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mo1419872
mo1419872
Participant
January 30, 2017
Answered

Missing collections

  • January 30, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 2854 views

I am new to LR, have been starting with 2 collections in 1 catalogue and was adding to the second - but apparently imported without assigning it to the second collection. Tried to reimport - the system would not let me. Found the images under missing photos and tried to move to the second collection in bulk, and at that point my system now says I have no photos left in any collection. I only have used 1 catalogue - so I do not know if the photos somehow deleted or if I somehow am in another catalogue. Is it possible to delete the prior collections by an import process? I did find the photos I edited in the hard drive, but they are all in saved with 3 times the photos used in my collection - but at least all the changes form LR and photoshop are saved there. Is there someway to go back and reopen the previous collections again? I have not found how to go back to possibly the other catalogue either. Or should I reimport the photos saved in photoshop to LR? That is the same collection as virtually all photos were changed there. 1 online sight said to try an Ircat file - did not bring anything back - and it appears to be stuck in the Ircat file. I did use a date with 8/5/16 to find the missing photos which saved as 8:5:16reception.Ircat at the top of lightroom - that is the only file open and it has no photos. My husband is concerned that the backslashes have caused the problem.

I am also having problems importing photos from iPhoto, the cloud and my phone. Each only shows part of the photos that are stored in iPhoto etc when I used the Plug in extras under File to import, and unfortunately the photos are newer than what is showing as available to import.

Any ideas? Thanks for any help you can offer.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer dj_paige

    This is very difficult to understand what you did. However, importing a 2nd time is NEVER a good idea. In fact, when you import a photo, Lightroom thinks it is a brand new photo that it has never seen before and is not in any collection.

    If Lightroom thinks the photos are missing, then you can fix this by following these instruction (and not by importing the photos again): Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders . But the problem is caused by moving or renaming or  deleting the photos outside of Lightroom.

    Lastly, I strongly advise your read or watch some beginner's tutorials:

    Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 | Adobe TV

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/quickstart/

    2 replies

    mo1419872
    mo1419872Author
    Participant
    February 3, 2017

    Thank you for your response. It appears that moving the photos as a group drag may have been what corrupted the other catalogues according to the reference you gave me. I still cannot find them in Lightroom at all - but everything is on the hard drive - just not in my collections.  Am considering deleting the lightroom program and then reinstalling it as I cannot access anything and only had 3 collections in the catalogue. Think I could reimport the photos  from the hard drive if it is reinstalled - is this correct.? Do you think this is the best option?

    I have been watching tutorials, bought Martin Evening's book and U tube tutorials like phlearn - but unfortunately is a still learning curve, and not the same as what I was used to in iPhoto.

    Thanks again for any help you can provide.

    mo1419872
    mo1419872Author
    Participant
    February 3, 2017

    1 of the adobe tutorials discussed importing directly from the hard drive. Was able to do this - none of the old catalogue or collections were found - but it did allow me to make a new collection with a similar name and I added the same photos from the hard drive - should be Ok. Did not have to delete and reinstall the program.

    Still do not know how to import photos from a shared file on iCloud. Do you know how to do this?

    Thanks.

    dj_paige
    dj_paigeCorrect answer
    Legend
    January 31, 2017

    This is very difficult to understand what you did. However, importing a 2nd time is NEVER a good idea. In fact, when you import a photo, Lightroom thinks it is a brand new photo that it has never seen before and is not in any collection.

    If Lightroom thinks the photos are missing, then you can fix this by following these instruction (and not by importing the photos again): Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders . But the problem is caused by moving or renaming or  deleting the photos outside of Lightroom.

    Lastly, I strongly advise your read or watch some beginner's tutorials:

    Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 | Adobe TV

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/quickstart/

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