LrC lost my path to images

[Ltdave]

this happened once before when i was using a paid version of Lr. now its happened with subscription LrC

i move all my images from my card to a folder on a portable HDD. if you look in the computer at the File Explorer (Win 10) it shows as My Passport (D. it is plugged into a port on a 3-port hub along with my wireless mouse dongle and SOMETIMES a different drive in the other port. it has been in the same port since i started on this drive about 3 months ago (a previous HDD filled up).

i open LrC and in the Library window, i select Import, and then open the folder (from that hard drive) and import all of the images in that folder. after i edit and cull them, i export them to a sub-folder titled Edits, in that same root folder.

up until yesterday, ive been able to open LrC, click Library and then choose the "My Passport (D folder (source?) and open any of the folders in it for either more editing, or whatever reason.

last night, i attempted to do just that and when i finally was able to find "My Passport (D" none of the root folders existed as having been imported to LrC. i can reimport everything again (it looks like i can) but i dont know why or how this happened. every time i close LrC, if it asks me to update the catalog (i think thats the phrase they use) i select yes.

also last night, i moved the portable HDD to a different port on the hub and it showed with all the root folders (and i presume the sub-folders in them) all under "My Passport (D. i couldnt imagine that somehow after 5 months, the drive had gotten moved to a different port but i kind of chalked it up as an anomaly.

this afternoon, i opened LrC and looked for the imported folders. NOT THERE. i moved the drive plug back to the original port. NOT THERE. not there as in imported into the catalog. unless there's something im missing.

luckily i pretty much DONT need to access the RAW files to re-edit them once ive done what i want but it would be nice if the catalog still showed them.

has anyone got any thoughts on this?

 

[Nature's Spectrum]

Have you tried "find missing images" in Lr? That should help you, sounds like it is perhaps pointed to the wrong place. You can see the files in explorer correct?

 

[the durkarian]

this happened once before when i was using a paid version of Lr. now its happened with subscription LrC

i move all my images from my card to a folder on a portable HDD. if you look in the computer at the File Explorer (Win 10) it shows as My Passport (D. it is plugged into a port on a 3-port hub along with my wireless mouse dongle and SOMETIMES a different drive in the other port. it has been in the same port since i started on this drive about 3 months ago (a previous HDD filled up).

i open LrC and in the Library window, i select Import, and then open the folder (from that hard drive) and import all of the images in that folder. after i edit and cull them, i export them to a sub-folder titled Edits, in that same root folder.

up until yesterday, ive been able to open LrC, click Library and then choose the "My Passport (D folder (source?) and open any of the folders in it for either more editing, or whatever reason.

last night, i attempted to do just that and when i finally was able to find "My Passport (D" none of the root folders existed as having been imported to LrC. i can reimport everything again (it looks like i can) but i dont know why or how this happened. every time i close LrC, if it asks me to update the catalog (i think thats the phrase they use) i select yes.

also last night, i moved the portable HDD to a different port on the hub and it showed with all the root folders (and i presume the sub-folders in them) all under "My Passport (D. i couldnt imagine that somehow after 5 months, the drive had gotten moved to a different port but i kind of chalked it up as an anomaly.

this afternoon, i opened LrC and looked for the imported folders. NOT THERE. i moved the drive plug back to the original port. NOT THERE. not there as in imported into the catalog. unless there's something im missing.

luckily i pretty much DONT need to access the RAW files to re-edit them once ive done what i want but it would be nice if the catalog still showed them.

has anyone got any thoughts on this?

Regardless of whether or not the external hard-drive is connected to your computer, the external HD, root folder, sub-folders, and images should still show in the Lightroom catalog.

Can you please post a screen-shot of what you are seeing.

 

[davidedric]

I have a dim memory of problems with the catalog accessed via a hub. I realise that is no help at all, but are you able to attach the external drive directly to the computer, and if you can, what happens?

 

[Wilt]

Lightroom needs the drive to be the same logical LETTER identifier (D: or E: or F: etc) consistently, it cares not about the label applied to the drive (My Passport1 vs. My BigPassport vs. MyNAS)
If you 'sometimes' plug in an additional drive but sometimes not, the logical idenfier of a unit can change, even when its name identifier has not changed.

The LR folder structure is preserved within its own mini SQL database pointer, which is not directly linked to how the O/S sees drives

 

[pegelli]

Regardless of whether or not the external hard-drive is connected to your computer, the external HD, root folder, sub-folders, and images should still show in the Lightroom catalog.

Unless the catalog file is also on the same drive as the "missing" image files.

