moving files to a new date folder

[benjamingordon]

hi.

i have hundreds of photos on cc that are in a folder called 'imported photos' on 'iPhone' on my internal hard drive.

id like to move them to my external hard drive but organised into date folders.

some of those dates such as 2017-11-06 doesn't exist so ive created it in my external ssd but for some reason its not showing up in lightroom.

how is it possible to move these photos to the relevant date folders if i cant see it in lightroom.

any ideas?

thanks

[dj_paige]

benjamingordon  wrote

hi.

i have hundreds of photos on cc

Do you mean Lightroom Classic?

[benjamingordon]

Yes. Sorry I meant classic.

When I said cc I meant that those files are imported from the creative cloud Into Lr Via my iPhone.

[Tony_See]

Working back through part of your question to get clarity:

"some of those dates such as 2017-11-06 doesn't exist so ive created it"

From that I take it you have created folder above (underlined) but its not showing or is the SSD not showing?

[benjamingordon]

yes the folders now exist on the ssd but are not showing in lightroom.

perhaps either because they haven't been created by lightroom or they dont have any photos within?

[dj_paige]

Folders created in your operating system will not show in LR's library module until you have imported at least one photo from that folder.

There is no easy way to do this in Lightroom anyway, if the photos have already been imported. The only easy way to do this is for photos that have not been imported, and then LR will create the dated folders when you import these photos.

So, you would be better off not even putting the work into created dated folders for the photos that have already been imported, and instead use the Lightroom Filter Bar, which can find any photos taken on a specific date(s), regardless of the name of the folder they are in.

[benjamingordon]

Thanks for this answer.

If i could export the originals and re-import then id do it.

The only reason i cant is because they are organised into lots of different collections and it will be almost impossible to remember where each one is to go.

Any ideas?

[dj_paige]

benjamingordon  wrote

Thanks for this answer.

If i could export the originals and re-import then id do it.

The only reason i cant is because they are organised into lots of different collections and it will be almost impossible to remember where each one is to go.

Any ideas?

Don't re-import, you will lose your collections, and possibly other things as well.

My idea is to change your mindset, and give up on this idea of having dated folders, and use the Filter Bar whenever you need to find photos taken on a specific date. It's effective, and requires almost zero effort on your part.

[benjamingordon]

i understand and appreciate your suggestion but its not really about searching for photos from a specific date, its more about having things organised from the ground up if you know what i mean?

[dj_paige]

Yes, I do know what you mean, and "folder organization" has never been something I recommend spending time on, in my opinion this is a poor use of time and resources. That's my opinion. I'll stick with it, even if your opinion is different.

Your option, as I explained above, is the tedious, one-by-one creation of dated folders and then moving photos into them. Or changing your mindset so you don't need to do this.

[richardplondon]

I'll stand up here, in support of an orderly physical organisation of the photo files, by capture date.

Even if this is never how one is interested in classifying the photos within LR, there are still advantages to that.

And IMO it is worth selecting a system for your past photos, whereby it is going to be easy for you to semi- or fully-automate as straightforwardly and consistently as possible, an identical system for your future photos, as you have LR bring them off camera card, directly into their permanent resting place.

If a folder is not visible within LR you can Add it - within the Folders panel. Or you can create it from within LR in the first place.

Then you can, within LR, move the photos concerned into suitable folders. One might do that all-in, or progressively - for example, using a filter to find all the photos within a given unorganised set, that were taken in 2017 - and move these into a "2017" folder. Then do the same for "2018" and you have the bare bones of a simple system straight away.

When you have the time, and according to your needs. you can go back and file those photos more precisely e.g. into year / month / day, or into month / date+shootname, or whatever your chosen final system may be.

[Rob_Cullen]

You will find a long discussion thread here on this topic- Can Lightroom re-organize already-imported photos into dated folders?

I am 'lucky' in  that I have used 'dated' folder structure 'forever' so never had to re-organize folders.

But if you must- the easiest method is in my last post#36 in the linked thread.