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Custom_Training
Participant
April 18, 2013
Answered

How do I move my pictures to external hard drive?

  • April 18, 2013
  • 6 replies
  • 151589 views

I need to create space on my laptop hard drive. How do I move my pictures to an external harddrive? Terrified I will losse them or get the dreaded ...? Help!

      This topic has been closed for replies.
      Correct answer web-weaver

      There is no need to be terriefied. The "dreaded "?" is not that bad.

      The best way to go about this is:

      1) In Lr / Grid View / Folders panel (left side) put all your image folders under one parent folder. If this is already the case you can skip this step. To do this, just create a new folder and name it descriptively. Then drag-and-drop your image folders on top of this newly created folder. This will make all image folders sub-folders under the one parent folder.

      2) Close Lr. In Mac Finder / Win Explorer move the newly created parent folder (together wil all its sub-folders) to you external drive. This is important: Do not rename any folders or change the folder structure at this point.

      3) Re-open Lr. In the Folders panel you will see the |dreaded`"?" - do not panic! Right-click (i.e. click with the right - as opposed to left - button of you rmouse) he parent folder that you created earlier and now shows the question mark and select <Update Folder Location>. Navigate to the location of the parent folder on your external drive and select it. Lr will find all the sub-folders on its own.

      That's all there is to it.

      PS: Actually the text is <Find missing Folder> not <Update Folder Location>. But the procedure is the same.

      Message was edited by: web-weaver - PS added

      6 replies

      W
      westlight
      Participating Frequently
      March 31, 2016

      I've already "COPIED" all of my images, 3 tbs worth, to a new 5 tb drive using Windows Explorer. I may have missed this in the discussion but is there a way to now have LR recognize that new drive as the now primary drive? Some way to redirect the Catalog/Library?

      I've watched the video by Julianne's video. LR CC recognizes the drive and I created a folder using LR but in the dropdown the "Photo Folders" where all of my images are stored which I copied to that drive does not show up. When I click on "Import" all of the images are there which I already knew. I'm assuming...or at least hoping that I don't have to re-import everything.

      Thanks for any clarification!

      D
      dj_paige
      Legend
      March 31, 2016

      westlight wrote:

      I've already "COPIED" all of my images, 3 tbs worth, to a new 5 tb drive using Windows Explorer. I may have missed this in the discussion but is there a way to now have LR recognize that new drive as the now primary drive? Some way to redirect the Catalog/Library?

      I've watched the video by Julianne's video. LR CC recognizes the drive and I created a folder using LR but in the dropdown the "Photo Folders" where all of my images are stored which I copied to that drive does not show up. When I click on "Import" all of the images are there which I already knew. I'm assuming...or at least hoping that I don't have to re-import everything.

      Thanks for any clarification!

      If you have COPIED and not MOVED the photos, then you redirect Lightroom using the instructions in Part 2 entitled "Updating Folder Location" of this document: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

      There is no Importing of photos involved. Importing photos is a completely wrong thing to do here.

      There is no need to create a folder using Lightroom.

      --

      Paige

      W
      westlight
      Participating Frequently
      March 31, 2016

      Thanks for the quick reply and link. Could you please clarify something before I click on "Merge"?

      The original "Photo Folder" contains many sub-folders and they're on Drive: K

      Drive M now has the same folder and sub-folders which I had Copied via Explorer..

      Using Windows, I would right click on that "Photo Folders" on the original drive and select the "Update Folder Location" correct? Then point it to the "Photo Folder" on the new drive M, correct?

      The reason I'm asking is that when I follow those steps a dialog box opens stating "The selected folder or one of its subfolders is already in Lightroom... Do you want to combine these folders?" and I didn't want to click "Merge" button until I know this was right.

      I tried doing this with one of the subfolders and did not get that message but that subfolder dissapeared from the original drive which surprised me. Of course the folder and images are still on the original drive, they just do not appear in LR.

      Thanks again!

      robertakayne
      robertakayne
      Participating Frequently
      October 18, 2015

      Hello everyone.  I tried the method of copying my files in Windows Explorer from my drive to an external hard drive, and now in the new hard drive, Lightroom is not displaying any of the flags that I had marked on the old drive.  Does anyone have any suggestions or can anyone help?

      Todd Shaner
      Todd Shaner
      Legend
      October 18, 2015

      Did you use 'Update Folder Location' to reconnect the image files already in the LR catalog to those on the external drive?

