Clicking exclamation point in LR 7.3 won’t locate photos in Collections

[Homeboy]

My desktop equipment: Lightroom Classic CC Version 7.3 in Creative Cloud, Windows 10, Dell XPS 8900, 32GB Ram, 4 Ghz, 64-bit, x64, Intel Core i7-6700K CPU

Problem --  Reorganized folders on external drive, then created Collections. In Library mode in Collections, when I click the exclamation point on an image, navigate, click the thumbnail image in the new folder and click Select, a popup message says:

“Already in catalog. The file [filename appears here] is associated with another photo in the catalog. Each file can only be associated with one photo. Show in Library.”

The exclamation point remains. Oddly, LR used to accept Select and find the new location with no problem. Now it seems as though LR sees duplicates, which there aren't. In the Folders section, for the same set of photos, there isn't an exclamation point.

How do I resolve the conflict and so Collections knows where the images are, and make the exclamation point go away?

(By the way, System Info under Help says I have Windows 7, which used to be on my desktop, but is still on my laptop. How do I let it know I'm using Windows 10 on the desktop?)

[dj_paige]

It seems to me you have imported the photo twice, and you cannot connect both imports of the same photo to the same original.

Please do a search for the photo by file name in Lightroom. Please follow ALL four of these steps (not one or two or three of the steps, 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

[Homeboy]

Followed your steps. The Filter Bar search resulted in showing just the selected NEF original and the retouched version. The retouched version still has the exclamation point and yields the same duplication message.

I think the best thing to do is for me to delete all of Lightroom's folders and Collections and import everything afresh -- since the originals are on my external hard drive, and what I see in Lightroom are only thumbnail copies for purposes of organization for Lightroom only.

Agree?

[dj_paige]

The problem is: you have two different imports of the same photo. One has edits, and is missing; one does not have edits and is not missing.

What you need to do is remove the one that does not have edits from Lightroom (but not from the hard disk); and then click the exclamation point icon on the other one that has edits, now you will be able to connect it to the original photo.

Starting over means you will lose your edits and your collections and really isn't a good way to go.

[Homeboy]

Tried it with a few photos, and it works. Thanks!