HELP! Two folders merged and work is gone!

[cbowlden]

I had two folders with the same name, one with a date and one without a date. One file had 1/3 of the photos edited the other didnt. When I went to open the folder that had the work edited, it said the folder was missing, so the files weren't being recognized. I thought maybe synchronizing the two folders (since the images were all the same anyway) would help, but now it's erased all my work! Is there anything that can be done? Am I able to unsynchronize or find my work again?

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

You need to do a search in Lightroom for your photos. Your photos are never deleted unless you specifically tell Lightroom to delete the photos.

To do the search in Lightroom, follow all of these four steps in order:

1.   In the Lightroom Library Module, on the left, under Catalog, click on All Photographs

2.   Turn off all filters (Ctrl-L once or twice)

3.   Turn off all stacking (Photo->Stacking->Expand All Stacks)

4.   Search for at least one of these photos by file name using the Lightroom Filter Bar

[cbowlden]

To remember what photos I edited, I changed the color to green. When I synchronized the folders, or merged them, my edited work went away. I dont have missing images, just missing work. Is there a way to find this or unmerge/unsynchronize the folders to bring back my edited work?

[dj_paige]

Nothing you do in Lightroom should cause your work to disappear, unless you deleted the photos from Lightroom. Did you do that?

If you go to the develop module on one of these photos, and look on the left under History, are your edits shown there? At the bottom of the History panel should be the word Import followed by a date ... what is that date?

When you performed the search above, and found the photos, were there two copies of the photos, one copy with edits and another copy with no edits? Please look carefully.

[cbowlden]

Okay, I found them! All the edited photos (roughly 400). Now what do I do to make sure they are going to the right folder and are not deleted?

[Luis_Lemc]

What did you do to solve the problem? One of my folders is gone from my library and I did not deleted it just merged a folder.