Photos not showing in library folders

[danielc0013]

Hey all,

I'm using Lightroom CC classic on a Mac. I would consider myself a fairly adept Lightroom user and recently installed the Enfuse plugin to merge bracketed images. It was just the trial version and I left the default options in place but also selected "reimport files to lightroom" as well. The plugin seemed to run successfully and reimported the new file, however, all of my other folders dating back to 01/01/2018 are greyed out and have a zero indicating the number of files. I freaked out and quickly checked in my finder to see if the files were missing, but they were all in tact.

I have enabled photos in subfolders, library filters are not enabled, and I have made sure to unstack all images. I have tried re-imorting the files, but they all show up greyed out in the import box indicating that they have already been imported. I have tried some of the recommended options for similar problems by copying the content and trying to redirect the folder location, as well as simply pointing the directory somewhere else and then pointing it back to the correct folder. The photos still show up under "All Photographs" just not under the dated folder or any place else. I have been able to create an alternate catalogue from an older backup and import the missing files, but obviously, all the processing work on the re-imported files is lost.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this before? I suspect the images were double imported or something when I ran the Enfuse plugin, but don't know why it would have done it to all my images. I'm just baffled as to why Lightroom cannot recognize the files within the dated folder structure, what caused it, and how to resolve the issue.

[Just Shoot Me]

Close LR, Restart your Mac and then reopen LR.

Are you sure you have the correct catalog open?

[dj_paige]

This typically happens when you have imported the photos accidentally using the COPY option rather than the ADD option. Thus, LR is looking in the folders where the COPY was placed, while you are looking in the folders where the original was placed.

Re-importing the photos is simply not the answer. It is the wrong thing to do.

To fix the problem, you need to follow ALL FOUR of these steps to locate the photos in Lightroom, in order. (Not one or two of the steps, not whatever steps you want to follow, but ALL FOUR).

1.   In the Lightroom Library Module, on the left, under Catalog, click on All Photographs

2.   Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)

3.   Turn off all stacking (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)

4.   Search for at least one of these photos by file name using the Lightroom Filter Bar

Once you find the photos, we can tell you how to fix the problem.

[danielc0013]

Thanks for the reply. I've seen this recommendation on a related thread, and I am able to follow through step 4, but what do I do once I have located the images under All Photographs?

[ManiacJoe]

After you locate the image in "All Photographs"

- right-click, go to folder in Library

- right-click, show in Explorer/Finder

These options will show you where Lightroom thinks the image should be.

[danielc0013]

I have done this. Lightroom identifies the correct folder where the files are actually located on my computer. Is there something else I should do? The folder still indicates that 0 images are in the respective folders. @dj_paige Is that the correct next step? Lightroom is identifying the correct folder that contains the images, but they do not show up in the lightroom file structure (I can find them under the "All Photos" category. Now what?

[Just Shoot Me]

Have you restarted you Mac?

[danielc0013]

Yes, I have tried restarting. Additionally, when right clicking on my 2018 directory and selecting "Show Parent Folder" I get this error:

[Munwetsa]

There seem to be some problems with import in the latest version of LR Classic CC. I am getting similar issues with imports.

They only way I have found to resolve this is to open Adobe bridge at the source folder, then select all the required images in bridge and drag and drop them into the LR import dialogue. LR then seems to import them.

It's a fairly tedious process, (it's taken me two days to get 2/3 of the way through importing around 60k images from a new NAS). I also find I have to check the metadata image counters for each type in Bridge and compare them to a filtered count of the relevant type in LR to make sure I haven't dropped any in the drag operation.

I've also noticed that LR ignores Jpegs that have the extension JPEG instead of JPG, so a certain amount of renaming needed in Bridge before import.

I wouldn't bother with all this, except my workflow is LR<->Photoshop and i have bought plug-ins and satellite apps that i use with it, so I can't revert to Bridge.

Also, if it would just work properly, I really like the LR interface for a number of tasks.

[JohanElzenga]

This is almost certainly the problem that is known as the 'Capitalization problem'. In your folder hierarchy, you somewhere have a parent folder that appears twice in Lightroom, once in lower caps and once in upper caps (or partly). MacOS and Windows are case-insensitive, so they consider these as one and the same folder. Lightroom is case-sensitive however, so Lightroom does see two different folders, and so two hierarchies. Right now you are seeing subfolders that are in the 'wrong parent folder', so to speak. That is why Lightroom shows them as empty.

There is a lot of information on this problem and how to solve it here: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/search/3257216/?q=Case+sensitive&o=date

For example this thread: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/wrong-path-every-time-when-importing.31062/

[elie_dinur]

@danielc0013

Is this the way you have been importing images, by moving them during the import from the dated sub-folders to the "2018" parent folder?

[JohanElzenga]

The 'Internal error' dialog that the OP gets when he tries 'Show Parent Folder' indicates there is more going on than just a mistake while importing. This error is consistent with the 'Capitalisation problem' I mentioned earlier.

[danielc0013]

I'll take a look at those resources. Just to clarify, this is not something I've experienced before and was not caused by me importing files, nor do I experience errors importing new images. The error happened when I ran the Enfuse plugin, but I had also selected the option to "reimport files to lightroom" so it's possible I didn't configure something correctly and an importing error occurred during that process. It seems unlikely to be the "capitalization error" as I am using the default file hierarchy and only the default Mac parent files are capitalized. No files are capitalized within the Lightroom hierarchy i.e. Macintosh HD -> Users -> username -> Pictures -> 2018 -> 2018-01-01 etc.

I'll go through the troubleshooting for that just in case.

[JohanElzenga]

The capitalisation problem is not something you do. It's something that can occur suddenly, for some unknown reason. It's not even certain what causes it, Lightroom, the OS (it happens on Mac as well as on Windows) or maybe a plugin (it started when you used the Enfuse plugin).

You cannot see it in the Finder, because as I explained, the Finder does not see different folders. Only Lightroom does. In Lightroom you can detect it by hovering over a folder so the full path is shown. In your hierarchy, it could be that there is a 'PICTURES" folder, or it could be at the username level. Both possibilities occur, so check for that. Because you got the 'Internal Error' when you tried to reveal the parent folder of '2018', I suspect it will be your Pictures folder.

[danielc0013 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for all the replies. Errors were given when trying to locate, update, hide or show parent files, so none of the trouble shooting steps for the capitalization error resolved the issue. However, I found this other recent thread and it seems like his issue was similar to mine. "no photos in selected folder" unique constraint failed  I fixed it by loading and re-optimizing an older catalog and then importing the missing photos and settings from the previous catalog. Pretty sure the lrcat file was corrupted. Just a reminder to back up your catalog regularly   .

[danielc0013]

No. Sorry, that was just an example to show that the files found within the 2018-03-11 folder are greyed out and cannot be imported as Lightroom recognizes them as already having been imported previously. I normally only import once from the memory card copying the file to the destination.

[mikelmags]

happened to me too.. annoying, takes too long to import and you cannot see the files. importing gets stuck then when you to the folder on your files, all the photos were already imported