All photos on my NAS are now missing but can't be re-added because duplicates?

[x022098]

I don't know when this started since I only just noticed it yesterday.   All of the images on my NAS have exclamation points next to them and if I click on them, I get a message, "Lightroom has encountered problems reading this photo. You will not be able to make adjustments to the photo". 

More current photos (from the past year or two) on local drives are fine and the files on the NAS are in fact where lightroom thinks they are.

In some cases, I get a message the Lightroom cannot locate the image.  I point it to the proper directory (the one it is already looking at incidentally) and then I get this message:

The file <filename> is associated with another photo in the catalog.

Each file can only be associated with one photo.

So my questions are:

1. How did this happen?

2. How do I fix it?

3. Why can't lightroom show me the supposed duplicate image associated with the file?

I am beginning to panic because my catalog is pretty large and the files on the NAS are ones from more than a year ago.  If I have to restore the catalog from a backup, I'm not sure how far back I'd have to go and then whatever changes have been made to the current couple of years would be lost.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[Just Shoot Me]

What OS are you using?

Has the drive letter for your NAS changed? This can happen on Windows.

Can you get to and see your images on your NAS from the File Manager for the OS you are using?

[Just Shoot Me]

Also if image show as missing do NOT try to Re-import them.

You need to Find Missing Photos.

Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

How to find missing photos in Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC

[x022098]

I am running Windows 10.

The drive letter may have changed but I am not sure.  If so, I would have used Lightroom to find the missing photos (I learned that lesson long ago).

The files are on the NAS so that isn't the problem.  Lightroom just thinks it already has them somewhere else.

[dj_paige]

"Lightroom has encountered problems reading this photo. You will not be able to make adjustments to the photo".

This is not the same as your title, which implies the photos are missing. This message indicates that the photo cannot be used.

This can happen because somehow the files themselves have become corrupted. It can happen because the files are fine, but the transmission across your network is somehow corrupting the files. (And a third possible cause, several people have reported this with Lightroom Classic CC, so I don't know if there's a bug in the software causing this or not, but since you didn't tell us what version of Lightroom you are using, who knows ...)

In some cases, I get a message the Lightroom cannot locate the image.  I point it to the proper directory (the one it is already looking at incidentally) and then I get this message:

The file <filename> is associated with another photo in the catalog.

Because just becuase there is a duplicate, you have to do the proper steps to locate the photo. If you are getting the message that the file is associated with another photo, it is usually because the photo has been imported into LR, and you have to find it in the Library module (click on All Photographs, sort everything by file name, and you shold be able to locate it this way).

[x022098]

I was able to find the file and it was where I thought it would be.  That is when it responds that it is associated with another photo in the catalog.

[x022098]

I am running ightroom Classic version: 7.0.1 [ 1142117 ]

[x022098]

I just tried a couple more images and generally here is what happens. 

An exclamation point is next to each image.   If I click on it, Lightroom says, "Lightroom has encountered problems reading this file" "You will not be able to make adjustments to this photo".

If I right click and select "find in explorer" Lightroom tells me it can't find it.  I dutifully show it where it is and then it tells me that it is associated with another photo in the catalog.

[Todd Shaner]

Although you can't use LR with a case-sensitive OS LR is in fact case-sensitive. If the NAS drive name or letter has a different case than what is showing inside LR this will cause what you are seeing.

[x022098]

Unfortunately, that isn't the case here.  The Phones are on a drive mapped as
Z: and Lightroom is looking for Z: as well. 

[Todd Shaner]

Do you have Windows 'Offline Files/Folders' enabled? Please provide screenshots of the LR Folders panel and Windows Explorer view of the same folders on the NAS drive.

[x022098]

I am not familiar with the "Offline Files/Folders" option you mentioned so it is likely that the default is in use.  Where would I find it?

FWIW: I am running Windows 10.

I am able to open the images from the NAS in photoshop/camera-raw via the file manager.

[Todd Shaner]

The error message you are seeing indicates the LR folder path is different than the current system naming. I found this post indicating Windows 10 apparently reserves the drive letter Z: for recovery purposes.

Windows 10 Forums

To eliminate this as a possible conflict I suggest renaming the drive or partition an unused letter with no adjacent letter drives or partitions. For example use T: if there are no volumes using S: or U: just to be safe. Close LR change the volume letter, open LR and right click on the Z: drive in the Folder panel, select 'Update Folder Location,' and point it to the new drive/volume letter you assigned. If this was the cause all of the image files should now be showing with their edits inside LR.

[x022098]

Sadly that didn't change anything.  I made the new mapped drive "P" which seemed fitting for (P)hotos.  And once pointed to the correct location, Lightroom was unable to work with those file.  Oddly, I did find a handful of files (a few sub-directories) that do seem to work properly but the vast majority don't.  This is even more bizarre to me since if something affected Lightroom's catalog with respect to the NAS, one would think it would affect all of those files, not just a majority of them.