 

[Ltdave]

Lightroom needs the drive to be the same logical LETTER identifier (D: or E: or F: etc) consistently, it cares not about the label applied to the drive (My Passport1 vs. My BigPassport vs. MyNAS)
If you 'sometimes' plug in an additional drive but sometimes not, the logical idenfier of a unit can change, even when its name identifier has not changed.

The LR folder structure is preserved within its own mini SQL database pointer, which is not directly linked to how the O/S sees drives

yep.

i plugged this hdd into the port and it has the address of D: its had it for the last 6-8 months that ive had it.

it was accessed the other day, from the same port the same hub the same computer usb. all was fine.
yesterday (or whatever day i mentioned) it at first would not show up in the library. NOTHING CHANGED from the days previous.
if i went to import button, it shows up with the D: drive identifier, and all the folders and sub folders that are on the drive show up, ready to be imported again.




I have a dim memory of problems with the catalog accessed via a hub. I realise that is no help at all, but are you able to attach the external drive directly to the computer, and if you can, what happens?

i plugged it directly into the computer and it shows in file manager as My Passport (D

in LrC, Library it only shows the folders that i have just imported (had a couple of shoots i did yesterday and thursday playing around) and THOSE folders show up just fine

with no other drive plugged into the computer or the hub, this is the library panel.

the D: drive in the yellow circle shows 3 'imports' if you will. one has 0 images because i ended up never importing anything from that file.

the H: I: J: drives that are in the red circle, have SOME of the files from the D: drive as imports but when you click on them, and then try to Develop, i get "File Not Found"

this isnt the first time this has happened but i think i ended up not reimporting anything unless i really REALLY had to go back in for different edits

 

[Capn Jack]

yep.

i plugged this hdd into the port and it has the address of D: its had it for the last 6-8 months that ive had it.

it was accessed the other day, from the same port the same hub the same computer usb. all was fine.
yesterday (or whatever day i mentioned) it at first would not show up in the library. NOTHING CHANGED from the days previous.
if i went to import button, it shows up with the D: drive identifier, and all the folders and sub folders that are on the drive show up, ready to be imported again.




I have a dim memory of problems with the catalog accessed via a hub. I realise that is no help at all, but are you able to attach the external drive directly to the computer, and if you can, what happens?

i plugged it directly into the computer and it shows in file manager as My Passport (D

in LrC, Library it only shows the folders that i have just imported (had a couple of shoots i did yesterday and thursday playing around) and THOSE folders show up just fine

with no other drive plugged into the computer or the hub, this is the library panel.

the D: drive in the yellow circle shows 3 'imports' if you will. one has 0 images because i ended up never importing anything from that file.

the H: I: J: drives that are in the red circle, have SOME of the files from the D: drive as imports but when you click on them, and then try to Develop, i get "File Not Found"

this isnt the first time this has happened but i think i ended up not reimporting anything unless i really REALLY had to go back in for different edits

View attachment 138566

Sometimes, the order that external storage is plugged in causes the drive letter to change. I also use passport drives. They tend to have the same drive letter for each use unless I insert the SD card first. When I do that, the SD card sometimes grabs the drive letter that Lightroom expects.

 

[West Coast Birder]

I just reinstalled windows on my desktop due to some kind of corruption issue. In the process of doing that, my drives got new letters assigned and I had to get Lightroom to search for all my photos (I have them on a second hard drive on the computer) and establish the links in the library.

 

[the durkarian]

yep.

i plugged this hdd into the port and it has the address of D: its had it for the last 6-8 months that ive had it.

it was accessed the other day, from the same port the same hub the same computer usb. all was fine.
yesterday (or whatever day i mentioned) it at first would not show up in the library. NOTHING CHANGED from the days previous.
if i went to import button, it shows up with the D: drive identifier, and all the folders and sub folders that are on the drive show up, ready to be imported again.




I have a dim memory of problems with the catalog accessed via a hub. I realise that is no help at all, but are you able to attach the external drive directly to the computer, and if you can, what happens?

i plugged it directly into the computer and it shows in file manager as My Passport (D

in LrC, Library it only shows the folders that i have just imported (had a couple of shoots i did yesterday and thursday playing around) and THOSE folders show up just fine

with no other drive plugged into the computer or the hub, this is the library panel.

the D: drive in the yellow circle shows 3 'imports' if you will. one has 0 images because i ended up never importing anything from that file.

the H: I: J: drives that are in the red circle, have SOME of the files from the D: drive as imports but when you click on them, and then try to Develop, i get "File Not Found"

this isnt the first time this has happened but i think i ended up not reimporting anything unless i really REALLY had to go back in for different edits

View attachment 138566

Are you sure that you haven't created a NEW CATALOG that only has the three folders in it.

It would have help if you had expanded the other three drives so that we could see what was on them.

