Synchronization of folders/sub-folders issue

[bbawt1]

I have a main folder for all my photos within Lightroom sorted by year, then sub-folders under each by subject.  If I right-click the top folder and click "Synchronize folder", the pop-up dialogue box has all boxes checked, and it starts counting. The result is it says for Import New Photos as (2).  Then I click the Synchronize button and the program starts working - lots of flashing screens as it goes through each folder/sub-folder in the tree...but when it finally ends, no photos were showing to add to catalog.  Tried this a few times, same thing happened.

Then I shut down Lightroom, created a sub-folder under the main one in Windows, added 3 photos manually, opened Lightroom and tried again.  This time it came back saying Import New Photos as (5).  I hit Synchronize again and after it works thorough all the folders, it shows thumbnails of only the 3 photos I recently added.

So for some reason Lightroom is identifying 2 mystery photos and I can't tell where it sees their location.

Anyone have any ideas?

[ManiacJoe]

In the Synchronize dialog, turn on the use of the Import dialog and see if the Import dialog will show you the mystery files.

[bbawt1]

Thanks for the suggestion but the Import Dialog was turned on. Still doesn't show the mystery photos.

[bbawt1 · Accepted solution]

SOLVED!  Took awhile but I figured it out.  Way back when I tried out Google's Picassa. Turns out when you edit a photo in Picassa, it creates a hidden folder called ".picassaoriginals". Inside that folder is a copy of the original shot before edits.  Seems Lightroom when searching to synchronize photos can see these hidden folders and the photos within them. However, I guess because they are hidden, does not actually allow you to "add" the photo (doesn't even show a thumbnail). So bottom line is the Synchronize report will report these hidden photo numbers, but the program won;t show you them or let you add them.  In Explorer, I had to turn on the "show hidden files" option to see them. Once I deleted them, I re-ran Lightroom Synchronize and my mystery photos were no longer showing up!

So its kind of weird Lightroom will see and count hidden photos but not be able to show/tell you anything about them.

[ManiacJoe]

Thanks for the follow-up!

Glad you got it resolved.