Reorganizing in lightroom, how does it affect Finder

[kinchimira]

I need to clean up and reorganize.  I've been moving folders, deleting folder,s moving images into different folders all within lightroom.  For example, I had a folder called 2016 in Lightroom that had 365 subfolders with photos.  I moved all the contents of the subfolders into the parent 2016 folder, and deleted the empty subfolders, from within Lightroom.  That folder resides on my external hard drive.  When I open finder on my mac, and look at that external hard drive, it looks like all the images are now under the 2016 parent folder (good), but the subfolders I deleted in lightroom are still there and contain all the images (bad).  Do I need to manually delete all of the subfolders and their content from within Finder also?  I thought when you move folders or images in lightroom it moves them on the actual disk?

Is there a way to do this type of thing in one step?  It's hard to remember to clean up Finder, plus I'm always scared to delete the wrong thing in Finder then in Lightroom I've deleted the source and it can't be found. 

Thanks!

[dj_paige]

If you try to delete a folder from within Lightroom, and Finder sees that there are still files in that folder, the folder will not be deleted.

If I may be so bold as to recommend a different approach, then it would be to leave all of your photos wherever they are now, and organize using keywords and other metadata. Not only are these much more powerful tools, but also all of these issues about files and folders go away, you can search for photos using the keywords and metadata, and you never have to worry about moving things around and why there are still photos in certain folders.

[cmgap]

Although this is from 2013, Matt Kloskowski demonstrates what happens when you move folders around in and outside of Lightroom... check this out and let us know if it answers your question. You may find that while you thought you were moving things correctly, you may have missed a step. It's a short video but very clear on what happens when you move folders. around.

Move folders around in Lightroom | Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC tutorials

[kinchimira]

I watched the video and think I understand.  But this is what is happening...I drag a folder from my hard drive in lightroom into an external drive folder in lightroom.  The photos are moved.  Then I open Finder and see that all of the individual photos are still on my hard drive....250GB.    Why is this happening? 

[cmgap]

Is it possible that you have duplicates? I can not repeat the scenario you are describing. If I move a folder from the hard drive by dragging the folder to an external drive the folder and its contents move as expected and are removed from my hard drive.