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Moved many folders, all had photos which failed to move :(

Participant ,
Mar 28, 2017 Mar 28, 2017

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So I made the mistake of copying a large number of files (half of my 2016 archives, close to 1TB) from my iMac desktop to my AFP mounted Synology NAS using Lightroom not copying through the OS's file manager.

What happened during the move was for each folder (or most anyway), anywhere from 10-100 images had the message "can't move files to new location" (or something similar) and I'm left with a bunch of folders with a few files in them.  Not a big deal, I can move them all by hand.

In moving the say, 10 files, all but 2 move just fine, and I get the message that those 2 files already exist in the destination folder.

But the files are half copied, ie: if the file is about 30mb, the file is in the destination folder but is about 14mb, so the copy of the file didn't complete.  So what I have to do is

  • move the 2 files using the finder to the new folder
  • do a 'update folder location' to the destination (rest of the files) and then merge the result of the source (2 files) and destination (sort of like 'locate missing files' so I don't lose metadata changes)

This is a minor pain in the butt for a couple of folders, but for the 40 or so, it's becoming a real chore.

Any idea of a better way (I've considered restoring the 2016 folder and my lightroom catalog from yesterday morning to "undo" but I'm worried that I'll just mess it up even more.  Also any idea why this is happening?  Why can't Lightroom move files around more easily, and why is it seemingly consistently failing for a few files for each folder?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Mar 28, 2017 Mar 28, 2017

Arcterex  wrote

So I made the mistake of copying a large number of files (half of my 2016 archives, close to 1TB) from my iMac desktop to my AFP mounted Synology NAS using Lightroom not copying through the OS's file manager.

Why can't Lightroom move files around more easily, and why is it seemingly consistently failing for a few files for each folder?

This a known issue that has finally acknowledged today by Adobe:

Lightroom: Moving files, resulted in deleting the files | Photoshop Family Customer Community

...

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LEGEND ,
Mar 28, 2017 Mar 28, 2017

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When there are a large number of folders and images to move it's much better and more reliable to COPY them to the new location using Finder or Windows Explorer. Then open Lightroom and update the folder location pointing Lightroom to the folders on the new hard drive. After everything is verified on the new hard drive you can delete the files from their original location.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 28, 2017 Mar 28, 2017

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Arcterex  wrote

So I made the mistake of copying a large number of files (half of my 2016 archives, close to 1TB) from my iMac desktop to my AFP mounted Synology NAS using Lightroom not copying through the OS's file manager.

Why can't Lightroom move files around more easily, and why is it seemingly consistently failing for a few files for each folder?

This a known issue that has finally acknowledged today by Adobe:

Lightroom: Moving files, resulted in deleting the files | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Even if this issue is "fixed" by Adobe I would still suggest not moving a large number of files and folders from inside LR. There are many other system issues that can cause files to be lost or corrupted. See my suggestions here on how to safely move complete folder structures from outside LR to a different drive location.

EDIT: Corrected URL link

Re: How do I move my pictures to external hard drive?

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Participant ,
Mar 28, 2017 Mar 28, 2017

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Thanks guys.  Just as a note I realize this was the wrong thing to do and was trying to find a better way to recover.  Hopefully this is something that Adobe can fix though.... it's not like computers haven't been able to copy files reliably for the last 30  years or anything (sarcasm yes, but I mean, how hard can it be....).

As an FYI I'm basically copying all the files through lightroom, then when it invariably fails on the last couple going to the destination folder, finding the file by sorting by size (generally they're 50-70% the size of the rest of the raw files), confirming the files left in the source is larger, deleting the bad destination files, and then re-dragging the remaining file in LR, which seems to be working reliably, just slow.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 28, 2017 Mar 28, 2017

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Arcterex  wrote

As an FYI I'm basically copying all the files through lightroom, then when it invariably fails on the last couple going to the destination folder, finding the file by sorting by size (generally they're 50-70% the size of the rest of the raw files), confirming the files left in the source is larger, deleting the bad destination files, and then re-dragging the remaining file in LR, which seems to be working reliably, just slow.

This actually sounds like a different issue. At the link I provided some files are deleted and not transferred at all or a subfolder ends up in a different location in the folder tree. I assume you're experiencing file corruption, which is a different issue. Try opening some of the "smaller" raw file copies on the NAS inside LR or PS to confirm they are actually corrupted files.

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Participant ,
Mar 28, 2017 Mar 28, 2017

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This is correct, there are two issues here:

  1. Some files are not being transferred across at all, out of a folder of 150 files maybe 10 will be left behind
  2. When I move those 10, maybe 1 or 2 of the files will have been half copied to the destination folder, resulting in a 24mb file where it should be a 30mb file (not always 24mb, sometimes 28, sometimes 8, sometimes 0.
    • The corrupt file is there from the original copy (step 1) not the second "move the files that didn't get moved the first time (step 2)
    • The files are actually corrupt, LR won't create a preview of them and the size makes it pretty obvious that something isn't right with them.

No files are deleted (as far as I've seen, though granted I haven't been going through file by file to ensure they are the same).

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 17, 2018 Jun 17, 2018

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Arcterex The same thing happened to me yesterday. I was made to believe that moving with LR was better than the native file system...doh! All of my folders transferred but only 15% or so of my photos. I haven't figured out my next steps...i've gone through the panic stage, the on sh*t stage, and now I'm just hoping the files aren't bad and I'll have to deal with hours and hours of manual restoration.

I was attempting to move from one USB drive to another (first was near capacity). I tested a couple of folders (smaller ones) and it worked fine. After testing I was bold enough to highlight all of them and let the copying begin...fail! 

Adobe - before I screw things up more, would appreciate some support on this. What I have in my head as potential solutions?

1) Can I restore the original folders and files? 2) Is there a way to sync the folders 3) Do I need to go through each folder individually and simply copy / paste to the original destination?

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LEGEND ,
Jun 17, 2018 Jun 17, 2018

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We're not Adobe in this forum, we are just other Lightroom users. We'd be happy to help, but you need to explain the situation you have now in a lot more detail.

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