Lightroom Can't See New Folders or Files After Import

[jeffd75042741]

I have successfully used Lightroom for years with no issues.  Upgraded to Lightroom 6 last year and installed and used it for several months without any issues.  Installed new HDD in my Mac, upgraded from Yosemite to El Capitan, and copied over all my old data from the old drive.    I downloaded Lightroom 6 and it recognized my LRCAT catalog I had copied to my drive.  At first everything seemed to be there and functioning correctly.

Now when I import photos to an existing folder I can see the newly imported files.  I can adjust them and export as before.  However, when I move away from that folder and move back again to it, the photos disappear.  If I import files to a new folder and move away from that folder and then move back to it, the folder is lost in Lightroom.  In Finder I can see that all the files are still where I imported them.  If I try and re-import them, I can see them in the Lightroom Import screen but they are grayed out and won't let me re-import them.  If I search for them with Library Filter Meta Data, Lightroom does not show any files since I installed my new drive.

I have uninstalled Lightroom and reinstalled it several times to no avail.  I installed the new drive 4 months ago and have not been able to use Lightroom since.  I am to the point of dumping Lightroom and buy Capture One Pro if I can't find any answers.

Any help you can give me will be appreciated.

[kglad]

[ moved from Downloading, Installing, Setting Up to Photoshop Lightroom]

reset your preferences - https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html

[jeffd75042741]

I deleted my com.adobe.Lightroom6.plist file and restarted Lightroom.  Lightroom still cannot see the new folders or files within them that I created when importing recent photos.

Any other ideas?  I am really getting desperate.  I haven't been able to import new files for the last 5 months.

[zoladd]

Can you please clarify some points.

1. Exactly which version of Lr are you running?

2. Exactly what have you specified in the Destination panel (right hand side on the import window) when you import the photos?

Specifically, is "Into Subfolder" ticked?  Which option have you chosen for "Organize"?

3.  Can you please post an image of the folder structure shown in Destination.

4. Do your imported images show up in gried view when you click "Previous Import" under Catalog in the left hand panel (under Navigator).  If they do, right click on one and choose "Show in Finder".  Does the Finder show the photo in the folder you were expecting?  And is it the same as the folder structure shown in Destination?

5.  Repeat step 4 but this time choose "Go to folder in Library".  What happens?

Please report back here to let us know.

[jeffd75042741]

1.  Running version Mac version 6.5.  I have had the same difficulty with all other 6.x versions since November 2015.

2-3.  "Into subfolder" is not clicked. Organize into "Into one folder" selected.  See attached screen shot

4.  Since I haven't viewed any other folders since import, previous import is already selected and I can see the 3 photos I just imported in grid view.  When selecting "show in finder", I see the photos are in the correct folder I originally selected when importing.  Interesting, when I click on one of the photos and select "Go to folder in library", instead of just 3 photos shown in grid view I also see the previous 4 that disappeared when I selected a different folder in library view. I moved to the folders just above and below to view photos in other folders and was able to come back my "Lightroom Issues" folder where I have been doing my test imports.  I thought my problem was solved so I imported another photo into the same folder.  When I selected "Go to folder in library" the remaining files in the folder also showed up but now I can't see the "Lightroom Issues" folder on the left side of my screen.

Below are before and after import screen shots.

Before:

After (Folder now missing):

Looking at the two screen shots above I discovered THE ANSWER!!!  The missing folders were all created under the Lightroom Default file location: 

Last November, I copied all my Lightroom data over to my new drive then installed Lightroom.  The first time I started it, the program found my Lightroom catalog so everything seemed to work fine until I tried to import anything which is because my existing catalog is setup to copy files to /Users/jeff/Pictures/Lightroom/Pictures.   So now I just need to change my default Lightroom import location to this but I can't see a screen in Lightroom to do that.  Any ideas?  Also, I would like to copy the "lost" folders to their correct locations under the Pictures folder.  Can I do that inside Lightroom or do I need to copy them to their new location manually and re-import them after deleting the old copies.

Thanks for your all your help.  I can finally see that Lightroom will be usable to me after 5 months!

[Just Shoot Me]

This is more than likely some type of folder/file permissions problem. Check the destination location in finders Get Info for the proper permissions. Your Username should have Read & Write permissions. If it doesn't you need to Add your username to the list and give it read & write permissions.

Even if Everyone is listed with Read & Write permissions the new OS X is very selective on what the Everyone group can do.

[Akash Sharma]

Hi jeffd ,

Please refer the link Lightroom loses photo location after connecting removable devices and let us know if that helps.

Regards,

Akash

[jeffd75042741]

This link does not apply to my issue.  In my March 26th post I thought I discovered the answer to my issue in that I just needed to tell Lightroom where my default file import locations should be as it appeared Lightroom was not creating folders under the 'Pictures' folder but above the 'Pictures' folder.  See screen shot below:

But on closer examination I see that the folders are in the correct locations with all my other Lightroom picture folders (like the '5D MK III' folder shown in the screen shot) as I can see them in Finder but Lightroom shows them in the incorrect place as you can see in the 9 folders in the screen shot above 'Pictures'.   If I try to drag and drop the folders under 'Pictures', Lightroom says those folders already exist.  I am at a complete loss as to what has happened or how to fix this.

Any ideas?  Thanks

[dj_paige]

Are you 100% sure you are importing using the ADD option? It sounds like you are importing using the COPY option, and so Lightroom thinks the photos are in some other folder, not the folder you think they are in.

