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Lightroom claims photo already in catalogue, but can't be accessed

New Here ,
Sep 25, 2020 Sep 25, 2020

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6 months ago, I bought a new computer and transferred all of the drives and the Lightroom catalogue over. I then started a subscription to Lightroom Classic and followed all of the directions given.  Recently I went looking for files that I know appeared in my original catalogue, but don't show up now.  If I go looking in the folder for them with Windows File Explorer, I can see them still there, but when I try to import them, Lightroom says that there's already a file with that name in the catalogue.  If it's already in the catalogue, why doesn't Lightroom Classic see it?

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LEGEND ,
Sep 25, 2020 Sep 25, 2020

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This usually happens when a file is moved outside of Lightroom after it was imported, or during the import a "copy" was used instead of "add".

 

Search the "all photos" collection for one of the images then right-click and "show in Library folder" to see where LR things the file should be.

 

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New Here ,
Sep 26, 2020 Sep 26, 2020

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Thanks for replying.  I was able to retrieve the photo by synchronizing the folder.  I had tried it earlier but wasn't patient enough (apparently) to allow the synchronizing to complete.  My fault.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 10, 2020 Oct 10, 2020

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It may seem sensible to synchronise the folder tree where the images now are - or, which amounts to the same thing, to import them again from that  folder tree. It may even, on the face of it, seem to have achieved what you thought was required. But that's not what has in fact happened.

 

Analogy: you are in charge of a company's employee records. You discover that the address details you have got on record, for each employee, have (some, or all) become wrong because of a recent external change. Say: the area postal code has changed. So when you try sending mail (to what it currently says in the employee record, still showing the old postal code), that mail won't get delivered any more. But otherwise these employment records are fine - salary, next of kin, training history etc.

 

You now have two alternative courses of action. Which one makes more sense?

  • Set up a brand new empty file for each employee, in a new file cabinet. Enter into this their address details including the new area postal code. Their salary etc would all need to be found out again, and typed into this new file, before it will be as useful as the previous paperwork... which you have now decided to ignore - even though the only thing ever wrong with it, was the wrong postal code. At some later point you may destroy that previous paperwork (on the strength of its non-working mailing address) - but until then there remains ongoing confusion between these two apparently separate "employees".
  • You find out how the postal code needs to be changed for all the addresses you already have got, in the established files that you already have got, which otherwise contain full up-to-date employee details.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 25, 2020 Sep 25, 2020

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Why? Because most likely you accidentally imported them with COPY instead of ADD, and so Lightroom CLassic thinks the photos are in a different folder than you think they are in.

\

You need to find these photos in Lightroom. Follow all of these four steps in order:


1. In the Lightroom Library Module, on the left, under Catalog, click on All Photographs
2. Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
3. Turn off all stacking (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
4. Search for at least one of these photos by file name using the Lightroom Filter Bar

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New Here ,
Sep 26, 2020 Sep 26, 2020

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Thanks for replying.  I was able to retrieve the photo by synchronizing the folder.  I had tried it earlier but wasn't patient enough (apparently) to allow the synchronizing to complete.  

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LEGEND ,
Sep 26, 2020 Sep 26, 2020

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Synchronizing the folder just imports the photo a second time, without your edits and user-provided metadata; or to be blunt, you have made the problem worse now, with the photo imported twice in Lightroom Classic's catalog but each one has different edits and different user-provided metadata.

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New Here ,
Oct 10, 2020 Oct 10, 2020

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Apparently it hasn't made anything worse and I'm considering the case case closed.Thank you for your help.

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LEGEND ,
Oct 10, 2020 Oct 10, 2020

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And for others reading along, I will maintain my advice that importing a photo more than once (or trying to synchronize its folder after Lightroom Classic says the photos is already in the catalog) is not a good solution. It creates two versions of the photo in your catalog, which then can each have different edits and different user-provided metadata, leading to confusion and frustration. Having the same photo in your catalog twice (or more than twice) should be avoided.

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 15, 2023 Sep 15, 2023

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I know this is an old post but dj_paige's steps outlined above saved the day today (for me at least).  All attempts to find two files I had been editing yesterday failed and LR would not allow them to be re-imported (as a last resort) because it said they were already cataloged.  Expanding all stacks or turning off all filters did the trick - don't have to redo all the edits I had made - thank you dj.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 25, 2020 Sep 25, 2020

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New Here ,
Sep 26, 2020 Sep 26, 2020

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Thanks for replying David.  I was able to retrieve the photo by synchronizing the folder.  I'm going through all my folders and sychronizing them.  I have almost 500,000 photos so it may take a while.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 16, 2023 Sep 16, 2023

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