Repeatedly having missing folders in Lightroom

[kristak767]

I am constantly having the issue of sitting down at the computer, opening Lightroom and having all the folders from a drive have questions marks by them and not be able to be found. All of my files are on an external hardrive, I use the same port every time and I have not moved the files from the original location. It is getting tiresome having to locate the missing files frequently. What is happening here and what could I do to permanently fix this situation? I am using Lightroom 5 with the newer updates and my pc is running windows 10.

Also, another thing I find very curious is that I have photos that import sometimes to different drive locations even when the external is plugged into the same exact port. Needless to say my catalog gets very confusing. Is there a solution to this? Thank you, any help appreciated!

[JP Hess]

Is this possibly a case of the external drive letter identification being changed? In other words it is the external drive identified as drive F during one Lightroom session, and then identified as drive G during another Lightroom session?

[kristak767]

That seems plausible. Do you mean for the missing folder issue? I have missing folders in all of the drives E, F, G(This is used with another hardrive). Would the drive identification change per session even though I am using the same port though?

[JP Hess]

Yes, that's entirely possible. Especially if you are using drive letters that are close to the beginning of the alphabet. It would be a good idea for you to use your operating system to assign a permanent drive letter that was closer to the end of the alphabet. If you did that then it would be assigned permanently, and that could possibly eliminate the missing folders because the drive letter would not be constantly changing.

[kristak767]

I hadn't heard of assigning letters to drives before. My reluctance with that is won't that confuse Lightroom and make it so I would have to re-import everything potentially losing past edits?

I have already lost edits in the process. I understand Lightroom to save edits on the computer but I don't completely understand it or how to have it find the "lost edits".

Appreciate your help Jim!

[dj_paige]

No, that won't happen, and you should not re-import anything.

When you change the drive letter where your photos are stored, then you point Lightroom to the new drive letter via these instructions (see Figure 4 and associated text) Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders The whole thing should take less than a minute

[Rob_Cullen]

See the Adobe Help page for assigning hard-drive name/letter:

Lightroom loses photo location after connecting removable devices

[elie_dinur]

I changed my external storage drives to X, Y and Z and a USB stick that I use for transporting files to U, years ago and no matter which port I plug them in that's how they are identified. Keeps LR happy.

[kristak767]

wow, I am going to give this a try. Thanks everyone for chiming in and the links as well! So, why the letters at the end of the alphabet? Why does that make the difference?

[Rob_Cullen]

What are the chances that you might have 20 or more devices plugged into USB?

Your X,Y,Z, drives will always be X,Y,Z  even if Windows assigns D,E,F,G,H,... to random USB sticks or other drives that get plugged in or out.

[GLGracey]

Help! I've got exclamation points in most of  All Photographs in my Catalog. Ditto Previous Process Photos. Also question marks on some Folders. Have not switched files around on my hard drive, so have no idea what is going on. Appreciate direction here. Many thanks. Lorraine

[GoldingD]

Quick Tip – Don’t Move Photos Behind Lightroom’s Back « Julieanne Kost's Blog

How Do I Know if My Photos are Missing in Lightroom « Julieanne Kost's Blog

Why Can’t Lightroom Find My Folders of Images? « Julieanne Kost's Blog

[Rob_Cullen]

First advice- Read everything at- Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

Always best to first re-link FOLDERS (showing the ?) , as this will also re-link all photos contained in these folders.

"Missing" folders [ ? ] and photos [ ! ] can occur for several reasons-

1. Deleting from the computer (any location) ( with a File Browser )

2. Renaming (with even the slightest change eg.  'name' > 'Name' ) ( with a File Browser )

3. Moving Folders or files ( with a File Browser )

4. An external drive changing its Drive Letter when plugged to USB. (as in above discussion)

5. Hard-drive failures (damaged sectors in the drive)

[GLGracey]

Thanks so much for hanging in there with me. Here’s a new wrinkle on the theme of missing folders. Now I find that NONE of my images are available to me in Lightroom and there are NO question marks or exclamation marks anywhere. I am getting “The file could not be found” on each and every image. This is true even in the Folders where I have made no changes whatsoever. I don’t see where Kost discusses what to do when you get no marks AND no access to images. Please help, if you can. This is a new one on me. Many thanks. Lorraine

[GoldingD]

External hard drive not currently connected?

NAS not working? if used

Internal Hard drive going out?

External hard drive going out?

Can you find the images outside of lightroom? Use Finder (MAC) File Explorer (Windows)

[GLGracey]

Yes, I can find the images on my hard drive.

[GoldingD]

First off, computer and Lightroom directory (directory/Folder/Album all gets confused) where is that lrcat file located?

And where are the images located?

If the images are located in the same directory, or for that matter in a sub-directory under that directory that the lrcat file is located.

Then in Lightroom, in the Library module, in the Folders panel, make sure the parent directory is shown, then right click on it and select Synchronize Folder, Looking to have LR search for images to add to the catalog.

If the images are stored somewhere completely different, some other directory, some other hard drive, make sure that directory (folder) is visible in the folders panel, and accomplish the synchronize folder. If these images once were in your catalog and viewable, and you did not move them outside of Lightroom, then those folders should show up.

[GLGracey]

Because several other functions didn’t seem to be working I decided to shut down and restart. Voila. All my images are accessible again. Too good to be true and who knows why. Will keep your directions below, however, and I thank you SO MUCH for your response. Lorraine

[elie_dinur]

The universal first-aid for any computer problem: REBOOT!