Lightroom files renamed in original folder

[lauryd]

Hey guys!

I'm struggling on the process of renaming files when they already are in a catalog.
I'm cleaning/organising files in their original folders, but I would keep my metadata already on those files.
But, when I rename them in the original folder, Lightroom don't detect them anymore, but detect news files without any information..
I heard about the original file name in the metadata function but I'm using a batch renaming soft and I can't rename them into Lightroom, I got to rename them in the original folder.

Did anyone had this same struggle and found answers?
Thanks a lot

Laury

[ManiacJoe · Accepted solution]

If you are renaming the files outside of Lightroom, you need to record the new and old names so that you can manually reconnect the files one at a time in Lightroom.

Obviously, the recommendation is to not do this renaming.

If the original file name is being preserved in the EXIF data, a program like ExifTool will let you get a list of the new and old file names.

ExifTool by Phil Harvey

[lauryd]

Okay I understand!
Thank you ManiacJoe!

[Bob Somrak]

If you rename files outside of Lightroom after they have been imported this is what happens.  Either rename them before you import or rename then using Lightrooms renaming tools.  If Lightrooms tool isn't good enough you could use this plugin by John Beardsworth.  His plugins seem to be very good.

Complex file renaming in Lightroom made simple – thanks to the Search and Replace plug-in – Lightroo...