Lightroom CC - Import folder structure

[kathmac1511]

Hi all,

I have all my photos sorted into Folders on my PC with Subfolders - eg. Birthdays - 2004 Sam, 2005 Alex etc.. etc.. there are hundred of them for holidays and family and so on.

In Lightroom CC - I cannot see where I can import this folder structure!  I can see how I can add folder by folder and create a new folder within LR CC but this is extremely time consuming.  Surely there is a way to import the folders in the structure that they exist in currently.. surely?

There are a lot of old posts regarding this but I cant see if there was ever a solution.

Anyone found a solution?

Thanks

[selondon]

Unfortunately there is not.

If you also use Classic you can create a Catalog, making sure you drag the required folders into Collections. Then Migrate that Catalog into Lightroom CC using the Migration tool (note, this doesn’t migrate hierarchical folder structures though).

[Jim Wilde]

If migrating a catalog from Classic to LRCC, you can use the right-click option on the top level folders(s) in Classic to "Create Collection Set...", which will replicate the folder/sub-folder structure as Collection Sets/Collections. When then migrating, LRCC will create Albums for all the Collections in the Classic catalog, though as pointed out, the Collection Set(s) are not migrated. So some manual work will be needed in LRCC, but at least all those named sub-folders should transfer as Albums.

[Brillanz GmbH31088282ly5q]

Oh my... the most useful features for sorting your hard drive images, to lightroom is not present. I should have checked this first, bevor buying lightroom. I think I would have ended not using it at all....

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Sounds like should have purchased Lightroom Classic instead. You can contact Adobe Customer Care to transfer you to the Lightroom Classic program if this feature is critical to you. 

[Brillanz GmbH31088282ly5q]

But I need the cloud functionalities to share endless images with a global team. Lightroom classic is great. Why can't those two merge? 

[99jon]

If you are intending to migrate an entire catalog Adobe recommends some preparatory work along the lines suggested above. See this link for more information:

Migrate photos and videos from Lightroom Classic CC to Lightroom CC

[Michael Boreham]

I started from a similar situation. Top level folders which were mostly year but a few major subject. Second level folders holding image files. About 20 top level, 500 second level. 75,000 photos altogether.

I imported them into LRCC by year/major subject. So about 20 imports. After each import I could move the just imported albums into a new Year folder, before importing the next year. Ended up with the 20 folders and 500 albums in LRCC. Laborious but workable. 500 imports would not have been (for me).

It happens that the source masters are the referenced masters for Classic and have the xmp files in, but that is incidental to your question because my Classic not syncing.

[cb4.tech]

I am a semi-professional photographer and software engineer with a PhD in Computer Science. I have been using Lightroom since its initial release in 2007. I have 50,000+ images in a year/month/important-event structure and many custom LR profiles. While traveling through Switzerland and France for two weeks and haven taken 4000 pics, I find myself on my wife's laptop having to sort and edit them for a friend in Paris. Of course, I downloaded the latest LR (LRCC) and tried to import these pics in my normal folder structure. Imagine my surprise that THE MOST COMMON FUNCTION anyone could want is non-existent in this latest version of the app!!! I will forgo the obvious questions and cut to the chase -- how is it possible that Adobe developers thought it was a good idea to eliminate this functionality from LR?!?!? I was forced to uninstall LRCC and install LR Classic to get my work done. Adobe, get your act together or I will be forced to abandon LR for something like Skylum Luminar.

[ccalberti]

This is an understatement!  It looks like LRCC operates more like Apple's Photos consumer product, imposing its own organizing structure to the detriment of those of us who have tens of thousands of imagesm raw and compressed, going back many years.

[Michael Boreham]

I have exactly the structure I designed and wanted in my 75000 LRCC library. See my post 4 above.

[ccalberti]

Yes, but only after you recreated the structure. I am experimenting and have migrated my LR Classic catalogue over to LRCC.  I already see that LRCC has ignored my organizing folders in favor of it's date/month structure.

[Michael Boreham]

Yes, AFAIK, you can't stop LRCC putting the originals in its day/date/month structure based on date of import. It cuts across my struture. I would not be able to recreate my structure (or any sensible structure) from the LRCC originals. It would work for someone starting out with LRCC from scratch.

I maintain a second set of my referenced originals in my structure. I would not be happy if my originals only existed in the LRCC structure. I do this exporting 'originals plus settings' out of LRCC at the end of every month. Actually I recently stopped keeping the LRCC originals locally at all. Didn't seem any point.

I was referring to the LRCC UI window. I didn't create my structure after import, (that would have been near impossible) but during import by importing one year/major topic at a time.

With the backstop of my second set of originals, I am very happy with LRCC, and worth (for me) the overhead.

[michaelj64926121]

I realize this is an old post, but I'm curious because I recently started traveling with a laptop to do some of the organizing and keywording of my photos on the go.  I import them into a "Mobile" catalog on an external hard disk.  My intent is to plug that external drive into my desktop PC, where the master catalog resides, and import them there.  I thought it through, wanted to avoid the folder creation issue everyone is discussing; I figured that since I had already renamed the folders in the Mobile catalog, I would simply copy each renamed folder from the external hard disk to the master folder on my desktop, open LR and import them by "Adding" them to the catalog.  Since they are already in a named folder, wouldn't the folder name be preserved?  

[JohanElzenga]

You are talking about 'catalogs', so I assume you are using Lightroom Classic? If so, then do not use syncing. Instead, use 'Import from Another Catalog' and import your 'mobile catalog' into your main catalog. https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html

And next time, please create a new thread in the correct forum. Don't revive a four years old thread.

[Jan27023445tc2y]

Will this functionnality be existing at some point. It seems so easy to implement... just trag a folder and import it with its containing pictures as an album... 

[JohanElzenga]

Nobody can/will tell you. Adobe does not comment on future functionality.