Unable to Import Lightroom Catalog b/c of Non-Existent Photos

[rlo37]

I was wondering if anyone has encountered this problem.  I exported a LR catalog (with photos) on my laptop, then imported it (Import From Another Catalog) to my main catalog on my PC.  The edits that I made on the laptop did not appear, so I assumed that I made a mistake and decided to retry.  I marked all photos as rejected and deleted them from LR (from disk) with Ctrl-backspace. I then created a new catalog export on the laptop, with photos, and re-tried the catalog import on my PC. The catalog import dialog showed my photos grayed out and the prompt said that the photos existed in the catalog but the files were missing.  The Import button was also grayed out. 

I know that the photos are not in the PC’s catalog because I deleted them and I verified that by using filters to search for them via name and metadata.  I tried creating a new catalog export on the laptop after renaming the files.  On the PC, “Import From Another Catalog “, the photos were again grayed out, but the Import button was not grayed out.  After I clicked it, only the one virtual copy that existed in the catalog was imported. No photos.

So, I am prevented from adding the photos (with their edit metadata) to my main catalog.  I have successfully imported catalogs before, but this is the first time that I have tried to re-do the import.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[JohanElzenga]

You say you exported as catalog on the laptop. How do you get this exported catalog on the PC so you can import it? Do you export to an external hard disk that you connect to the PC? Do you copy the exported catalog to the PC by some other means? If so, do you copy the entire catalog folder or just the catalog file? It sounds like the connection between the exported catalog and the photos is getting lost before you import this catalog on the PC.

[rlo37]

I copied the whole export folder (which contained the exported catalog and a folder containing the photos) as-is to the PC.  No question that the files we there.  The Import From Another Catalog dialog showed them on the right side—they were just grayed out.

[JohanElzenga]

After you copied the catalog folder to the PC, verify that the photos are not missing so open that catalog in Lightroom on the PC and check it. They shouldn't be missing because Lightroom should use 'relative paths' to these images, but there is another discussion here that suggests it can happen nevertheless. If they are missing, then that explains what you are seeing. Simply 'reconnect' them first and then open your main catalog in Lightroom and import this catalog.

[cmgap]

Did you empty the trash bin? If not they may still be in the trash.

Do you have backups of the catalog and the images?

[rlo37]

Nothing is missing.  That's the point.  I have the incoming catalog and its photos.  LR reports that the files are already in the receiving catalog when they are not, so it won't let me do the import.

[rlo37]

The solution was to create the same drive and folder structure as where the photos were stored on the laptop.  The laptop has only a C: drive and on the desktop, I use E: for raw files.  I created the folder structure on the PC's C: drive and copied the raw files into it.  LR found them and my edits were there. 

I'm happy, of course, but this still doesn't explain why, after deleting the photos from LR, the catalog entries were still there.

I'll go back and re-read the procedures for importing catalogs.  I don't remember any mention of the need for using the same drive and folder structure, but this works for me.

Thanks, all, for your responses.

[JohanElzenga]

When you use 'Import from Another Catalog', the only thing that is important is that the catalog that you import has a correct connection to the images. If not, you can still import the settings and edits, but the images will not be found and cannot be copied during the import. That's what I mentioned earlier and it looks like that's exactly what happened.

The fact that you had to manually create the same folder structure is tale-telling. You should not have to do that when you use 'Import from Another Catalog', unless you imported a catalog where the images were disconnected (missing). In that case your imported images will still be linked to their original path (on the C: drive of the original computer). Manually copying them to your current C: drive in the same folder structure will work, because Lightroom cannot see the difference between these drives. It just knows the images should be on C: and now they are.

I've never seen a situation where images are removed from the catalog, and then Lightroom says it cannot import them because they are already imported. What I have seen is that people think they were removed from the catalog, but because they used Ctrl-Delete while being in a collection, the images were only removed from that collection, not from the catalog.