Smart previews missing

[djparkerdiver]

Hello

I usually have yearly Lightroom catalogues and today i opened up last years catalogue and all of my photos are saying "photo is missing" and my smart previews are all gone too?

I haven't changed anything related to these photos apart from I recently renamed the catalogue. Could this have had an affect on my smart previews? How do i find the smart previews?

In the catalogue folder i have the "Catalogue Smart Previews.lrdata" file in both the old and new name of my catalogue.

Thanks

[F. McLion · Accepted solution]

The preview and smart preview folders need to have the very same names as the catalog.

If you rename only the catalog, you loose the other ones.

Rename the catalog back to what it was, what the old smart preview folder is named, or delete the new smart preview folder and rename the old one to what the catalog is named now.

[djparkerdiver]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!! All sorted!!

[Jim Wilde]

Just to be clear, restoring the Smart Previews folders back to the correct name will NOT have sorted out any problems you have with missing photos......on the contrary it actually can mask the fact that photos may be missing. Your original post strongly implies that in fact some of your photos are indeed missing, so I suggest you run the Library menu command "Find All Missing Photos" to see what is reported.

[djparkerdiver]

Hi Jim

Yeah I won’t go into it but the originals are all gone!! Completely changed my workflow and backup system now so hopefully it won’t happen again.

thanks

[F. McLion]

... huuuhhh ...

[andrewdhk]

i appear to have inadvertently renamed the catalog by moving my photos to a different external drive (all 3 of my external drives are connected, if that makes a difference), and in so doing, i am having the problem of missing smart previews. Could you advise me how to find which file needs to be renamed? Thank you sry for the elementary question. A matter of great importance. 

[andrewdhk]

i should add. I moved the photos (by changing where originals would be saved), it moved my entire catalog's number of photos, then when i clicked on smart previews, they disappeared and i could actually see the number of photos drop. I am in a state of high anxiety over this; grateful for any help. pardon my lack of understanding for the file system.