Files vanish after import with dupe file names

[Richard Duncombe]

Hi

I have just returned from Japan where I used two cameras. 5D and 5D3

With this I used 1 new memory card with the 5D3 and have no problem, all the images have come through just fine with the 5D3

With the 5D, all of the photos imported, and I was able to create some JPEGs from the files when they appeared under the 'last import' tool.

Since uploading some more photos, and moving some old photos to my external drive, all of the 5D imports have vanished. I managed to find the JPEGS in my cloud, but all of the raw folders are gone.

I have searched for them by name on both my laptop hard drive and the external. The camera has older 'MG' file types. It looks as though (from the JPEGS) that the camera has recreated file numbers used previously and I can now only locate the previous photo both in LR and on my external drive.

Some of my best work to date was on that one upload of 294 photos, all of which now don't seem to exist.

Can anyone help me find them? I never removed them or deleted them from the library, they just seemed to vanish as soon as I connected the external drive. Is there any way I can go back through imports to find them?

Please could someone help!?

Ric

[dj_paige]

Since uploading some more photos, and moving some old photos to my external drive, all of the 5D imports have vanished. I managed to find the JPEGS in my cloud, but all of the raw folders are gone.

I have searched for them by name on both my laptop hard drive and the external. The camera has older 'MG' file types. It looks as though (from the JPEGS) that the camera has recreated file numbers used previously and I can now only locate the previous photo both in LR and on my external drive.

Are you talking about these imports are missing in Lightroom, or are they missing in your operating system, or are they missing in both?

When you did the search, was it you looking in a bunch of folders, or did you use the operating system's search feature to do the search; did you use the Filter Bar in Lightroom to do the search or did you just look in a bunch of folders?

[Richard Duncombe]

Hi DJ, thanks for the early response

No files can be found on my OS or in lightroom. I've simply been using the Mac search tool to look for both the file number, all CR2 files, and dates of images.

In Lightroom, i don't know how to run a specific search, so i've been scrolling through 'all photos' and trying to fond the file number. Here there are large gaps, however when I look on my external drive, the correct file number appears to be there, however it is the old photo and not the 'new' image with the dupe name.

[dj_paige]

So the two cameras were taking photos that had the same file name (at least for some of the photos)?

Did you import the photos from both cameras into the same folder(s)? (Even if you did, I thought Lightroom was smart enough to keep things straight, but I don't really know that I have ever heard anyone say they actually did that) Or did you import them into different folders?

Can you explain the EXACT (very very detailed) sequence of steps and settings you have selected in the Import dialog box to do these imports?

I assume you either have backups of these photos, or the originals still on the camera card. Is that correct?

[Richard Duncombe]

Basically, insert card into the reader. Then enter library, then hit import for the selected 'ticked' photos, which was all of them. 'Don't import suspected duplicates is ticked. Like I said, it imported them all to my library and I was able to develop them at the time. It is only today I have noticed.

They all go into the main library to begin with, and at the end of the trip I will subdivide them into their separate locations onto the external drive (Tokyo, 17 May) for example and so on.

As such, my entire library features almost every photo i've ever taken, but 90% of them will be inaccessible without the external drive where they are stored, being plugged in.

For a time being, they all sit together in the main library, though lightroom organises them into dates. The files from both cameras were uploaded separately, some on the same day, others perhaps the following day to sort once I had the time.

I backed up lightroom very recently, though I've never had to 'unback' it, so don't know if that will help retrieve them. On the memory card I used, there is a gap, for exactly the files I am missing, almost like Lightroom deleted them after importing, so there are no copies saved elsewhere, unless lightroom has a system.

[dj_paige]

Lightroom does not delete files off the memory cards. Simply not a function that Lightroom has.

I specifically asked if you had backups of the photos, not backups of Lightroom.

Anyway, if you have used your operating system's search feature and you can't find the photos on any of your hard disks (did you search all hard disks?), then we have a real mystery, as far as I can tell. I don't know what happened to your photos, but unless you have backups of the photos, then I am afraid they are gone.

[Brad_Polt-Jones]

Did you properly rename the files during, or after importing. If not, then as DJ said you likely have duplicate file names and that is a problem. The sequence number the camera uses to name the files is not enough, the 2 cameras will use the same numbers for different files.

I advise using the default (date-filename) template at a minimum during the import.

[dj_paige]

Lightroom does not have a problem with multiple photos having the same name. I have used 3 different cameras, and I have taken over 10,000 images on one camera meaning that the numbering has gone back to the beginning of the sequence and now gives photo numbers that already have been imported into LR. Everything works for me without renumbering/renaming the photos, because the photos that have identical names are in different folders, and LR is smart enough to know that DSC_2330.NEF taken in August of 2014 is not the same photo as DSC_2330.NEF taken in June of 2017.

This could run into problems (and possibly cause deletion of photos) because your operating system cannot have duplicate file names in the same folder. And despite my attempts to ask if the user has done that ... put two photos with identical names into the same folder ... he has not provided a clear answer. If the original poster is putting photos into the same folder from his two cameras on this trip, then adding a date and time to the filename would be a good idea.

[ERobicheaux]

Hi, I don't believe this is a correct response. I have a similar problem. I have a very large single Catalogue. In one of my folders contains approximately 14,000 images. When I right click (Mac OS, 10.12.5, LR 2015.10.1) on the folder name and select Synchronize Folder the separate dialogue box comes up and says I have 151 files to import. I select Synchronize. LR very briefly shows me those 151 files but does not add them to this folder, I presume because it has found a duplicate file number elsewhere. I know from previous experience that LR will not import to its catalogue duplicate records. My issue, is how to find those 151 files that LR will not import.

[dj_paige]

If you have 14,000 images in a single folder (not a good idea, in my opinion) and the camera recycles file names after 10,000 photos (at least that's what my camera does), then you will run into possible problems where two different files have the same name in the same folder, and I don't really know what Lightroom will do in that situation.

The specific problem you are having:

When I right click (Mac OS, 10.12.5, LR 2015.10.1) on the folder name and select Synchronize Folder the separate dialogue box comes up and says I have 151 files to import. I select Synchronize. LR very briefly shows me those 151 files but does not add them to this folder, I presume because it has found a duplicate file number elsewhere.

is not because it has found a duplicate file number elsewhere, it is because the file has already been imported into Lightroom, and there's no reason to import it a second time. Usually this happens when photos are imported into LR by accidentally using the COPY option, and so Lightroom thinks the photo is in a different folder than you think the photo is located in. So, the task is really to find what folder Lightroom thinks the photo is located in. If you can identify a file name of one of these photos, then you can search for it in Lightroom using the Filter Bar. First click on All photographs, then turn off all filters, the expand all stacks, and finally search by file name.

[ERobicheaux]

No, first of all, I have a separate naming convention so even though the camera's recycle I change all of my files to a unique sequence number. Secondly, running a MacPro, late 2013 and I have no problem with my large catalogue. It actually works better than my previous experience of using separate catalogues and Adobe always confirmed that I was not pushing LR's limits.

That is exactly what the issue is. Somehow I either named two files the same and imported one and now the other will not import or I copied the file to two separate folders and one imported and now the other will not. So now the trick is to find where the problem lies. In another thread, they suggested a duplicate file finder. Found "Duplicate Finder" in the Apple App store and now I realize I have a larger problem than I thought. Several areas where I have duplicates duplicate files but working through it now.

[dj_paige]

You said one folder had 14,000 images ... this is, in my opinion, not a good thing to do. It does not imply that a LR Catalog of 14,000 images is not a good thing to do, in fact this is small for LR. I certainly agree that one catalog is the best way to go.