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I'm hoping someone can help out with this strange behaviour. I've been culling some photos, and after removing one that I did not mean to, and placing it back in the folder, I located the synchronize folder function that I required to add it back in to the Lightroom catalogue. When the menu appeared however, it suggested that all the photos from the folder were missing (34), and it wanted to import all the photos again (35... the previous 34 plus the 1 I put back into the folder). I've checked on other folders, and everyone I have selected wants to remove/import all photos (see screenshot).
I haven't moved the folders, but the catalogue file was resaved/moved when changing from LR6 to LR Classic around a month ago. Since then I have rebuilt all smart previews in the catalogue, and haven't noticed any other strange behaviour.
Has anyone seen this before/got any advice please?
Thanx for screen-shots.
Your last screen-clip that shows the 'new' location for the {2010-01-16} folder with the 'old' location greyed out, is now suggesting to me that you may have encountered the "Capitalization" bug.
The symptoms are that Lightroom shows a folder twice, but it only exists once on the hard-drive.
I am not the expert on this bug, but to diagnose- hover the mouse cursor over each instance of the {20-01-16} folder and write down the folder path that appears, noting in particular
...The issue that you see happening with Synchronize Folder is typical for the capitalisation problem. What happens is that Lightroom sees two different folders, because of a problem with the capitalisation in the name of a parent folder. But because the system considers both folders as one and the same, you see both 'missing' images and 'new' images in the dialog, even though these are actually the same images. Do not proceed in this case, because that will make you lose all metadata and edits of
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Can you post a screen-clip that shows your Folder panel (with folder 2020-01-01) and some of the thumbnails in that folder, in Grid view-showing badges?
I suspect that many of your photos (or Folders) are marked as 'missing'.
[Synchronize Folder] can be very destructive if used with 'Missing' photos!
How exactly are you "culling"?
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Hi WobertC,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. Please see screenshot attached as requested.
Culling is being carried out by flagging the images as rejecting and then deleting them from the catalogue and computer when I am sure.
Many thanks
Andy
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"When the menu appeared however, it suggested that all the photos from the folder were missing (34), and it wanted to import all the photos again (35... the previous 34 plus the 1 I put back into the folder)."
And exactly what happens when you go ahead with the import? I suspect it will just import the 1 that you accidentally removed. (Assuming you haven't checked the option to allow Lightroom to import duplicates)
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Hi dj_paige,
Thank you for replying.
I tried it on a couple of smaller folders of images which I had not carried out any work on. It removes them all from the catalogue (folder goes to zero images) and then reimports, builts smart previews etc. I applied a quick edit to one of the images first and it does find the sidecar file to include the edit after reimporting.
Many thanks
Andy
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Why don't you just import the one file??
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The one file is in the catalogue now, but I am concerned that it seems to want to remove/import all photos from each folder I've looked at.
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I am having trouble following your problem, (and suggesting an answer)
Have you tried the [Synchronize Folder] with the option to "Remove missing photos...." 'unchecked'?
Even with this option 'checked', I see no reason why Lr would 'remove' all the photos in a folder unless they were 'Missing' (or possibly Smart Previews only!).
The [Synchronize Folder] does not have an option to create Smart Previews, so when do you create SPs? and Why are you creating SPs?
Your screen-clip does not show all Grid Cell information-
You might change the Library 'View' options (by [Ctrl+J] ) to see more info on photo borders- Show Expanded Cell extras, etc:
And did you Import just ONE photo as suggested in the post by DJ_Paige?
Sidecar files are not really relevant to your problem, unless the file you restore from a backup also has an accompanying sidecar.
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Apologies, new screenshot below.
I've just tried synchronizing two sub-folders (both wanting to remove and import all photos as shown in the original screenshot. The first I left both boxes ticked, it emptied the subfolder (2010-01-16) and recreated it at the level above, then creating previews as if it were a new import. The second I unticked "Remove missing photos..." as suggested. It left the subfolder full (2010-02-28) but created a duplicate at the level above in the tree. In both cases the actual files and folders exist in the same place on the hdd file system.
The previews are created when it imports the photos, as per my import settings, it creates SPs and 1:1 previews.
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Thanx for screen-shots.
Your last screen-clip that shows the 'new' location for the {2010-01-16} folder with the 'old' location greyed out, is now suggesting to me that you may have encountered the "Capitalization" bug.
The symptoms are that Lightroom shows a folder twice, but it only exists once on the hard-drive.
I am not the expert on this bug, but to diagnose- hover the mouse cursor over each instance of the {20-01-16} folder and write down the folder path that appears, noting in particular the exact upper/lowercase of all characters in the path. Compare both for any differences in 'case'.
FYI- Details for correcting this bug can be found here-
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/capitalization-catalog-error/
And, strangely, the folder {2010-02-28} appears twice with 8 photos- do they both show the same photos?
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I'm also having this exact same issue when syncronising folders.
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That's it! For some reason my user account folder has changed from ForenameSurname to forenamesurname. I will read up on the bug and how to correct it/understand what has changed.
In the case of the folder appearing twice with 8 photos, it is the one that I unticked the "Remove missing photos..." option - they are the same 8 photos in each, and they both link to the same files, and the same metadata (changing it one, brings a warning that it has changed on the other and asks whether to update).
Thank you for your help in diagnosing the problem.
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The issue that you see happening with Synchronize Folder is typical for the capitalisation problem. What happens is that Lightroom sees two different folders, because of a problem with the capitalisation in the name of a parent folder. But because the system considers both folders as one and the same, you see both 'missing' images and 'new' images in the dialog, even though these are actually the same images. Do not proceed in this case, because that will make you lose all metadata and edits of these images. Solve the capitalisation error and the Synchronize Folder dialog should no longer show this.
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Thank you Johan, that appears to be the case, as per my answer to WobertC above. I will read up on the error and how to correct.