Problems after migration of catalog to new hardware

[matthias47586195]

Hi All,

I recently moved to a new Mac. I have copied all photos and the catalog files to the same location on the new Mac as with the previous Mac. Opening Lightroom and the catalog showed no problem.

However when I want to generate a panorama, the message "Stacks cannot contain photos that are stored in different folders." appears although the files are in the same folder. The panorama DNG files is created but not shown in the library.

Then I tried a "synchronize folder" and Lightroom showed all files of the folder for import. I did this once, however this just erased all previous work on the files. Lightroom imported the files in the same folder but showed it at the top level of the library hierarchy. When I now move the folder to the original location in the library (and thus in the file system), Lighroom indicated that the files are already at this location. Which is true.

When I re-synchronize the folder and use "Show missing photos", all photos of the folder are shown as missing. However when checking for missing files, Lightroom confirms that there are no missing files.

How can I solve this issue without loosing all work on the files? I could also re-do to migration, however what would be the way avoid the problem?

[SeanMcCormack · Accepted solution]

Internally the drives may still have a different name, so it could be causing an issues. Personally, I'd made sure all the files are in 1 parent folder (or as few parent folders as possible. Then I'd have moved the files and catalog to the new drive, and then used Find Missing Folder or Update Folder Location to match to the new locations.

[matthias47586195]

Hi,

I already tried that 😞

The update folder location was without problems. All files have been found and seem to be OK. But the initial problem then still persists.

It seems that some internal reference got messed up. Is there something like a checksum which Lighroom keeps for all the files? Maybe this got out of order at the copy of the files?

Just an additional note:

When I tried to make the panorama, it is put in the same folder on the disk, but gets a new folder in the Lightroom Folder view at the left side. When I now try to move the original files into the new Lightroom folder (which is in fact the same directory on the disk) I get "An internal error has occurred. ?:0: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)"

[SeanMcCormack]

How did you get the files over in the first place? If you transfered using an external drive, maybe the solution is to point (using Update/Missing) at those folders on the drive and then move them over to Lightroom after they've connected?

[matthias47586195]

I shared the files on the old Mac and transfered them via network to the new Mac.

[SeanMcCormack]

You should be able to connect them over the network as long as the catalog is on the new machine.

[matthias47586195]

Now I moved the photos to a new folder and started with the Lightroom library from the old Mac and connected the files via "Find missing folders". It works now. It seems that its better to re-connect the files instead of relying on the same path.

Thanks for the help!