and I can see many ways how it could be restrictive to in effect require metadata (the Catalog's info about where the source images are) and the data (the images referred to) to both live in one storage location together.

 

Unless one was constantly moving things around - but that raises the question: why not, instead, find a way not to need to?

georg fiedler
georg fiedlerAuthor
Participating Frequently
January 15, 2025

totally agree with you, that many, actually most users won't need that. actually it only makes sense when you use one catalog per image set, which is something quite common for bigger shoots, like weddings.

there's two usecases: one is shifting between internal and external SDD.  wedding shoots can easily have 100GB, so working on several projects at the same time can quickly run into the limits of the internal drive. thus having the possibility to easily shift one datatset to an external SDD, and later simply work on it by opening the catalog on that drive without any further ado is a great asset. 

the same appliles for archived shoots, that have to leave the internal drive. clients ask for a specific photo later on, maybe edited or cropped differently as a present to their grandparents. so again, when the path is relative you just open the respective catalog on that drive, and you can instantly edit those photos. 

 

so thanks for better making me aware, that probably most users don't need that feature, and that it could pose other issues for them (one catalog per dataset and having them backuped on different drives poses the risk to work on the wrong one, and/or backuping the wrong one). still, or even more, i miss a dedicated section of documentation/tutorial directly by adobe about how this works, what exactly this requires, and what the possible risks/problems are, in what scenario to use it, and when ( = all other cases) to avoid it. 

    R
    Community Expert
    richardplondonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 16, 2025

    AFAIK Catalogs don't literally implement relative pathing vs absolute pathing: using absolute paths always, so with no separate "feature" to document. One could test this by moving a Catalog away from the physically associated photos that it references (the photos staying put). If their pathing within the Catalog had really been relative before, affected photos would then become "not found". I don't think that is what happens - the paths for wherever they absolutely were before, and where they continue to be, would still work fine. I expect! (careful disclaimer)

     

    Assuming so we can think of this association of files with Catalog as a special-case situation: and what makes it special is that LrC has a fallback "what-if" tactic. Whenever LrC cannot locate its sunglasses where it thought they last were left, it prompts itself: did I also check the top of my own head? (grin)

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 14, 2025

    "big question there: is there anyway to change this in an existing catalog? especially if i make a new catalog from a selection, can i place that new catalog into a directory that contains the directory with the images, and make that catalog use relative paths?"


    Export the selection as a new catalog and include the 'negatives' in the export dialog. That will place the images in a folder inside the catalog folder and will link them with relative paths.

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      johnrellis
      johnrellis
      Legend
      January 15, 2025

      "is there anyway to change this in an existing catalog?"

       

      No, you have to make a subfolder in the catalog folder of a new catalog, using the method described by Johan. Once you have such a subfolder, you can place more pics in there and import them, and they tool will have relative paths.

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