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Missing Drive/Subfolders in Lightroom Import Menu?

Community Beginner ,
May 24, 2017 May 24, 2017

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Hi all!  I've tried searching out the answer to this issue using multiple search queries but haven't been able to find this question previously asked/resolved.  I did spot some issues that had been posted about regarding Mac computer permissions, and making sure to select "Copy" (as opposed to "Add") in the import dialogue, but neither seemed applicable here. However that said, apologies in advance if this has been asked before and I just was unable to come up with the magical question words to plug into Google.

SYSTEM SPECS: I'm currently running Lightroom 6.10 on a Windows 7 computer with two internal drives: an SSD as the primary drive with the OS on it ("Local Disk (C:)") and an HDD where I store the bulk of my files, including my photos ("RUSS (B:)")

BACKGROUND: Historically when I've imported photos off of my camera/memory card my workflow has been to have the "Don't Import Suspected Duplicates" option checked, with the Destination panel set up to organize the imported photos by date and the date format set up as 2017/2017-05-24 (i.e. each year of photos has its own master folder, and then within that all photos are placed in their own daily folder with a "year-month-day" naming convention).  Via this setup, Lightroom would automatically uncheck any duplicate photos before import, and then additionally I was able to rapidly uncheck further photos/folders based on the date, which was handy in cases where there were photos on the memory card that I had deleted in Lightroom between imports (and as a result Lightroom wouldn't identify as "duplicates").  Here is an example photo of what this would look like when correct as shown in the Destination sidebar (although please ignore the "2016" folder nested under the "2017" folder which was defo an unintentional mistake from when I was setting up this screenshot)

Subfolders Correct.JPG

ISSUE:  If you look at this next screenshot you can see where the issue is.  At the top right of the import dialogue you can see my secondary drive (B:) has been chosen, however if you look down at the bottom right under the Destination panel, all that appears is the (C:) drive.  When I execute the import Lightroom still goes about importing things correctly and all the photos I'd expect to be created are, however I am no longer able to see which folders will be created nor (as a result) can I toggle the photo selection by checking/unchecking boxes unless I'm doing it a bit more manually through the "Destination Folders" view that dominates the center of the screen in both screenshots.

Subfolders Missing.JPG

I'm not sure if it matters that previously I only used one hard drive (rather than the current setup of two), but I get the sense that this fix may be fairly straightforward I've just not been able to figure it out or track down a thread where someone has posted the same issue.  I've tried clicking through the various options as well (such as adding in the (B:) drive via the "+" symbol dropdown but that doesn't seem to do it either (although I could be doing something wrong).  Can anyone help?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , May 24, 2017 May 24, 2017

I think the problem is the letter designation for that second hard drive. Windows  "thinks" drive B is a floppy disk (old-fashioned, I know) and won't recognize it as a hard drive and won't allow Lightroom to do so either. If you can reassign it a letter further down in the alphabet I think it will solve your problem. If you can give it a letter lower in the alphabet, like P or even Z, Windows will retain that letter assignment.

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LEGEND ,
May 24, 2017 May 24, 2017

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I think the problem is the letter designation for that second hard drive. Windows  "thinks" drive B is a floppy disk (old-fashioned, I know) and won't recognize it as a hard drive and won't allow Lightroom to do so either. If you can reassign it a letter further down in the alphabet I think it will solve your problem. If you can give it a letter lower in the alphabet, like P or even Z, Windows will retain that letter assignment.

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Community Beginner ,
May 24, 2017 May 24, 2017

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Oh whoa!  That's super quirky and I don't think I would have ever considered that.  Thank you a bunch!

I'll try changing the drive letter (hopefully it won't bork everything else) and will report back as to whether or not it works!

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Community Beginner ,
May 25, 2017 May 25, 2017

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Alright, yup!  Thanks JimHess - it turned out that was precisely the issue.  Changed the drive letter to a non-A: or B: designation and Lightroom immediately started showing the import folders again. 

...Only thing now is to decide whether I should switch my 'bulk' drive back to B: and deal with the inconvenience of this old school Windows quirk that I inadvertently wandered into, or fix all the location pointers across all my other programs and libraries (the fix did indeed {gently} bork loads of other things after the switch). 

(Although given those options I may just go with the K.I.S.S. school of thought and simply begin using the SSD for my current year's Lightroom photos and then bulk relocate the picture files at the end of each year )

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LEGEND ,
May 25, 2017 May 25, 2017

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I think you had better just forget about trying to use the letter A or B. They will cause grief if you do, I promise.

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2017 Jun 18, 2017

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While the drive letter allocation is the problem, I think it's Lightroom's fault that it doesn't show up. In common with others in setting up a 'tidy' letter allocation for a new system, I assigned used 'B' for my external Raid array. No other programs seems to have a problem with this, and Windows is quite happy to treat it as a normal hard drive, as is my backup software and other disk oriented utilities. I suspect it's a quirk of the way the function is programmed in Lightroom, not a Windows issue. The use of A and B for floppy drives is stone-age and Windows documentation suggests it's perfectly ok to use them as normal drives. I do think Lightroom should be fixed.

In my case I haven't gone too far down the path of setting up stuff so can change the drive letters around without redoing too much, but it's still a pita.

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New Here ,
Aug 18, 2019 Aug 18, 2019

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Wow, still having this problem in LR 8.3 in 2019. Wake up Adobe! Sheesh!

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