Skip to main content
B
BKFC
New Participant
September 21, 2023
Question

recovering files from new external drive

  • September 21, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 825 views

My daughter has been using Lightroom CC (MacOS) with storage to a NAS that she does not own.  Recently she lost use of the NAS but got a portable external drive with the LRCC folders copied to it.  When she starts LRCC, there's a pop-up that says "reconnect drive," which she can no longer do.  Is there a way to point LRCC to the new external drive without losing the connection to her previous photo edits?  Of course she can also switch to LR Classic (which I use) but may then also lose the edits.

 

Also (related) we cannot locate the LRCC catalog on her Mac.

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Theresa J
Theresa J
Community Expert
September 22, 2023

The good news is that Lightroom stores master files and edits in the cloud, not on a hard drive. The NAS drive had a local sync of the cloud, because local storage was turned on in the Lightroom preferences. Now the NAS is gone and Lightroom is still looking for it. Go to Lightroom preferences, local storage tab, and change the location by browsing to the new drive. Or, simply turn off the local storage. It's not needed for backup. Local storage allows you to work on your images without a good internet connection. 

Here's more information about local storage. https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/preferences.html#:~:text=dialog%20in%20Lightroom.-,Choose%20Edit%20%3E%20Preferences%20(Win)%20or%20Lightroom%20%3E%20Preferences%20(,choose%20your%20network%20drive%27s%20path.

B
BKFCAuthor
New Participant
October 17, 2023

The situation is a little more complicated.  Because of the size of her collection (1.6 TB) she opted to store her originals locally on the NAS (accompanied by warnings from Adobe), so there are no originals in the cloud.  She has the original (RAW) files on other devices.  The question is how to recover the database structure including the metadata already generated from previous LR sessions..  There are no sidecar files, but the metadata must reside on a local LR file or on the external drive (I can't discover where).  So it's important to restore the database (raw files plus the metadata) and not simply read the raw files back in as entirely new photos.

Also, the top-level name of the file structure on the new drive may be different, but underneath it should be whatever LR is looking for.

Theresa J
Theresa J
Community Expert
October 17, 2023

Until just this month, Lightroom required images to be in a Cloud. Lightroom is a cloud. Choosing the option to store images on a local device creates a synced copy. It does NOT move the files out of the cloud.

Are you certain your daughter used Lightroom and not Lightroom Classic?

Have you logged into Lightroom at lightroom.adobe.com?

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices