LR Classic "original file could not be found"--using LRC on PC and MAC

[bdobyns]

I use LR Classic on a Mac in my college lab (3 hours per week) and at home and work (a zillion hours per week) on a PC.  My routine is this--take pictures, copy files from camera's memory card to an external hard drive with each photo-shoot in its own sub folder, which also is where I store all things Lightroom.  I then open up my master catalog from my external hard drive, and import to Lightroom--everything is on the same external hard drive.  At school, on the Mac, all files have an exclamation point indicating that the original file could not be found and it gives me the last known address, which would be J:\Original Pics\(unique name of shoot).  The Mac doesn't recognize that location.  I must go through each and every photo and reestablish the path, which now has a different address, Volumes\original Pics\(unique name of shoot).  Very tedious when there are more than 5000 pics for this semester!  So I reestablish the path, do my work, and go home.  And yes, now my home PC says that it doesn't recognize the path and now I must go back and and change from Volumes....back to J:\...! At least on the PC, once I change one path, it will recognize and change all paths for that specific folder, but once again, I have all my original photos stored in their own specific folder.

I guess if I was using the cloud to store my photos, using a PC or a MAC would not be such a big deal, but my college class only wants to use LR Classic.  Please tell me that Adobe has a quick solution for this problem?  Thanks in advance.

[ManiacJoe]

Mac and Windows identify hard drives differently.

You do not need to do a "find missing" on the individual files.

You just need to do a "find missing folder" on the top-most folder(s) on the drive each time you swap OS types.

[JohanElzenga]

There is a solution for this, assuming that the Lightroom catalog is also on that external drive. If that is so, what you can do is the following: Using Lightroom, move the images to a parent folder inside the catalog folder. So place your 'Original Pics' folder inside the 'Lightroom Catalog' folder (or whatever the name of the catalog folder). That's all.

The explanation: If the pictures are inside the catalog folder, Lightroom uses a 'relative' path rather than an 'absolute' path. So it no longer looks for 'Volumes\Original Pics\(unique name of shoot)' on the Mac and 'J:\Original Pics\(unique name of shoot)' on the PC, but on both machines it will look for '...\Original Pics\(unique name of shoot)'. And that path will be the same on both machines.

[bdobyns]

All right.  I took my EHD to work and did what you said--moved the original picture folder from where it was on the drive and put it within the catalog.  I spent a great deal of time going through each set of pictures and reestablished the path so that they could be developed.  Seemed good.  I took it over to a Mac, and I was able to go into the develop tab!!!  Yeah.  I am now at home and every single picture has an exclamation mark.

This is what I noticed.  The USB port on my work PC is G:\ while the USB port on my home computer is J:\  well, according to what I read, I am know using a relative path and not an absolute, or does that just apply to Mac's?

When it is all said and done, I want to be able to use Lightroom on my two PC's (what I am paying for) as well as on the school's Mac Computers.  I can set things up again if needed.

[JohanElzenga]

The name of the disk on the Mac, or the drive letter on Windows isn't relevant in a relative path. A relative path does not contain that. The path is relative to the catalog folder rather than the disk. That's why this works, and why it works on both Macs and PCs. And it works regardless of the drive letter that is assigned to the disk (letters can change).

You say 'I am now at home and every single picture has an exclamation mark.' Could it be that you are using a different catalog at home? If you use a catalog that is located on the internal drive of the home computer, then obviously you will still have a problem because the images were moved. You have to use the same catalog on all computers and it must be that catalog on the EHD. Choose 'File - Open Catalog' and open the catalog on the EHD.

[bdobyns]

All files, including photos are located on my EHD.  I purchased lightroom and use it on both my home and work PC's as well as on the Mac's on the college campus.  My file structure on my EHD is currently like this:

Dobyns Foto (G:\)

     Folder--CatalogMaster 123

          Sub Folder--Backups

          Sub Folder--CatalogMaster 123 B_Dobyns Previews.lrdata

          Sub Folder--Lightroom Settings

          Sub Folder--Original Pics

     Folder--Photo 123 Handouts

This was after moving the Original Pics Folder from outside of the CatalogMaster 123 folder to inside that same folder as indicated by Johan.  The reason for the folder being outside of the folder originally was based on the instruction given by the college photo department on how to setup the EHD and create a catalog in LR.

So, yesterday, I moved the Original Pics folder along with all the subfolders, which contain the actual files.  I did this because every file had the following info--last known location was J:\Dobyns Foto\Original Pics\(the subfolder where the file was stored).

I took the EHD to a Mac computer and it seemed to find all the information.

I then took the EHD to my Home PC computer and all files now had an exclamation point, stating--last known location was:  \Volumes\Dobyns Foto\catalogmaster 123 B_Dobyns\original pics\(the subfolder)\(file name.nef).  So, after plugging in the HD to my home computer after using a Mac, the path to the actual picture didn't work.

I reestablished the path to some pictures, using my home computer, so now, at work, I have two different paths that are not working--one from the pics that I reestablished and one from the pics that I didn't reestablish, after having plugged the drive into a Mac and used Lightroom:  Previous location:  J:\catalogmaster 123 B-Dobyns\original pics\(subfolder name)\(file name) or \Volumes\Dobyns Foto\catalogmaster 123 B_Dobyns\original pics\(the subfolder)\(file name.nef).

Rather than trying to fix the problem that I am having--how does one setup Lightroom and store original files on an EHD so that I can open and edit my files in Lightroom on any Mac or PC without having "Last known location..." issues?

[JohanElzenga]

bdobyns  wrote

All files, including photos are located on my EHD.  I purchased lightroom and use it on both my home and work PC's as well as on the Mac's on the college campus.  My file structure on my EHD is currently like this:

Dobyns Foto (G:\)

     Folder--CatalogMaster 123

          Sub Folder--Backups

          Sub Folder--CatalogMaster 123 B_Dobyns Previews.lrdata

          Sub Folder--Lightroom Settings

          Sub Folder--Original Pics

     Folder--Photo 123 Handouts

This was after moving the Original Pics Folder from outside of the CatalogMaster 123 folder to inside that same folder as indicated by Johan.  The reason for the folder being outside of the folder originally was based on the instruction given by the college photo department on how to setup the EHD and create a catalog in LR.

So, yesterday, I moved the Original Pics folder along with all the subfolders, which contain the actual files.  I did this because every file had the following info--last known location was J:\Dobyns Foto\Original Pics\(the subfolder where the file was stored).

I took the EHD to a Mac computer and it seemed to find all the information.

I then took the EHD to my Home PC computer and all files now had an exclamation point, stating--last known location was:  \Volumes\Dobyns Foto\catalogmaster 123 B_Dobyns\original pics\(the subfolder)\(file name.nef).  So, after plugging in the HD to my home computer after using a Mac, the path to the actual picture didn't work.

I reestablished the path to some pictures, using my home computer, so now, at work, I have two different paths that are not working--one from the pics that I reestablished and one from the pics that I didn't reestablish, after having plugged the drive into a Mac and used Lightroom:  Previous location:  J:\catalogmaster 123 B-Dobyns\original pics\(subfolder name)\(file name) or \Volumes\Dobyns Foto\catalogmaster 123 B_Dobyns\original pics\(the subfolder)\(file name.nef).

Rather than trying to fix the problem that I am having--how does one setup Lightroom and store original files on an EHD so that I can open and edit my files in Lightroom on any Mac or PC without having "Last known location..." issues?

Where is the 'CatalogMaster 123 B_Dobyns.lrcat' file? You do not mention that file, but that is the actual catalog.

[bdobyns]

The .lrcat file is located in the folder--CatalogMaster 123

[JohanElzenga]

Then it should work if you use this catalog. If you didn't use Lightroom to move the images, then you will have to 'reconnect' them one more time. After that, it should not matter which computer you use.

[bdobyns]

I went through and reconnected all images on my EHD using my work PC at work.  The EHD was connected to the computer via the G:\.  Now, at home, I plugged in my EHD, which is J:\, and once again all of the pics have exclamation marks.

[bdobyns]

OK, called Kumar (Adobe tech support).

Solution.  at least between two PC's, change the drive letter of one to match the drive letter of the other.  I am hoping that moving the files inside the LR catalog on the drive will help with the Mac issue but I will have to wait and see on that one.

[ManiacJoe]

See my post at the very top of this thread.

LR does not use relative paths for anything.

[JohanElzenga]

ManiacJoe  wrote

See my post at the very top of this thread.

LR does not use relative paths for anything.

Lightroom can definitely use relative paths when the images are inside the catalog folder. That's the method that is also used when you 'Export as catalog' and include the masters. See the answer from Jim Wilde in this thread: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/external-drive-letter-and-lightroom-catalog.18474/and John R. Ellis answer in this thread: Keeping image file location relative to "lightroom catalogue"  Maybe it doesn't always work correctly however, or maybe you need to use 'Export as catalog' to create these relative links. I have not tested that out.

[ManiacJoe]

Thanks for the link! Some interesting special cases there.

[henrywl]

I've been using this method for quite a few years, but it seems the latest Lightroom (11.1) no longer supports relative path. I have to relink them every single time I moved a catalog folder (which also contains my original images folders). 

[JohanElzenga]

I will check this later, but as far as I know, nothing has changed.

[JohanElzenga]

I just tested it, and it still works for me. I can export a catalog, include the negatives and then move the catalog folder to any other disk. When I start Lightroom with this catalog from such disk, it finds the images just fine.

[henrywl]

Thank you Johan. My scenario is a bit different. I host landscape workshops and help my students working with selected raw files from our trips. I created catalogs for each of my students, using the exactly same method you mentioned above (after creating catalog, used LR to creat subfolder under the same folder as lrcat files, and imported raw photos into the subfolder).  I then upload the whole folder to OneDrive and share it to my students. They used to be able to just download the parent folder, unzip, and everything worked. But now it no longer works, or at least not consistent as before. (sometimes they say it works, but many time not. I tried myself and it didn't work as before.). Maybe I still missed something?

[JohanElzenga]

---

@henrywl wrote:

Thank you Johan. My scenario is a bit different. I host landscape workshops and help my students working with selected raw files from our trips. I created catalogs for each of my students, using the exactly same method you mentioned above (after creating catalog, used LR to creat subfolder under the same folder as lrcat files, and imported raw photos into the subfolder).  I then upload the whole folder to OneDrive and share it to my students. They used to be able to just download the parent folder, unzip, and everything worked. But now it no longer works, or at least not consistent as before. (sometimes they say it works, but many time not. I tried myself and it didn't work as before.). Maybe I still missed something?

---

OneDrive frequently comes up in discussions about Lightroom problems. My guess would be that the cause of your problem is not Lightroom, but OneDrive.