      Huskergirl51
      Huskergirl51
      Participant
      July 20, 2015

      I need super detailed explanation of how to move all my pictures from LR to my external HD, What I've read here is over my head.  I have a Mac and am still not super familiar with that either, I know, I'm a mess!!!  My Mac HD is full!!  I have a Seagate external HD.  Please help!!

      Todd Shaner
      Todd Shaner
      Legend
      July 21, 2015

      Excellent video on the procedure by Julianne Kost:

      http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-julieanne-kost/how-to-copy-files-to-an-external-hard-drive-in-lightroom/

      It's really not that hard, but please follow my suggestion in reply #13. This will help to insure that the picture folders are properly copied to the new external drive so they are a mirror-image of each other:

      Re: How do I move my pictures to external hard drive?

        E
        elosonegro
        Known Participant
        June 21, 2015

        I don't want to move the whole folder, just the images I doubt I will ever work with again.  I've watched 3 of Julianne's video's but it won't drag and drop my selected images.  And I'm not sure at all how to select those files and move them through the OS unless export will do it then delete.  Any comments?????

        Todd Shaner
        Todd Shaner
        Legend
        June 21, 2015

        Where are you trying to move the files (separate folder, external drive, etc.)? Why are you moving them rather than using LR's Rating, Keyword, and Collections tools to catalog and organize you image files? Give us more information and perhaps we can provide some solutions. Simply "moving" image files because you may not edit them in the future is a poor choice.

        elosonegro wrote:

        And I'm not sure at all how to select those files and move them through the OS unless export will do it then delete.

        Moving selected random files from outside LR disconnects them from the LR database and will cause you to lose all of your edits, ratings, keywords, etc. That's why it is suggested to move whole folders since the one (1) folder is easily reconnected from inside LR.

        E
        elosonegro
        Known Participant
        June 22, 2015

        These aren't random files.  I'm choosing to keep my higher rated photos on my main hard drive.  I want to move unrated photos from many different folders catalogued in LR to a back up hard drive.

        C
        CASpyr
        Participating Frequently
        April 19, 2013

        You can certainly do as web-weaver suggests, or you could move them from within LR so that LR can keep track of where things go. That saves you the step of updating the folder location after moving the folder outside of LR. You can simply drag the folder(s) in the left hand panel of the library module from where they are to your external drive.

          web-weaver
          web-weaver
          Inspiring
          April 19, 2013

          CASpyr,

          You wrote "or you could move them from within LR".

          Yes, that is certainly possible, provided that the external hard drive is displayed in the Folders panel. It will not be displayed if no images are on it, or if no images have been imported from it.

          Also, there are some reports that Lr looses images when moving image folders. These "occurrences" are few and seemingly random. Even Adobe acknowledges this with it's warning about moving images in Lr.

          Therefore, to be prudent, I would reduce moving images and image folders in Lr to the minimum possible.

            M
            martin-s9001387
            Inspiring
            April 19, 2013

            web-weaver wrote:

            Yes, that is certainly possible, provided that the external hard drive is displayed in the Folders panel. It will not be displayed if no images are on it, or if no images have been imported from it.

            You can simply make it appear by creating a new folder on the drive from within LR. All of this and more is shown in Julieanne's video Move & Archive Images, and Export a Catalogue at 4:40 into the video.

            I can't recommend her videos highly enough.

            web-weaver
            web-weaverCorrect answer
            Inspiring
            April 18, 2013

            There is no need to be terriefied. The "dreaded "?" is not that bad.

            The best way to go about this is:

            1) In Lr / Grid View / Folders panel (left side) put all your image folders under one parent folder. If this is already the case you can skip this step. To do this, just create a new folder and name it descriptively. Then drag-and-drop your image folders on top of this newly created folder. This will make all image folders sub-folders under the one parent folder.

            2) Close Lr. In Mac Finder / Win Explorer move the newly created parent folder (together wil all its sub-folders) to you external drive. This is important: Do not rename any folders or change the folder structure at this point.

            3) Re-open Lr. In the Folders panel you will see the |dreaded`"?" - do not panic! Right-click (i.e. click with the right - as opposed to left - button of you rmouse) he parent folder that you created earlier and now shows the question mark and select <Update Folder Location>. Navigate to the location of the parent folder on your external drive and select it. Lr will find all the sub-folders on its own.

            That's all there is to it.

            PS: Actually the text is <Find missing Folder> not <Update Folder Location>. But the procedure is the same.

            Message was edited by: web-weaver - PS added

              Wesmack
              Wesmack
              Participant
              July 28, 2014

              Thank you, had to move hard drive data to a different drive and you saved me a lot of time.  Thank you.

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