Why do ALL of my images in LR 4.464 have question marks (?) as if the files are missing and how do I retrieve them?

[Debbie_s_Images]

I opened up my LR program and all of the files have question marks (?) indicating they are lost or missing.  How do I find all of my files/folders without going through each one individually?  How do I prevent this from happening again?

[DVDmike]

Click on the ? And find files.  It should show the expected file path That lightroom is expecting them to be.  check your file explorer to see if that path is online.  Lightroom thinks it not.  If you have a disk that's offline or it's drive lettervhas changed, this is your problem.

[ManiacJoe · Accepted solution]

Your files are not "in" Lightroom. Your files are on the hard drive just like your documents and spreadsheets. Lightroom references your images by path and file name. If you have moved or renamed the files outside of Lightroom using Mac Finder or Windows File Explorer, you need to tell Lightroom what you did.

If you have lots of "missing" images, first go to the Library module, Folders panel.

If you have any missing folders "?" you need to "find" those first. LR knows the difference between missing files and files in missing folders. Fixing the folders first should solve most of the file problems.

After you fix any missing folders, then you can "find" the remaining missing files.

Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

[niranchalaf73929426]

but if i didn't move or change folder's name, i just open lightroom and saw those missing folder and file can anyone tell me what cause it since i tried to find those missing file some i couldn't locate I'm getting worry that i will lose them all thank

[dj_paige]

niranchalaf73929426  wrote

but if i didn't move or change folder's name,

Lightroom can't find the photos. Lightroom doesn't care if you think you didn't move the photos/folders or change the photo/folders names. Sometimes this happens accidentally and you don't even realize it.

It doesn't really matter why at this point.

First, you need to find the photos using your operating system. Use the search feature of your operating system to search all hard disks for one or more of these photos, by file name. Then, once you know where the photos are, go into Lightroom, click on the question mark icon, and point Lightroom to the location of the photos.

[Christa3011]

I have the same issue. I find the missing file once I click on the question mark and it shows where on my external drive the files are. I connect them again and next time I open Lightroom it's the same story all over again. I haven't moved or renamed anything behind Lightroom, so am wondering if it could be an issue with my airport time capsule, which I use as as my external drive when importing the files.

Be gentle please as I am new to Lightroom but can't figure out what I am doing wrong. Any help or tips appreciated. Thanks Christa

[dj_paige]

I don't know what an "airport time capsule" is. Could you explain?

Is this a windows computer? Are you using an external drive and then un-plugging the drive and at a later time plugging it in again?

[Christa3011]

It is a wireless external hard drive that is used to back up all computers and also serves as an external drive. I have only just started using Lightroom so haven’t really imported much yet but would like to get things straight before I do so.

I think I will just change imports to another external hard drive (Lacie connected to my iMac) and see how I go. Might be the whole wireless thing, even though the apple guys specifically sold it to me for the Lightroom purpose.

C

[dj_paige]

If it is a wireless drive, can you be sure that the wireless connection is working? It sounds to me like it's not working when you get these question marks.

It cannot function as both "external hard drive that is used to back up all computers and also serves as an external drive". Backups cannot be on the same disk as your photos. Backups must be on a different disk.

[Christa3011]

I do have a seperate backup drive. In any case the Airport Time Capsule must have been the culprit as I changed the location to import them to and the issue has resolved itself. thanks for your help.

C

[ManiacJoe]

External drives -

If you are using Windows, sometimes Windows changes the drive letter on you. When this happens, you can either do a "find missing folder" to get LR to use the new drive letter, or you can use the Windows drive utility to rename the drive to the old letter. (If you pick a letter greater than L, Windows usually will not rename it.)

Check to see if the drive has a "sleep" mode that is enabled. This can cause LR to lose its connection to the drive.

[Christa3011]

I am using a brand new iMac and an Apple 3TB Airport Extreme as my external drive, which is wireless and might be the issue. I will try with a connected Lacie external drive to see how I go. Just want to get things right in the beginning before I loose heaps of already imported pictures.

Do you know by any chance how to check if the Lightroom catalogue is in the correct place? Just want everything to be watertight;-)

Thanks for your help.

C

[ManiacJoe]

There is no right/wrong place for the catalog, but some places make more sense than others.

The default (and poor) location for the catalog is in your "pictures" folder.

I prefer a separate location for the catalog, like /lr_catalog at the root of the drive.