Do you have any import presets (saved at the bottom center of the import dialog)? Import presets contain all the settings in the right panel of the import dialog, so also the destination folder. If you have an import preset that has a saved destination folder that is no longer available, then you may get this message when Lightroom loads those presets when you start an import.   ... View more

I see that Lightroom thinks there are (old) projects on my F: drive But that is because I used to have an SDD as an F drive. I could move thos projects to their current location but that is a tedious task.  So  I changed the F: USB drive letter to Q: (where no projects have ever existed) I cleared my caches, tried XMP files...  Imports where also slow. So that is not the solution either. ... View more

That would typically happen when the user has removed all the images that were cataloged in those folders. The images that you see in File Explorer could be either images that were in the catalog and have been removed from LrC, or images that have never been imported into LrC, or a mixture of both. If they are previously cataloged images that have been removed from the catalog, only you would be able to figure out how that may have been done, but if it was unintentional then you need to think about trying to recover the situation by looking at your catalog backups. If that's not possible, you could right-click on each folder and select "Synchronize Folder" which would import the images, but you would have lost all previous work done in LrC unless you had saved metadata to XMP. ... View more

Sorry Ian, I found your recommendations beyond my technical understanding.  When I attempted as you suggested, I am reluctant to change settings in the preferences I do not understand, that may affect other functions of Lr. I would expect Lr C to operate normally without other technical adjustments, and if the Adobe tech had problems – the situation remains beyond my capabilities too.   So, I will continue to download files from my SD card directly to my computer, using Bridge, then later import them into Lr C.   ... View more

The two workflows outlined above are essentially equivalent, in one case Bridge is used and the other Explorer/Finder performs the same function. I use a third variation that I highly recommend; FastRawViewer gives me various tools for examining the Raw images while they are still on the card, such as a true Raw histogram and numerical overexposure and underexpose readouts, side by side file comparisons, focus peaking, easy image magnification, etc. What I copy to permanent storage and add to the LRC catalog is only what I really want to keep. ... View more

Using Windows 10, can I back-up the ORIGNAL images, (not the Lr Catalog) using Lightroom Classic to an external hard drive?   Yes, of course. In fact, I consider making some sort of backups mandatotry. However, I do not consider making manual backups using your operating system a good strategy. Backups, in my opinion, must be automated and done at regular intervals (such as daily, or weekly). Backups that rely on human interaction always are less reliable (because humans get busy, or get lazy, or just plain forget) than automated backups. So take some advice, find an automated backup program and use that.   If these back-ups can't be done within Lr, then just backing up the images normally will lose the Lr Catalog functions for those stored on the external drive?   No. Adobe is smarter than that. Your backups only need to be the original photos. Then if you need to restore the backups you can have the catalog use them instead of the originals. ... View more

Moved to the Bridge forum, from the Photoshop forum. ... View more