Lightroom is not showing all the pictures in a folder

[tonymuffin]

I am wanting to edit some images in a particular folder in Lightroom.  When looking at the folder in File Explorer there are almost 100 image files in the particular folder.  However, Lightroom only sees 22 files.  I've selected the folder and tried both IMPORT and SYNCHRONIZE however nothing happens.

How do I fix this?

[Guest]

I'm having this exact problem. All the images copy to a new folder destination, but no preview thumbnails show up in my lightroom catalog. I've tried 3 separate import > copy attempts and receive "no photos in previous import." Frustrating. Here goes try #4.

[dj_paige]

kelseyschork​

If you are indeed having the same problem as others in this thread, there have a been a number of solutions suggested, please try them. Importing the photos again is not one of the solutions suggested.

But I am not convinced you have the same problem, and I request you describe your problem in detail.

[dkhyde]

Make sure you don't have any stacks.  This is exactly what I was seeing with CC.  OMG what a fright.  I saw this thread and searched other forums but always "no good answer."  I prepared myself to having to rebuild the database, trying out some exports and imports.  It was going to be a mess.  Then I realized ... duh ... that I had stacked photos.  The photo count at the bottom just counts what is showing, not the photos stacked behind.  My 13 of 21 had 8 hidden in a stack.  Photo stacks can be very subtle to notice.  Select all visible photos in the folder, control click (mac) to get the menu, go to stacking / expand all stacks.  That worked for me.  Back to 21 of 21!  Hope this helps you...

[thelauramarie]

Dkhyde - You're my HERO!!! The count of the folder said 248 but only 171 pictures were showing. I went into my Smart Collection of "All Pictures" and the pictures were all there AND in the right folder. I had stacked them. In LR5 they used to CLEARLY show they were stacked... in CC it's not as evident. Thanks for the great solution!

[richardplondon]

tip: you can turn on "badges" for the Filmstrip - though if the Filmstrip is very small, its height and therefore the thumbnail size may need to be increased, until these badges show. These badges include a "Stack" indicator in the form of a number in the top left of the thumbnail. This both shows you that some stacking is present, and acts as a button for collapsing / expanding the stack (if you click on the badge of the top-of-stack image) as well as for promoting some other image to "top" (if you click on the badge of that member of this stack).

[ChuckBr]

I had the same issue, and removing the 'stacking' solved it (select all images, right-click, go to 'stacking', and click on 'unstack'). It was obvious that the pictures were still there, since the Explorer showed them all.  Thanks, Dkhyde, L-Marie

[ChuckBr]

Looking again at the 'stack' issue, it reappeared after I created a panorama.  I realised that when I created the panorama, inadvertently I had ticked the box 'create stack'. That was what started the problem in the first place.

[Guest]

What seems to be the same problem in LR CC for PC appeared today but none of the suggested solutions work. Only 25 of 196 pictures are showing in a given folder.  All but one appear to be star-rated, although I have no library filters selected. When I try to synchronize the folder I am told there are no pictures to import and when I try to manually import them from the Explorer folder all the pictures are greyed out, suggesting that the pics are somewhere in the catalog. So far everything seems to be the same as previous posters. HOWEVER, when I search the whole library for one of the missing photographs get a null result. I don't stack pictures, so that is not the problem. Any help would be gratefully received.

[dj_paige]

Lightroom thinks the photos are imported into a different folder.

Here is the search you need to do. Perform all of these steps, in order

1. Click on All Photographs on the left hand side of the Library Module (under the word Catalog)
2. Expand all stacks (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)
3. Turn off filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)
4. Perform a search in Lightroom using the Filter Bar, search for one of these files by file name

[Guest]

Well, that's bizarre. It may have worked, thanks very much, although if it did it did not do so for any reason I can understand. As I said in my original post, I *don't* stack pics, so expanding stacks should have made no difference. As I also said, I had turned off all filters, not that I had any active, and searched all pictures for one of the missing ones with no results. In other words, I had already done what you suggested. Anyway, I have my pics back so I'm happy.

[dj_paige]

I *don't* stack pics

except perhaps by accident?

[SGM]

how does one delete ?

[MaineMan]

This is common it appears. After you've done the stand Mac troubleshooting: repair permissions, restart. Simply do this:

Open Lightroom and the catalog in question. Go Under the FILE dropdown menu and chose "Optimize Catalog".

This should fix the problem.

All the Best,

Steve

[peedeegee]

I can see that this thread is quite old but some of the replies are recent so clearly it is an ongoing problem.

I am a new LightRoom user and I had exactly the same issue. Here is how I solved it.  It may not be the same for everyone that has had the problem, but here goes.

After viewing all the suggestions above, I was confident that I had not created copies, or was stacking pics.  I could also see that the LightRoom folder was pointing at exactly the same folder in explorer.  In one instance I had five files in LightRoom but over a hundred in the explorer folder.