 

[Ltdave]

Are you sure that you haven't created a NEW CATALOG that only has the three folders in it.

It would have help if you had expanded the other three drives so that we could see what was on them.

the three folders that are in it, were 'just created' a couple of days ago when i tried to open previously imported folders and they were not available. one is from friday night (r 24 january @ Fraser) and group which i imported just to see if it would or if it would say it was already imported (it only has 7 photos so it would have gone quickly)

the H and I drives both show 'grayed out' as in not selectable, folders that are on the D: drive.

they werent there as of 4 days ago. nothing changed as far as removing or adding any HDD to the computer. the only thing i did was LAST WEEKEND, i did some editing of some photos, and saved them on the D: HDD. when all was done, i closed LrC (i dont remember if it 'backed up' or not, but if it did all i would have done is selected Yes, for back up vs Not at this time). of course i then also shut down my computer.

 

[ShipleyNW]

I came into this discussion late and I'm a little confused about where we are. Let's go over how LRC keeps track of images and compare that to the symptoms you're seeing.

As mentioned by others above, LRC manages its own proprietary database, and calls it the catalog. The Library module is the user-facing front end to that database. When you import an image file, LRC writes a database record to hold all the information about how LRC and Camera Raw has interacted with that image. It does not store the image file itself. It may create a small preview image, stored in the database, that it can show in the library, but the full image file is stored outside the database on the file system. The import process links the database record to the image file's location.

The database record stores info that comes with the image file, as well as any changes (edits, keywords, attributes, metadata) that was entered or changed by LRC. If you've made a lot of changes, you don't want to lose that database record.

Once you import an image, LRC wants to manage that database-record/file-location relationship. If you want to move an image file from one directory to another, you should do it through LRC. If changes happen on the file system that LRC doesn't know about, then it kinda quits on you.

Let's go to the Library Module and look around in the grid view. That's your database, your catalog.

Even if LRC loses track of the image file, the database record for the image should still be there. If there's a preview image in the database, you'll see that in the library grid view. Even if there's no preview, there will be a blank spot, a placeholder, in the library. If you're not seeing images or placeholders in the library, your catalog might be corrupt. Every time you shut down LRC, it asks if you want to back up your catalog. I hope you say yes to that most of the time.

If you have backup catalog files, figure out where the latest one lives and read the manual about restoring from backup.

If you do have images or placeholders in your catalog, the database and the file system got disconnected. You should see an icon in the image space indicating that. Click on that icon and LRC will walk you through relinking the catalog with the image file. Cool thing is that, if your file path changed, LRC will correct it on that image, then try to make the same correction for all your problem catalog records. If files were moved from D:\blah\blah to E:\blah\blah, LRC will look to see if all the missing image file paths now live under the E: drive. Even if you didn't move the files, remap them to the D:\ drive anyway.

If what you're seeing isn't like anything I've described, we can work from there. Might be LRC, might be a system thing.

 

[the durkarian]

the three folders that are in it, were 'just created' a couple of days ago when i tried to open previously imported folders and they were not available. one is from friday night (r 24 january @ Fraser) and group which i imported just to see if it would or if it would say it was already imported (it only has 7 photos so it would have gone quickly)

the H and I drives both show 'grayed out' as in not selectable, folders that are on the D: drive.

they werent there as of 4 days ago. nothing changed as far as removing or adding any HDD to the computer. the only thing i did was LAST WEEKEND, i did some editing of some photos, and saved them on the D: HDD. when all was done, i closed LrC (i dont remember if it 'backed up' or not, but if it did all i would have done is selected Yes, for back up vs Not at this time). of course i then also shut down my computer.

There is 400GB of data on your “My Passport” D drive (3.6TB - 3.2TB = 400GB), which I assume is photographs. If that data was showing in your catalog a few days ago but is not showing in your catalog now, then the only logical reason for that data to be missing is because you have either (1) deleted it from the catalog, or (2) because you have created a new catalog which only has the three folders in it.

Your third alternative is; if all the missing data is on one of either the “H”, “I”, or “J” drives then all you have to do is reconnect that particular drive.

 

[Ltdave]

yes, it is a 'new' drive and doesnt have much on it yet.

if all i have to do is reconnect H, I, or J drives (which 'show' in grayed form with a ?) please tell me where to plug my passport in, so i can now see it as an H, I, or J drive. i have two USB ports. plugging it into either of them gets me the same. plugging it into one of the three ports on my hub gets me the same.


here is the drive looking at it in file manager


and here are the subfolders on it



all of these sub folders show up on the H, I, and J 'ghost' drives shown in LrC but they do NOT show up as imported images on the D drive unless i use the import function to import them all over again.