[Todd Shaner]

Since some folders are accessible it sounds like you may have inadvertently enabled 'Offline Files' as discussed here:

Re: Lightroom loses files on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive

[x022098]

Offline files is not enabled on this PC. 

[dj_paige]

x022098  wrote

Unfortunately, that isn't the case here.  The Phones are on a drive mapped as
Z: and Lightroom is looking for Z: as well. 

The file names and folder names are case sensitive as well. They have to have the exact same spelling and case in both Lightroom's data base and on your network.

[x022098]

UPDATE:  I tried a few more things and the results are pretty odd...

I copied an entire directory from the NAS to a local drive and it imported into a new catalog just fine.

Next, I copied a few files to a new directory on the NAS and tried to import it into the new Lightroom catalog and Lightroom didn’t even see the files.

Next, I opened each of these files in Photoshop and they opened fine.

Finally, I took those same file and copied them from the NAS to a local drive and they imported without issue into Lightroom.

[Todd Shaner]

x022098  wrote

Next, I copied a few files to a new directory on the NAS and tried to import it into the new Lightroom catalog and Lightroom didn’t even see the files.

What model NAS are you using?

Open the new catalog, go to the Import module, click on the 'Source' + v arrow, and then on 'Add Network Volume.' Can you now see the folders and import any of them? If you get an error message please provide a screenshot showing the message.

[x022098]

The problem isn't finding the volume.  Lightroom seems to not see the images in it.  I tried adding the volume as you suggested but the results were the same.  It finds nothing there.  If I point to a local drive, it finds the same files (copied from that network drive). 

[x022098]

Another thing I noticed is, while it doesn't find images on the NAS anymore when I try to import them (the same files on a local drive import just fine), But I notice now that it isn't that it doesn't find them, it never actually stops looking...

The little circle keeps spinning and if you hover over it, it says, "finding files..."

[Todd Shaner]

Could this be a permissions issue? Try right-clicking on the LR shortcut (Lightroom.exe) and select 'Run as Administrator.'

Beyond this I suggest contacting the NAS manufacturer's  Tech Support and see what suggestions they have. BTW- What NAS model are you using?

[x022098 · Accepted solution]

I FIXED IT!!!

I am not sure how this happened but I went back and reviewed all the NAS settings and found that the workgroup name reverted to the default "WORKGROUP" which isn't the name of my workgroup.  I'm not sure how that could happen or how long it might have been this way.  I also don't understand why this only seems to affect Lightroom and not opening the photos in Photoshop?

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions.  I really appreciate it.  Now I'm off to do all those things I was going to do this weekend before this happened!

[Todd Shaner]

Glad you found the solution!

x022098  wrote

I also don't understand why this only seems to affect Lightroom and not opening the photos in Photoshop?

PS uses the Windows Explorer interface directly with File> Open and the LR Import module places a filter layer between  the two. My guess is if a folder doesn't have full R/W user permissions the image files won't show inside the LR Import module.

[sampenguin]

I was having a very similar problem to OP and found a different fix.

Using a Synology 1511+, I have a mapped network drive (P:/ which corresponds to the //NAS/photos/ shared folder). When I first installed Lightroom Classic CC, it had no problem accessing the photos there. I was importing and creating catalogs, editing etc. for a couple of days.

I came back to it a week or two later after an update and suddenly all the photos were listed as missing. As I hadn't done a ton of work and haven't done a full import of my collection yet, I ended up deleting the catalog, thinking I could just reimport and start again.

Now, when I go to import, LR sees the folder structure just fine on the left side of the dialog, but keeps saying "No photos found" on every folder I select under P:/. When I select a folder on my local drive (C:) it sees photos no problem.

I tried x022098's solution which applied to me as my local computer (Windows 10) workgroup was not matching what my NAS workgroup was set to. However, fixing that did not fix the problem. LR still says "no photos found" on every subfolder of the shared network drive.

I verified permissions. Then I realized something that had changed in the in between time... I switched to using a Microsoft account instead of a local account in my Windows OS. I had previously setup a windows credential for my NAS to continue using the correct user when accessing the shared drives. Looking into this again led me to this thread on Synology forums:
Windows 10 and Microsoft-Account - Synology Forum

I followed the suggestion to up the Maximum SMB protocol to SMB3 on my NAS (it was previously set at SMB2) and voila! Now Lightroom works with the network drive folders again... albeit fairly sluggishly (especially when initially browsing into deeper subfolders in the P:/ drive, just getting the list of subfolder names back takes a loooong time each time you click a little expand arrow).