I right-clicked on the offending folder in the LightRoom and then clicked synchronise.  Interestingly, I noticed that this option was greyed out on any folder where there was not a discrepancy (between Lightroom and Explorer).  I selected the option "show import dialog before importing". (this is important otherwise LightRoom will carry out the process but fail to import the pictures without telling you why it did not!).  Next step, there were no files shown to import until I unticked the option "prevent importing duplicates" (or similar wording).  Lo and behold, the missing files were suddenly displayed, and then successfully imported.

In another folder but with only 14 photos in explorer and just one missing file in LightRoom, I was able to carefully check the details of this supposed duplicate which was being excluded.  The file name was not even similar to any of the other 14.  Neither was the file size or date and time.  So I am mystified as to why LightRoom thought this was a duplicate.

Please let me know if this solution works for any others of you with this problem.

[Rob_Cullen]

The file name was not even similar to any of the other 14.

Lightroom is looking at EVERY PHOTO IN YOUR CATALOG to determine if a file may be a "duplicate", and not just the "other" files in this one folder.

Lr does not 'like' having more that one entry in the Catalog for identical files, no matter where they might be in your system.

It is possible that the file reported as a "Duplicate" is stored in another folder and already exists in the Catalog. This situation often occurs if files in a hard-drive folder are imported with the [Copy] option, thus creating two copies of the file on the hard-drive.

Your "offending folder..." with greyed out previews might also suggest the same situation.

Take note of a greyed-out file in the "Explorer" window that you are trying to synchronize, then do a search of the Lightroom catalog. You may find the photo is already living somewhere else in your computer.

Unticking the 'Prevent duplicates' option simply 'fools' Lr into allowing you to import the same photo twice.

[racheln9405972]

I was having the same problem. What I found out was that in my File Manager (Mac), that I had duplicate file names for 2 different events. So the most recent event was showing in Lightroom, but the previous one with the same file name was not. What I'm not sure I understand is that the ones showing up were .NEF and the ones not showing were .JPG.  What I did was just add an "a"after the number on the ones that were not showing, then I was able to synchronize the folder and everything is now showing up.

[dj_paige]

Probably not a good idea, the newly imported photos will not have the edits and user-supplied metadata. You really need to find the photos in the Lightroom catalog and fix the problem, rather than importing a second copy with a different name.

[racheln9405972]

How do I find them in Lightroom, then? I looked and could not find them anywhere. I checked stacking, I synchronized (without adding a letter to the end of the file name), I've checked all my folders. If you have a way I can do that, I agree - I'd rather not lose any edits.

[dj_paige]

  wrote

How do I find them in Lightroom, then? I looked and could not find them anywhere. I checked stacking, I synchronized (without adding a letter to the end of the file name), I've checked all my folders. If you have a way I can do that, I agree - I'd rather not lose any edits.

See my answer in Reply #18 in this thread.

[racheln9405972]

I did the unstacking per your directions and it did not work. I am going to go with my process and, thankfully, most of the files I have to rename I have not edited yet.

[dj_paige]

But I specified a 4 step process, not just unstacking. You can't just do the unstacking and say it didn't work.

[racheln9405972]

I looked at both your 4-step processes and the problem I had with the first suggestion (looking for photos in the "wrong" folder) is that all my files were in the correct folder, they just weren't showing because Lightroom was hiding any older versions with the same file name (regardless of file extension, apparently). I also did all your unstacking steps and it did not bring up the files that I could see in my file manager that were not showing in Lightroom. Maybe there were some changes with the change to Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC. I have Lightroom CC.

[dj_paige]

Ok, I think we've reached the end of the line here.

I looked at both your 4-step processes and the problem I had with the first suggestion (looking for photos in the "wrong" folder) is that all my files were in the correct folder, they just weren't showing because Lightroom was hiding any older versions with the same file name (regardless of file extension, apparently).

You have totally misunderstood the situation; clicking on All Photographs is a necessity, but if you're not going to do this (which would have taken you 10 seconds or less), then we can stop right now.

[racheln9405972]

Also - I just did a second synchronization because I changed some more file names and I can now see both the original file and the edited version, so it does not look like I lost the edits afterall.  Thanks for your advice!

[CK_BUIS]

racheln9405972, you are my hero. It worked adding a letter to al the file names! I know dj_paige does not receommend this, but when you have wasted app. 20 hours on this problem, you can live with two copies if the alternative is none.

THANKS!!!

dj_paige, I really do not think you have understood the problem with the missing photos. They are in the right folder but they do not appear in LR. I appreciate that you are trying to help, but do yourself a favour and acknowledge that there may be a real problem with the software here. Just becuse you do not experience it, does not mean that it is not an issue. I find many of your repliesextremely  condescending. None of your suggested solutions solved the problem. Accept it and acknowledge that a workable solution has been proposed by someone else.