"Missing" photos after import

[kittydoc2]

Hi-

I imported my catalog into LR Classic, and it appears that about 35,000 photos are "missing".  LR clearly knows they exist -- they show in the library but as greyed out icons.  I have tried searching for the missing photos on my harddrive to no avail.  How do I locate the source of these pictures so that I can point LR into the correct direction to import them?

Thanks!

-Sandra

[DdeGannes]

See if the article at the link provides the info. Do not reimport this will complicate your problem.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/ 

[kittydoc2]

Thanks-
Unfortunately, I cannot get past the first step -- I can't find the photos
on my hard drive.

A little history -- I think most of these photos were taken and stored on a
previous computer that had a hard drive failure (this is in the
pre-Lightroom days). I was able to restore the drive using a carbonite back
up.

I have searched my current hard drive as well as the carbonite back up and
do not find the files associated with the missing photos. But clearly LRC
knows they are there, somewhere, since they are showing up in the library,
just greyed out.

So, I think I need some tips on how to best find these files which are
obviously somewhere on my computer???

Thanks-

-Sandra

[dj_paige]

Lightroom does not know where they are. That's why it indicates the photos are missing. Lightroom may be showing you thumbnails or previews that it built when the photographs were available, which it can do even if the photographs are no longer available.

When you say you did the search, do you mean you used your operating system to search all hard drive(s) for one of these photos by file name? If not, then you should do this now.

What about backups of the photos? Do you have them?

[kittydoc2]

Sorry, I was not exact enough in my terminology.
I understand LR does not "know" where they are, it is more that LR knows
THAT they are. All of these photos were taken and saved before I installed
LR -- so in order to even know that they exist, there has to be *something*
telling LR that they exist, no? I have never imported any of these photos
into LR, especially in that I don't even know where they are.

I searched my operating system by date and select file names -- with no
luck. I guess I am not sure exactly HOW the hard drive would have saved
them (ie, should a search that says 01.06.2007 bring up those photos from
Jan 6, 2007.....or does it require IMG_4056? I've tried both).

As to a back up -- I used Carbonite for my back up system. Unfortunately,
it seems to have lost all of my metadata in the process of restoring my
hard drive -- and although I have attempted to search for them, I found
that difficult to do. And, since LR doesn't have access to my Carbonite
account, I am guessing they aren't there?

I'm sorry this is so complicated. I'm lost. I even asked my IT guy to
help recover them and he sent me to someone more familiar with LR. 😉

-Sandra