I copied my pictures file to an external hard drive. I also selected some photos that I thought weren't in my catalog and ended up in an older version of lightroom. Now my catalog for Lightroom CC shows no photos at all. I'm not sure what to do first.

[maryp21020600]

I'm working on an old mac pro with lots of old files. Currently I have a Lightroom subscription with Lightroom CC. I was very low on memory on my internal mac hard drive and wanted to get more space so I copied the pictures file to an external hard drive but I did not delete the pictures file from the internal G drive. Now when I open Lightroom there are no photos in the catalog. I have the option to import and when I click on that all my photos show up. But first there is a message which says ....The destination folder "/users/my name/Photos 2011 is not available. Using "Pictures" folder instead. When I click OK, I see my photos on the left side with Select a source at the top. On the right at the top I see "to 1 Macintosh HD.

I also tried to access some photos that I thought weren't in the catalog and when I did that I think I switched to a 2011 version of lightroom. I'm fairly confused right now and need to know how to get the right catalog back. I would like to import future photos onto the external 6 T drive as well and to do all the work there.  I did not back up the catalog recently but I am running time machine and could try and find it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Mary

[Just Shoot Me]

Please post a screen shot of Full LR Library module window.

You say G drive. Mac OS X doesn't use Drive Letters. it uses Drive Names (that is unless you named the drive G).

How, what program, did you use to copy the image file to the external drive?

That error message is because the folder you have selected in the Destination section of the right hand panel of the import dialog window isn't writable. But you should select Add at the top and not Copy, Copy as DNG or Move.

Where all these images originally imported into the LR catalog?

In the Library module do you see a list of folders in the "Folders" section of the left hand panel? Do they have a question mark on them?

Please post that screen shot.

[maryp21020600]

Here is the screen shot.

A G drive is the name of a brand of drive used by macs. (G Technology)

There is nothing shown in the library at all. Previously the photos were there and working without a hitch.

[dj_paige]

You have opened (accidentally) a blank empty catalog.

Go to File->Open Recent and select each catalog file shown there until you find the one that displays your photos.

Hint: it always helps to state the correct software name and version number. You do not have Lightroom CC. You have either Lightroom Classic CC or Lightroom CC 2015.

[Just Shoot Me]

As above.

You have opened the wrong catalog or somehow created a new, Empty, catalog.

[maryp21020600]

I did try that and the choices there are either the one from the external drive which I sent the screen shot of or a catalog from Lightroom 5. There is nothing shown for Lightroom 6 or CC. Maybe I need to import the pictures file again into lightroom from the external drive?

At this point everything I've done just makes it worse. I think I need to let lightroom known where the pictues are but I'm not sure how to do this.

Thanks for your help.

[Just Shoot Me]

Search your drives for .lrcat. See what comes up. Your real catalog will be the largest one in MBs and or KBs.

[maryp21020600]

When I search for .lcrat I find files for Lightroom 4 and 5 and one created Feb 6, 2020. I must have inadvertently distroyed the new catalog for Lightroom CC because there is no file for it. Is it possible that the .lcrat file for my photos could be in the Lightroom 5 file? That .lcrat fils is 13.5 mb. I have close to 2 t of photo stored and I realize the catalog is just a small copy of the photos.

[dj_paige]

So let's stop here a minute.

I did try that and the choices there are either the one from the external drive which I sent the screen shot of or a catalog from Lightroom 5.

I find files for Lightroom 4 and 5

You can't tell by looking at catalog names what version of Lightroom they work with.

You need to try opening these catalog files either by in your operating system double-clicking on them, or in Lightroom use File->Open Catalog. If they are in the File->Open Recent list, you have to select them and open them to see if they are the catalog you want.

[maryp21020600]

I  opened the largest lightroom file and there is now a library catalog in Lightroom. On the upper right it say Lighroom CC 2015 but it has photos from 2018 but not all the photos which were there previously. I still want to link lightroom to the files on the external drive which has all the photos and work out of that drive because it has space available. Is there a simple way to do that? To make lightroom  use that hard drive and also to make it the drive where photos are imported to. This sounds simple but I doubt it will be.

Thanks again for the help.

Mary

[dj_paige]

I  opened the largest lightroom file and there is now a library catalog in Lightroom.

And some photos are missing? Did you try opened each one of the files (in other words, all listed files) instead of the largest one?

I still want to link lightroom to the files on the external drive which has all the photos and work out of that drive because it has space available. Is there a simple way to do that? To make lightroom  use that hard drive and also to make it the drive where photos are imported to. This sounds simple but I doubt it will be.

Yes it is simple. The instructions are here: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders scroll down to the section "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location". You can do this on the parent folder, and all subfolders will be reconnected.

[maryp21020600 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for all the help. In the end I created a new catalog and moved all my photos into it. I located the catalog in the external hard drive and all is well.

Mary