Can I Move Photos From Folders and Import to Catalog?

[SMK!!!!!!]

For one particular project, I have a Catalog with photos from a few separate folders. I'll eventually have to move them onto an external hard drive.

What I'd like to do is now import the photos so they're in the Catalog rather than have photos in those other folders, so I don't have the problem of having Missing Photos in Missing Folders.
Is this possible? If so, how?

[dj_paige]

While I'm not 100% clear about what you want to do ... it seems to me that if you use your operating system to move the photos to the external drive, in the proper folder, and then import them into Lightroom using ADD (which keeps the photos in their existing folders), you are all set.

If that isn't what you want, then please explain further, providing more details about what you want to do.

[SMK!!!!!!]

Hi, sorry for being unclear.

I want the photos to be not in a folder but moved to inside of the Catalog.

So they're not in a separate place.

Is that possible?

[dj_paige]

I guess it's not clear still.

"not in a folder but moved to inside of the catalog" — you can't move a photo to be inside of the catalog, and why would you want photos to be "not in a folder"?

"so they're not in a separate place" -- means nothing to me, separate from what?

[SMK!!!!!!]

I keep moving the folder and the pictures go missing.
I don't want that to happen again.

How can I do this?

[dj_paige]

I keep moving the folder and the pictures go missing.

I don't want that to happen again.

Stop moving folders!

If I am understanding you properly (and I may not be understanding you properly), then for all new photos you need to put the photos on the external HD straight out of the camera, and then you don't have to move them later. This not only saves you a step, but then you also don't have the missing file problem in Lightroom. Really, this makes your life so much simpler, you ought to seriously consider this workflow, where folders don't get moved from place to place.

For photos/folders that are currently someplace that have to be moved, please read "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location" of this document: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

[SMK!!!!!!]

Okay, thanks for your help!
I think I have a poor understanding of Importing photos using Move/Copy/Add...

Hahaha, yes I should stop moving them.

But I thought: maybe I'll have to move them to external drive!

Putting them straight on the external drive is a good suggestion, thanks.

I'm going to go over the specifics of importing, etc.

Thank you!

[Laura Shoe]

Hi SMK,

Photos don't reside IN the Lightroom catalog. The catalog only contains information about your photos. It references your photos wherever you have chosen to store them on your hard drive. People get confused because LR actually does store three "previews" of your photos - JPEG copies - a small thumbnail, a screensize one, and a full size one - this is why you can "see" your photos in LR even when LR says that it can't find your files. 

To your question about how to move folders in a way that they don't go missing, it's easy once you know how: do this from within Lightroom using the Folders panel - in a nutshell, click and drag. Since you're doing these operations from within Lightroom, it doesn't lose track of your images. (If you do this outside of LR, LR can't see you do it, so it does lose track.)  I move photos and folders all the time using Lightroom's Folders panel, and I teach this as well.  This video tutorial will give you all the file management skills you'll likely need for photos that ...

You say that for a particular project you have a catalog with a few folders. For most people I recommend that they have just one catalog, and that they import ALL of their photos into it. Then if you want to pull together a specific subset of them for a project, use collections.

Here's a page on my Lightroom blog that has several articles and video tutorials for Lightroom begin...

I hope this helps - feel free to respond with questions.

[dj_paige]

You say that for a particular project you have a catalog with a few folders. For most people I recommend that they have just one catalog, and that they import ALL of their photos into it. Then if you want to pull together a specific subset of them for a project, use collections.

SMK!!!!!! Yes, I agree with this. One catalog -- keep your life simple -- don't make things unnecessarily complicated -- one catalog.

[Tony_See]

So you have imported image files from a couple of folders into a catalog?

Is that correct?

If you move the folder of images after import (to the external hard drive you mention) they could appear as missing in the catalog.

If they are missing in the catalog you can reconnect: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

[SMK!!!!!!]

Yes, I know about missing files and folders.

I want to avoid that in the future.

How?