Missing folder/images after importing

[Rookie_Phil]

I imported 205 RAW images to Lr yesterday, and now they have the photo is missing icon in Library and, in Develop, a message that the photo could not be found.

I wasn't aware that I had done anything differently from previous imports, although I believe that, during the import process, I forgot to select 'Copy' instead of 'Add' at the top of the window (I was a tad tired).

I've looked at a couple of suggestions from help/tutorials but I'm stymied when I get to the end of the process of tracing the folder/image back to the original location.  Instead of the name of the folder/image, I'm confronted with three choices, none of which it will let me select/choose in order to move on.  These are: 'Lightroom Catalogue.lrcat'; 'Lightroom Catalogue...ws.lrdata'; and 'Lightroom Catalogue.lrcat.zip'.

I'd welcome any suggestions, please.

Phil

[Just Shoot Me]

For some reason LR allowed you to import the images using the "Add" option from the camera's memory card either still in the camera or in a card reader or from some other drive that is no longer connected to the system. You need to Reconnect that Drive and or Memory Card and then Copy those images to a Folder on a drive is constantly connected to your computer.

[Rookie_Phil]

Thanks for your reply.  Unfortunately, I'd assumed that I'd made a successful import after seeing the Raw files in the Library module and reformatted the camera's memory card. So, presumably, my only option is to somehow retrieve the lost pics/folder from the computer or EHD.  I sure did a good job, didn't I?

[ManiacJoe · Accepted solution]

If you actually did an "add" from the memory card, the images never made it to your hard drive.

If you have not used the memory card again, you can put it into a card reader and use an undelete program on you computer to recover the images.

[Rookie_Phil]

Many thanks.  You were bang on the money.  I've just recovered 203 images (saved and ready to be processed) and I'm very grateful for your time and advice.

[Bob Somrak]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Rookie+Phil  wrote

reformatted the camera's memory card. .........     ...........  I sure did a good job, didn't I?

Lightroom is NOT supposed to let you use ADD when importing from a camera memory card.  There seems to be more posts about this lately so maybe Lightroom is doing a bad job or some cameras do not format the card with the DCIM standard correctly.  Either way, its a good idea to have backups before formatting the card.  I am guilty of not taking the time to do this once in awhile but have been lucky so far.