[jeffd75042741]

I am using the COPY function as I am copying the files from my SD card to Lightroom.  At the time of import I am specifying the folder I want them to go into and Finder confirms later they have gone to that location but Lightroom can't find them if I move to a different folder immediately after import.  I have imported my files successfully for years in Lightroom this way until now.

[dj_paige]

Could you explain this further?

t the time of import I am specifying the folder I want them to go into and Finder confirms later they have gone to that location but Lightroom can't find them if I move to a different folder immediately after import.

In particular, if you move the files to a different folder immediately after import, then this will cause the photos to become disconnected in Lightroom and Lightroom will tell you it can't find the photos. In addition, why are you doing this move immediately after import?

[jeffd75042741]

I am not moving the files.  I am just selecting another Lightroom folder in the Library view to look at photos in another folder.  But if I move back to view the original folder, it isn't there anymore if I created a new folder during import.  That missing folder is now shown above my Pictures folder.  But the actual files are not there, they are where I originally imported them to but Lightroom doesn't see them there any longer.

[zoladd]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.  I've been busy.

In posting #9 item 1 (and 2-3) above, you include an image of the Lightroom right side panel from your import operation.  It shows "Into subfolder" is not selected and Organize "Into one folder" is specified.  Unfortunately your image does not include the lower part of that panel which shows the actual folder name your ARE importing into.  Seeing that might help us to solve your problem.

You also mention a "Lightroom default location" and then show a screen capture of the Lr Catalog pathname.  That is the location of your active catalog and has nothing to do with the location of your photos.

From the cursory glimpse of your folders shown in Lr in Posting 10 above, it does appear that they are a bit disorganised.  For example, you have a Pictures sub-folder inside your Pictures folder.  Not only that but the parent pictures folder has 3 more pictures in it than the sub-folder.  It might help if you fully expand the Lr Folders section so that All folders below your user folder are shown.  You can right-click on a folder name inside Lr Folders and if that folder's parent folder is not shown in Lr you will get an option to Show Parent Folder.  Select this option and it will show the parent folder.  Do this for all the folders where you have photos.  If you can see the whole structure it might make what is happening more obvious.  It would help us help you if you can show us the fully expanded folder hierarchy inside your Lightroom.

It might also be useful if you do a search for several photos by file name inside Finder, and see if the same name appears inside more than one folder.  If it does then you have duplicated the photo and this may be leading to confusion.

Note that it is generally recommended that all your photos be stored in sub-folders under a single top level folder (eg under Pictures or My Lightroom Photos).

I would also note that there are a very large number of Lightroom users and if Lightroom was generally "loosing" folders then many people would be complaining about it.

[jeffd75042741]

Sorry I haven't replied in over a month.  This issue is so frustrating I can't bring myself to deal with it.  I hope to start over and explain the issue better with new screen images.

Notice the first screen shot.  I have inserted my memory card into a reader and I am planning on copying the images to my hard drive.  I have selected "COPY Copy photos to a new location and add to catalog".  Note that the folder I am copying these files to is users/jeff/pictures/pictures/1Lightroom Issues folder.

When I select import, Lightroom shows the new files have been imported and they are available to view and develop.  Notice the 1Lightroom issues folder right above the 5D MK III folder.  If I right click on an image in grid view and select "Show in Finder", Finder correctly shows the image is in that correct location.  Then if I select another folder to view other images within Lightroom and then attempt to go back to the folder that contains the images I just imported, Lightroom no longer shows the 1Lightroom Issues folder located under users/jeff/pictures/pictures/.  When I first requested help from the forum I thought Lightroom had deleted the folder and files.  However, the folder and files are still in the same original place when I look for them in Finder.  Lightroom, however, no longer shows the 1Lightroom Issues folder in the Folders section on the left side of the Library view (it was originally was right above the 5D MK III folder).  Now what Lightroom shows is that the folder is now found under users/jeff.  If you look at the next screen shot you will see the folders:  Lightroom Issues, Canyonlands, Desktop, etc. for 9 total folders that are all located under users/jeff.  If I look for those folders in those locations with Finder it shows they do not exist there.  However, all those folders do exist under /users/jeff/pictures/pictures.  See top of the screen shot below.

I really think this should not be a big issue to solve.  I just don't know how to do it.  Last November, I copied all my data files to my new HDD including my Lightroom catalog and all my image folders before I installed Lightroom. Once I installed a clean version of Lightroom, it immediately detected my Lightroom catalog so I was able to see all my images from my pre new HDD imports.  But now I attempt to do an import after installing the new HDD, there must be a Lightroom setting that is trying to show the newly imported images in an incorrect location.

If you think you can fix this, it will be greatly appreciated.  I have 6 months worth of images I haven't processed while I wait to get this resolved.

Thanks,

Jeff

[jeffd75042741]

After 7 months of no resolution, I was finally helped by Adobe Support who fixed the issue.  The directory structure of my photos was not what Lightroom was expecting so the tech synchronized my photos which copied everything to where Lightroom expected them to be which doubled my photos.  When completed the original folders were deleted.  Now everything works fine.

[joshuab59512821]

I'm experiencing what appears to be a similar issue. Im importing my folder, of images, coming back to them after my computer being turned off, and the have been copied to a new location. Can you please describe how you fixed this issue.