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Significance of the Lightroom Masters folder in CC2017 version

New Here ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Hi community!

 

I note on my Mac that most of my photos are in folders named by year in my Pictures user area. However, quite a lot are in similar folders, but inside a folder called Lightroom Masters. I don't mind where they are but I want to consolidate them so that they are all either in Pictures, or all in Pictures/Lightroom Masters.

 

Is there a problem if I move them around in side Lightroom, or does the Lightroom Masters have some significance for the photos that are in there? So: does it matter which location they are in?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

@Bryn0D44 wrote:

I note on my Mac that most of my photos are in folders named by year in my Pictures user area. However, quite a lot are in similar folders, but inside a folder called Lightroom Masters…Is there a problem if I move them around in side Lightroom


 

There is no problem in principle if you move them around in the Folders panel in Lightroom Classic. You can move them anywhere Lightroom Classic lets you in the Folders panel. However, in practice there is a potential issue because both

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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You can move your files around without any problem. But, do this inside of LightRoom Library. If not, you will have to search for the files in order to resync the catalog. 

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New Here ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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Thanks Ralph. So is the "Lightroom Masters" folder serving any purpose at all other than acting as a potential, but not compulsory, place for photos to go? Can I just completely empty it if I want to (from within LR as you say)?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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[Moderator moved from Stock Contributors to Lightroom.]

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator
Alt-Web Design & Publishing ~ Web : Print : Graphics : Media

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LEGEND ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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LrC doesn't automatically create the name of ANY folder where images are stored. The fact that you have a folder named Lightroom Masters would suggest that, sometime in your file naming in the past, YOU arbitrarily must have named the folder as such.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2021 Oct 13, 2021

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@Bryn0D44 wrote:

I note on my Mac that most of my photos are in folders named by year in my Pictures user area. However, quite a lot are in similar folders, but inside a folder called Lightroom Masters…Is there a problem if I move them around in side Lightroom


 

There is no problem in principle if you move them around in the Folders panel in Lightroom Classic. You can move them anywhere Lightroom Classic lets you in the Folders panel. However, in practice there is a potential issue because both folders contain subfolders named by year. That means you can’t simply drag a bunch of folders from LightroomMasters to Pictures (or vice versa), because it’ll say that folders of the same name already exist at the destination. If moved in the Mac Finder, it might warn you about replacing the other folder with the same name.

 

To prevent unintentionally wiping out images you meant to keep, you are probably going to have to go through folder by folder, at least at the year level, to make sure you’re merging without deleting. It’s a chore. You might also have to resolve duplicate images inside a folder if any images have the same name in both.

 

The name LightroomMasters doesn’t have any significance itself. The fact that two folders contain subfolders named by year can mean that at some point, the Import settings had a Destination folder set differently for a while. It’s happened to me.

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New Here ,
Oct 14, 2021 Oct 14, 2021

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Thank you Conrad. Yes I took the plunge and manually moved photos into the equivalent folders in Pictures. I thought I was doing really well until I spotted that three Year folders suddenly had question marks on them. Searching in Finder those 7,000 odd photos had disappeared completely. Not in the Trash - nowhere... Luckily I keep a backup of the drive so I was able to retrieve them all. 

 

I think you are right that at some point (most likely when changing computers) I had a different import folder specified. 

 

I have learned a great deal about LR folders now and I wanted to thank you again for helping me.

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