P: Make "Add Parent Folder" available for Missing/Offline Folders

[b_gossweiler]

We see many users in the forums who need to reconnect their folders in LR, because they moved folder structures from outside of LR or a drive letter changed on the drive where the images are stored. Many of those users only realize the need to do the reconnect after the fact that the folders are missing.

If they did not have a hierarchical view in their folder panel active and parent folders added before the folders "got lost", they have to reconnect each and every single folder, which can be very cumbersome.

Having an option to "Add Parent Folder" also for missing folders would help a lot in those cases. As far as I can see the information needed should be available in the catalog even if the folders are missing already.

[Mark Sirota]

I think that would be fantastic to help people out who have otherwise screwed themselves.

Another solution to the same problem would be to have LR automagically find other missing folders that have been moved in the same way as the selected one, much like finding a missing *file* also finds files that have been similarly moved.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Or a Find Missing Drive might be simpler than Add Parent Folder, for those cases.

[dtull]

While there is an implementation reason why "Add Parent" is disallowed for missing folders, the awkwardness it introduces for the relocation case makes it worth fixing.

Also, a +1 to the suggestion that "Find Missing Folder" should have an option to automatically find other nearby folders. Also, the same option for find missing file should work a lot better than it does (I've seen the code for that one, and it could be a lot more effective than it is currently by inspecting a bit more of the hierarchy to find the root of similarity instead of just looking in the immediate vicinity).

Honestly, there's not really a good reason (other than lack of invested time to think though the edge cases carefully) why finding a single missing file in a large tree of other files shouldn't be functionally equivalent to relocating the root folder (as long as the hierarchy still matches up). That's essentially a bug in the feature as far as I'm concerned.

[john beardsworth]

Agree with all points so far.

In the same area, Find Missing Files should be able to make use of the original filename (or EXIF data) field if the filename fails to find a match. For instance, the second copy upon import is of less backup value if the user subsequently changes the name of the catalogued file.

John

[dtull]

Yeah, I've got some ideas about how synchronize folder could be made a whole lot smarter using similar heuristics. Hypothetically, it should be possible to reliably relink a hierarchy of files as long as one hasn't simultaneously renamed, edited all the capture times (by something other than a simple constant shift for all files), and changed the file sizes by saving embedded metadata.

It's tricky to get right, but it'd make reconnection a whole lot easier.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

That would be well worth doing. People getting into a tangle with missing files has to be the most frequent problem that comes up.

[john beardsworth]

I've been asking for this for a long time, Dan, ever since a client had a crash shortly after renaming all his keepers and I had to figure out some SQL to move the original filename over to the current filename field. If resources still don't get allocated to this area, then it's time to open up SDK access to the file name fields.

I do think improving the language would help new users. Instead of "Add Parent Folder", we should see "Show Parent Folder", while "Promote Subfolders" isn't really its opposite, unlike "Hide Parent Folder".

John

[b_gossweiler]

Thanks for all the support and the great suggestions. Since this is probably the biggest pitfall for LR users, a more comfortable solution would be very helpful, although I'm aware of the fact that this is not something you can sell as a shiny new feature of a new release .....

My initial idea was that adding the ability as it is today but for missing folders could be a JDI item, as all the relevant information is already contained in the catalog.

Beat

[Rikk-Flohr]

This would have my support as well. It comes up in my one-on-one session with users who have very 'abstract' file storage schemas.

[Jim Wilde]

Agree 100% with the original FR. Some good additional suggestions as well, so here's another (though I suspect it has already been made more than once): how about improving the flexibility of 'Folder Management' by allowing multiple folders to be selected then 'dragged and dropped'? The current restriction of moving a single folder at a time is often very frustrating...

[DonkeyPhotez]

ADOBE, PLEASE SIMPLY ADD CONTEXT MENU "Find Missing Drive" TO GRAYED-OUT (MISSING/RENAMED) DRIVES / HD !!!!!!!!!!!

[DonkeyPhotez]

Adobe :
Please symply add a context menu to grayed-out (missing or renamed) discs
that would offer "Find Missing Drive".
Simple, no ?????????