Lost photos in collections after upgrade

[rosiegirl8]

Hi,

I recently got a new camera that required Lightroom 6 to import my raw files.  I upgraded and then when I went to open my catalog, I was instructed to upgrade my catalog file. 

Since then, I seem to have all my photos but the photos from my collections are missing.  The collections are listed but they either have a few or no photos in them.  How do I get those back?

I have searched my computer for .lrcat and I have 15 versions listed of the 2016 catalog that I was using.

Help!

[dj_paige]

Did you import the photos into the new Lightroom 6 catalog?

[rosiegirl8]

I'm not sure what you mean, so I guess not?  I got the dialog box telling me I had to upgrade my catalog to use the newer version of Lightroom with it.

Can I still do that?

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

No, you don't want to import the previous set of photos into Lightroom 6, however one common cause of having photos missing from collections is that you did import the photos.

I mean, did you use the menu command File->Import Photos and Videos ... and then select the photos that were previously in Lightroom 5. It sounds like you did not.

So, if you didn't and the photos are not in collections, the only other thing I can think of is that somehow you upgraded the wrong catalog. YOu might want to re-open those other catalogs that you found using Lightroom 5, to confirm that the collection membership in those catalogs are correct, and then when you find such a catalog with correct collection membership, make a note of it's actual folder location and file name, then upgrade that one to Lightroom 6. To do this, open Lightroom 6, then use the menu command File->Open Catalog and select this specific LR 5 catalog.

[rosiegirl8]

I didn't know that I had to do anything besides for upgrade.  I will go try those steps now.  But if I've since edited photos in Lightroom 6 in that catalog, will those be lost?

[dj_paige]

rosiegirl8  wrote

I didn't know that I had to do anything besides for upgrade.  I will go try those steps now.  But if I've since edited photos in Lightroom 6 in that catalog, will those be lost?

It depends. Probably not. But one thing at a time.

[rosiegirl8]

So far I've opened about 10 of my Lightroom catalogs that are labeled "lightroomo 2016" and none of them have the photos in the collections.  Could it be related to moving the folder that the photos are in?  I updated the folder location and all the photos seemed to be there but did that not move photos assigned to collections?

[dj_paige]

The conclusion I have is that these catalogs never had the photos in the collections. Photos just don't disappear from multiple collections, and updating folder location should have no impact on which photo is in which collection.

[rosiegirl8]

Thanks!