Hi,
I'm traveling around the world and in my early days I've left some file back home and thought I was safe by keeping only Smart Preview
(they aren't professional stuff, just, mostly memories and maybe some backstage or thing like this that I could now use as illustrations for my portfolio).
The problem is that noticed yesterday that some of my folders are now empty, and when I say some, I mean most of 2011/2012 and half of 2013!
I remember that a few weeks ago I've done a little reorganization in my library, and I might have "Synchronise folder" in the process, now I'm wondering if I haven't forgotten to untick the "delete missing files from library" box....
So I'm kind of freaking out right now, also because that was the time I moved all my library from a 2Tb hard drive to a 4Tb, using the 2Tb as backup storage.
So I basically wiped out all backups, probably a week after that ... 
I'm juggling in between catalogs, trying to get back the files in the library, and by files I mean the settings mostly, even if I don't have the original files with me.
But before I could at least open it as smart preview and still edit or export it. Now It's just blanc boxes...
Is there a way to get back those smart previews, is there a magical solution bring back my files from the dead, since the original files are located in another country...
Thank you
2
Replies
No i didn't... I have more than 27.000 picture in my library, all from full frame camera and all in raw
Anyway, believe it or not, i managed to get it back oO
When lightroom changed into lightroom classic it converted the library in a new version and never deleted the old file. Of course i made a lot of changes since but by converting it again i could open a backup of that time in 2017, select the period of those missing files, export it as a new library and re-import them into my current library with the ticking the box "not importing duplicated files".
I habe reload the oldest backup of my "[library] smart preview" file that i had from my time machine, and somehow, the preview was still in there even if this backup was after I accidentaly deleted them oO
Which make me think that smart previews doesn't get deleted when I delete files from the library
But i won't complain for now ^^
Since the location of the files changed, i had to reorganize them in the right folder. Strangely, lightroom doesn't let me move the files themselves sicne the original file is missing but it does let me move the folder, so now i have a 2012-2 and 2013-2 folder with the smart previews working 
A bit of a mess but at least i have it
What i don't understand is why some of them have been deleted and some of them hasn't been touched
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