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Participant
August 27, 2018
Answered

Synchronize folder is adding images and folders from other drives

  • August 27, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 556 views

I'm having a strange issue when using "Synchronize Folder" in Lightroom Classic CC (7.5 release but it did this in previous releases too).

When I synchronize one of my folders, it searches my whole computer and all networked drives for photos and starts adding them to the catalog! In the dialog box that comes up it shows about 2811 photos to import (which would be about right), however in the import window the file count just keeps going up (I cancelled when it reached over 380,000 files to import). It does the same thing even if I choose a subfolder of this folder to synchronize.

I have 4 folders in my catalog. They're all subfolders of the same drive and all at the same level. The other 3 folders behave normally when using Synchronize Folder and only import any new images within the selected folder or subfolders.

I'm not sure why when I synchronize this particular folder it is bringing in extra files and folders from other drives. Shouldn't "Synchronize Folder..." only search the folder I have selected?

Does anyone have any idea what the issue is?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer ryant26495877

    It seems that I've solved the problem. I'm not sure what the cause was but this is how I fixed it:

    I individually synchronized all the subfolders of the folder that was causing the issue and eventually narrowed the problem down to 1 subfolder. I removed that folder from the catalogue (right click "Remove...") then synchronized the parent folder to add it back in and it's now working as expected.

    3 replies

    ryant26495877AuthorCorrect answer
    Participant
    September 4, 2018

    It seems that I've solved the problem. I'm not sure what the cause was but this is how I fixed it:

    I individually synchronized all the subfolders of the folder that was causing the issue and eventually narrowed the problem down to 1 subfolder. I removed that folder from the catalogue (right click "Remove...") then synchronized the parent folder to add it back in and it's now working as expected.

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 27, 2018

    Can you show a screenshot of the Lightroom folder panel (with the folder that is doing this selected) and a screenshot of the consequent import dialog? It sounds like that for some reason the source folder gets deselected in the import dialog, and instead the root of your computer is selected.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    Tony_See
    Inspiring
    August 27, 2018

    Hi Ryan

    Do have any links to LR forum threads in which this issue became apparent in LR 7.4?

    Participant
    August 27, 2018

    Hi Tony

    No, I couldn't find any information about this issue. I just meant that I have had this issue for a while (including in previous versions), so it's not specific to the 7.5 release and updates haven't corrected it. I can't remember when it started.