Two Imported Folders Have Disappeared

[Kevin22363597ivyk]

I imported two separate batches of 2K RAW images from my desktop hard drive by simply clicking the Import button and selecting the photos from my HD. I did not create a New Catalog from the upper left File tab like I normally do, as I only wanted to run through the images to flag and rate them. I finished that task and then went on to import a folder of 300 Jpeg images into a New Catalog. Once they were done importing I found that the only folder in my Local Disk area is the one with the 300 images, and both of the large folders with all of my flagged and rated images have disappeared. I have looked for them in the Open Recent tab, and they are not there. I spent 45 minutes on a chat with Adobe with no results, and have asked two LrC saavy friends for their opinion, and both are baffled. Anyone out there have an idea what went wrong and where those two folders are? Had I created two new catalogs for each of the lost imports I know they would both be there with the third one with the 300 images, but sadly I didn't do that. Help!

[KR Seals]

By creating that new Catalog with the 300 images you are now in a spot where LrC has no idea about your previous work done in a different catalog.

You need to find the older catalog and load it in order to see the older work and images.

Unless you have a really special need to use separage catlogs, using more than one is a terrible idea.

[Rob_Cullen]

If you typed a paragraph in a 'Word' document, would you expect to see that paragraph in EVERY word document you open? NO.

Lightroom-Classic Catalogs work the same way- they are DATA-BASES, and the information about your photos and the edits you place in ONE catalog is NOT shown in any other Catalogs.

So +1 to the advice from @KR Seals - ONE Catalog for everything, and everything in one catalog.

"Had I created two new catalogs ...."-  NO, they will NOT be there!

Start Here- https://www.lightroomqueen.com/   for a free Quick Start eBook.

ONE CATALOG TO RULE