Folder not showing images in Lightroom Classic CC

[SdSchuur]

I have been editing files that I have copied into Lightroom as RAF files for several weeks. Today when I opened my catalog from my portable hard drive (where everything lives) the folder in Lightroom says  it has 0 images and all of the images appear missing in my catalog. I have not moved them since I last worked on them. And they appear in the folder within LR on the hard drive. It seems that Lightroom is just not recognizing them. How can I fix this error?

FYI -  at first all of the photos in every folder in this catalog appeared this way when I opened it today. But since restarting - the problem is only happening with one specific folder of images.

[dj_paige]

If Lightroom says you have 0 images, you have probably opened by accident an empty catalog file.

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

[JohanElzenga]

dj_paige  wrote

If Lightroom says you have 0 images, you have probably opened by accident an empty catalog file.

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

But why would Lightroom show that folder in the first place if this is an old catalog? Lightroom only shows those folders that contain (or contained) images it has already imported. We have seen reports of folders suddenly showing zero images before. If I remember correctly, it turned out to be a corrupt catalog, so try a catalog backup.

[SdSchuur]

After I posted - I closed down and went out to a meeting. I came back to your message - tried opening up the same catalog to check it again before opening a backup catalog. It is now fine! Very odd. Before I sought help - I opened and closed it a few times on two different systems. The catalog has 7127 photos - so definitely was not trying to open an empty one. Maybe a ghost in the machine?? Anyway - glad it is working again.