• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Images disappear from LR

Engaged ,
Nov 06, 2020 Nov 06, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I moved a photo sent to me and captured on an iPhone. It was on my desktop and I dragged it into LR. I made a few edits in Develop and then chose to make a new catalog and gave it a name. The image was nowhere to be found which isn't the problem. I no longer saw any images in my Library. I rebooted which did nothing. How do I get all my images back?   LR is most recent version from the subscription and I use Windows 10.

Help!

Photodoc16 

Views

178

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 06, 2020 Nov 06, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Just so I understand the issue:

 

You were working in old Catalog_A.

You created new, empty Catalog_B.

Are the old images still in Catalog_A, as they should be?

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Engaged ,
Nov 06, 2020 Nov 06, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

All the images in the 'old' catalog disappeared. However, when I went
into 'open recent' under the File menu, 4 different catalogs appeared. When
I clicked on the one with my name, the LR images returned. LR acts like
some sort of prims donna
and is so fussy with any outside image that it may have to be severely
disciplined.
Thank you for your interest. The LR and PS forums are lifelines.
Richard (Photodoc16)

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 06, 2020 Nov 06, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

If you move a photo outside of the Lightroom Catalog (via your operating system or some other application), Lightroom Classic loses track of it. This is expected behavior. Lightroom Classic is NOT a file browser like Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Lightroom Classic uses a database to keep track of photos and moving the photos outside of Lightroom Classic means the database does not know where the photo is located, and can't use the photo. Best to make sure you understand this point about how Lightroom Classic operates ... we see people in this forum who have not understood this point, and they get unnecessarily frustrated (and even angry) about this. Once you understand this point, Lightroom CLassic works beautifully and gives you a very smooth, easy and powerful organizing tool.

 

Furthermore, in my opinion, there is rarely a need to move photos from one catalog to a new catalog. This is a very cumbersome way of organizing compared to using tools like keywords and metadata. (NOTE: there are valid reasons for having more than one catalog, but these do not apply to a lot of people, and especially for beginners, one catalog is the way to go)

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Engaged ,
Nov 07, 2020 Nov 07, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

dj__paige,

The fact is that I moved a photo into LR from an outside source. After that I really did not know how to save it. I should have moved it back to the desktop via the LR dropdown. 

I am sure there will be a next time. Do you know of any way to keep it in LR?

Thank you for your help and I will never pick a New Catalog again.

Richard

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 07, 2020 Nov 07, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Don't move it outside of Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom Classic will be fine, and you will have no problems. You can move it inside of Lightroom Classic.

 

Bbetter yet don't put photos on your computer's desktop (a particularly poor choice when working with Lightroom Classic), store them in some folder somewhere and leave them there, don't move them inside or outside of Lightroom Classic, and use keywords and other metadata to help you organize and search, and you will never have this problem again.

 

And as I said above, I now saw with emphasis: Please spend some time viewing videos or reading tutorials about how the Lightroom CLassic catalog works.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Engaged ,
Nov 07, 2020 Nov 07, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST
Hello dj_paige,
It is embarrassing to admit that I did just that. I even bought Robin
Whalley's book "Adobe Lightroom Classic CC: Mastering the Library Module,"
underlined it, highlighted it and even outlined it. I also bought the
Lightroom Queen book and read that as well along with watching and
transcribing all of Anthony Morganti's "Mastering Lightroom Classic"
tutorials. They all dealt with the proper way to import and catalog but I
do not recall any discussion of dragging an external photo into LR and how
to manage it from there.
Making mistakes is almost a better teacher than just reading although I set
up my catalog as recommended and it has been fine. Thanks to you and
others I am gradually becoming ....well, er....competent.
Stay safe and celebrate today !
Richard

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Nov 06, 2020 Nov 06, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

It was on my desktop and I dragged it into LR. 

 

Hmmm, What exact Lightroom product?

Lightroom Classis

Lightroom (desktop, a.k.a cloudy)

 

sample Sys Info via /Help/System Info/sample Sys Info via /Help/System Info/

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Engaged ,
Nov 07, 2020 Nov 07, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

GOLDingD,

LR Classic is Version 10 on a desktop.

Richard

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 07, 2020 Nov 07, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

What you are describing is exactly how Lightroom is supposed to work. Lightroom uses catalogs which work exactly like a catalog in an old-fashioned library. A catalog is just a collection of records of where images reside on your hard disk and a bunch of metadata including an editing recipe. Say you imported an image in catalog A, catalog A now has arecord of this image and knows where it resides on your hard disk. If you now open a new catalog - say catalog B, the new catalog has no entries for any images you imported and are referenced in catalog A. Catalog B has never been told about the new image in catalog A.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines