28000 files missing

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Hi

So frustrated.  I have all my images on an external drive with a folder structure, by year and month (for example, 2002->Jan->all photos shot in January).  I have added key words, ratings, previews and done editing in LR (v5.7.1) for years and no problems.  BTW, my LR catalog is on my computer's internal drive (for speed).

Recently my internal HD crashed, I was able to save my LRCAT and LRPreview folders but now, when I open LR on new internal harddrive all the images are missing.  I've spent over 100 hours trying to figure out what to do, including somewhat futile calls to Adobe customer service (they only support CC users).

In LR, I can see the files have renamed (or I did it somehow) and have added a date to the name.

For example:  Lightroom filename:  "20130303-IMG_4097.jpg" is "missing".  My external drive folder is:  MyPhotos->2013->03 March->2013 03 03->IMG_4097.JPG".

Yes, I can go through the painstaking steps to reconnect but I don't want to do this 28,000 times (each time I get a notice that the filename is different). Any tips what happened and better yet best options to fix?  I really don't want to re-import (and lose all my edits, previews, ratings, keywords, etc).

As mentioned, I had no issues before the crash, the external drive with all the images was not impacted during the laptop crash, I am even able to connect and open the crashed harddrive (where I can select all the images and 'export as catalog').

[dj_paige]

While I don't know what happened to cause the catalog to expect different names than those that exist on the hard disk, the easiest thing to do is to open a recent backup of your catalog file that was made just before the crash.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Hi.  I wish it was that easy, even the backup lrcats have different hierarchy and show "missing".  In my current laptop (with new hard drive) the external drive reads "F:" and in the prior laptop it may have been a different drive, even though the same external drive. 

What is next way to solve this??

[Todd Shaner]

Click on the '!' icon in the filmstrip and shows us the screenshot as below. This will tell us what drive letter was previously assigned to the external drive.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Here is current location of all my actual images (my external drive is D:)

Here is location of LR (laptops internal drive).  I have created a catalog named "MASTER" .

[dj_paige]

Hi.  I wish it was that easy, even the backup lrcats have different hierarchy and show "missing".  In my current laptop (with new hard drive) the external drive reads "F:" and in the prior laptop it may have been a different drive, even though the same external drive.

This doesn't address the key issue. When you open the backup catalog, are the file names matching the file names on disk, or are they not matching, as you described earlier?

[CoreTravelPhoto]

The backup images are "missing" too.  

[CoreTravelPhoto]

DJ, can you offer some suggestions to:  (a) re-create the folder structure that matches my photo file structure (on my harddrive); (b) re-connect the images (so I don't lose my edits, tags, previews, ratings, etc) -- to re-connect, the 'source files/images' (eg: the actual images) have a different filename so do I need to rename all 28k file names in the catalog?). 

I had a brief help session with Adobe customer support last week who suggested I "select all" and"export" my catalog, which,  now that I think about it, I probably had a naming standard that prefixed with a date which may explain part of the problem as this exported catalog is what I saved on my new harddrive.  Is there a way to "undo" the names and revert back to original names, which the prefix assigned during the export?

[Todd Shaner]

I suggest slowing down and answering the specific questions asked. Also don't make any further changes inside LR or outside LR to the D: drive or LR catalog(s) until we have identified what's wrong.

The current path to your photos is: D:\Jcore Photos

The previous path showing in the LR catalog to your now "missing photos" was: F:\Jcore\jcorecatalog\F-\Jcore Photos\

Did you intentionally move files into this subfolder structure and does it currently exist on the D: drive? The screenshot you show stops at 'iPad Photos,' so I can't see the next alphanumeric subfolders (J, K, L, etc.).

So you have two issues:

1) The currently assigned external drive letter D: needs to be changed to F:

(we can discuss this later)

2) The current D: drive subfolder path to the image files does not match what is showing in the LR catalog.

Use Windows Explorer to 'Search' the D: drive for one of the missing files, such as 20120904-IMG_1945.JPG. Show us a screenshot of the search results.

Here's an example search on my Windows 7 system's E: drive for files named 'IMG_0105.JPG'

[dj_paige]

CoreTravelPhoto  wrote

The backup images are "missing" too.  

That's not the question.

The question is: in the backup catalog, are the photos named in such a way to match the names of the photos as seen by your operating system.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Hi

I found a backup (from Dec-2015) that matches my harddrive directory (eg:

the catalog hierarchy matches the folder structure on my external harddrive

and the file names match; so no missing files). So that's good news.

There are some images missing, but I can go folder by folders, find the

missing images and then import image by image or groups of images (or

whatever you suggest).

Also, how do you suggest restoring my "working" catalog with the backup?

[image: Inline image 2]

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

Copy (not move) the backup to a newly created empty folder (doesn't matter where). Double-click on the backup catalog file to open it. (Note: for anyone else reading this, if you have Lightroom 6 or Lightroom CC 2015, you have to unzip it before you can open it). When you open this catalog, files up until Dec 2015 ought to work properly since the file names in Lightroom match the file names in your operating system.

Then, you can figure out what to do about the newer photos that aren't in this catalog. Open the current catalog. You can rename them in your operating system to match Lightroom, but this will have to be done one-by-one. Or you might want to just re-import them into the newly opened backup version, but this will cause you to lose your edits and user-supplied metadata. I guess you have to decide which method is the least painful to you.

[CoreTravelPhoto]

Thanks DJ, I am so happy! 

[CoreTravelPhoto]

DJ, can I ask a couple follow-up questions to make sure I restore the backup properly?

1.  Should I copy the backup LRCAT to the same directory as my current catalog (eg:  MyDocuments/MyPhotos/etc)?  Presumably this will become my default catalog in the future so I can delete the "old" catalog.  And what about the preview folder backup (eg: do I need to copy this also)?

2.  When I import missing photos for a particular year, do I need to find the exact images or can i import the entire year and select the option to "not" import suspected duplicates?  (eg: so only the missing images will import)?

3. Should my destination (during import) be a sub-folder or the main catalog?

Thanks again.

[KR Seals]

"In LR, I can see the files have renamed (or I did it somehow) and have added a date to the name."

Did the file names get changed in LR or by the operating system using windows explorer?