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Is it possible to re-organize my Catalog using the 'Capture Date' of every photo?

New Here ,
Jan 06, 2021 Jan 06, 2021

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Good Day and thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

I have mistakenly duplicated, I believe, several thousand pictures in my catalog by accidentally dragging one folder to another.  I believe the pictures were copied rather than moved because I am now seeing many messages about potential duplicates, but I'm not sure.

 

The end result of this plus my inconsistent logging of past pictures using varied folder naming schemes has created a situation where many thousands of my pictures are in the wrong folder based on their 'Capture Date/Time'.

 

Is there a way, other than manually going through all the pictures, to reorganize the catalog and hence the pictures on disk so that each picture is in their proper folder based on thier Capture Date?

 

Thanks very much!

 

-gary

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LEGEND ,
Jan 06, 2021 Jan 06, 2021

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I have mistakenly duplicated, I believe, several thousand pictures in my catalog by accidentally dragging one folder to another. I believe the pictures were copied rather than moved because I am now seeing many messages about potential duplicates, but I'm not sure.

 

Lightroom only performs a MOVE. It never performs a COPY.

 

Is there a way, other than manually going through all the pictures, to reorganize the catalog and hence the pictures on disk so that each picture is in their proper folder based on thier Capture Date?

 

Yes, but you probably won't like the answers. You could, of course, manually move the photos to the correct folder. Or, you could essentially start a new catalog and import all the photos (and even if you do it right, you lose collections and virtual copies and edit sequence and pick flags and any photo books or slideshows, and probably a few other things that I can't think of right now) but please don't attempt this without asking for instructions. Or, my preference, is option 3 ... stop using folders for any meaningful organizing, begin assigning keywords and other metadata, and all future searching is based upon keywords and metadata, and if you really need to find a file by capture date, the Filter Bar will do that for you even if the photos is in the "wrong" folder.

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New Here ,
Jan 06, 2021 Jan 06, 2021

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dj_paige

 

Thanks very much for your very quick response, much appreciated.

 

I did read after posting that the pictures were moved rather than copied.

 

I will probably attempt to move the pictures manually so I don't lose any existing edits.  Good advice.

 

I haven't been good about keywording my pictures in the past but will also attempt to go back over time and update and also make it part of my import process going forward.

 

I do like your Option 3 of using the keywords and will start that practice going forward.

 

Do you have any suggestions as to the folder naming convention if I focus on keywording or just let LR determine the names?

 

Thaks again for all your helpful suggestions, always learning!!

 

-gary

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