LR just renamed one of my photos to the HD folder name

[Hudson_Ferris]

All of the photos and folders in my LR catalog are showing either ? or ! even though the photos are in their usual location and I can access them through finder and other apps. When I tried to relink one of the photos, LR renamed it after the top-level folder where I store all of my photos. Wouldn't let me drill down to other folders and just treated the folder as if it were a file. And now when I try to relink a folder, I get this message "An internal error has occurred. ?:0: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)"

I tried shutting down LR and rebooting my computer and starting again. This often fixes issues when I have been working all day with multiple catalogs, and also either Photoshop or Indesign. Because after a few hours they all go wonky. I tried optimizing the catalog and that did nothing.

I have a backup that LR made and a previous iteration of the catalog but it would be nice to know why this catalog is acting up.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[dj_paige]

When I tried to relink one of the photos, LR renamed it after the top-level folder where I store all of my photos.

Honestly, Lightroom does not do this. How did you try to re-link one of the photos? Tell us the exact steps, in detail, leaving nothing out.

Also, please state your operating system version NUMBER and the version NUMBER of Lightroom. We need the version NUMBER and not words like "latest" or "up-to-date".

[Hudson_Ferris]

And I need not to be spoken to as if I were an idiot. Because Lightroom does this. It just did. It's never done this before in all the many years I've been using it, though it definitely has its quirks and loses touch with folders and files fairly easily.

I tried to relink the photos and folders in the usual way. I right clicked on one of the images with an ! and the usual info box popped up telling me the file couldn't be found and the original location and asked if I wanted to located it. I clicked on locate and it opened a finder window on that drive and I clicked on the "photos" folder and instead of drilling down, it renamed my image and linked it to the folder. 

When I tried to relink one of the folders with a ?, with the usual right click, find missing folder ... it normally would have popped up a finder window showing the last location of the folder but instead popped up a window with the top level directory, and when I clicked on "photos" it was treating the folder as a document, so I stopped trying to reconnect the links and quit LR. Rebooted my computer and tried again. Same results. Decided to optimize the catalog because that sometimes fixes quirks, and instead got an error message.

"An internal error has occurred. ?:0: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)"

And decided to come ask here.

I should also mention that all of the folders and files were in their original locations. And were available readily from finder and other apps such as Photoshop and Indesign.

Lightroom Classic CC 7.5

MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

[JohanElzenga]

Do you have a catalog backup? That error message indicates that there is something else going on. It could be catalog corruption, it could also be something that is known as the 'capitalisation problem'.

Also check that image in the Finder. Was it really renamed, or did Lightroom only do this in its catalog?

[skyoctane74]

I just had the same frustration. Seems like a broken link is occurring in the back end somewhere. databases!!!

Try this and see if it works.

1. In LR, Right click (Cmd click) on the missing folder in Lightroom's Library module.

2. Choose Show in Finder/Explorer. When the window pops up.

3. Click on the problem folder and rename by adding a 1 at the end of it.

4. Go back to Lightroom and it will be missing still. Repeat the Show in Finder/Explorer step again.

5. Rename to original folder name by removing the 1.

6. Go back to Lightroom and see if it now links like it should.

This worked for me. I can only assume that it reindexed and repaired the link but i'm no rocket surgeon.