Comments on: Finding missing pictures and folders in Lightroom

By: Kate Warburton

Kate Warburton — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:08:55 +0000

Thanks for this- but when I do this- select on folder, right click and locate the source file on the hard drive where the images now are, it says that lightroom already contains the image….but not as an editable version. It is not connecting and the annoying question mark is still there? How do you get rid of the question mark to connect the thumbnail to the real source file so any editing doesnt have to be re-done. OOOh, lightroom is getting on my nerves today

Many thanks!!!

By: albert

albert — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:56:29 +0000

To Phoenix Firestarter,

Are you saying that the thumbnail shows something, but the actual image is something else?
I’ve never seen that and can only imagine this happening when there is something seriously corrupt. In this case, I can only suggest you remove them it from the LR catalog (database) and re-importing them.

Or are you saying, you have multiple copies of the same image (in different folders) and you imported the wrong copy? In that case, I would suggest your workflow is somewhat mixed up. By all means have copies of your images, but keep one set away from Lightroom else you’ll get mightily confused. You may want to read my “Lightroom Backup Strategies” (see http://albertdebruijn.com/home/archives/385 ) article too for further reference on how to set this up.

However, if you have this scenario, then here too I would recommend you remove the images you consider to be “wrong” and re-import the ones you want.

To remove from the database, do the following:
First of all check to make sure you have the original files somewhere safe and that they DO exist for import.
Then:
1. Open Lightroom and go to the Library function
2. Select the images that are wrong
3. Go to the PHOTO menu and down towards the bottom you’ll find “Remove Photos from Catalog”.
4. Select that and the selected photos will be removed. This does NOT delete the images from disk, it just undoes the import.
5. Now go to IMPORT and import the images you want.

If you have edited the images you want to remove, then the process becomes a bit more complicated. If you open the folder with the “wrong” images, you’ll find a bunch of files with the .xmp extention. Copy those files to the folder with the “correct” images and then do an import.

Good luck.
PS. Please, PLEASE!, before you go deleting or removing, make sure you have backups and copies. Just in case . . . . .

By: phoenix firestarter

phoenix firestarter — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:54:12 +0000

But what happens when the files are mistakenly located to the wrong source file? Is there a way to undo this action and/or redirect it to the correct source file?

By: Peter Pernet

Peter Pernet — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:35:50 +0000

Thanks for the tutorial.

Export as catalog in LR is no option for me.
And replacing all missing folders or search for missing ones. pfew. lotta work.

This is what i did.

For fresh installation.
First backup your lightroom catalog file.
I copied the latest backup from lightroom. (look at the date) mypictures/lightroom/catalog*.lrcat
This is the file that stores all image paths and modifications to your files.
Then copy it back to the new my pictures/lightroom directory.
Your could also copy the preview dirs. but its not that important. it rebuilds it anyway.

Assuming all your pictures are in the same place, just one directory.
I shared this one directory with the only Administrator rights for this computer.
Then in network options I mapped this folder to a network drive. drive Z: e.a.
And all the pictures i import into LR can be copied or tranfered to this folder.

The next time you move your picture folder, you only have to share it again,
map it to drive z: over your network for that computer and voila.

reagrds,

Peter