2 Replies Latest reply: Nov 20, 2008 6:26 PM by hrh gracie RSS

    Watching a folder and auto importing

    hrh gracie Community Member
      I figure this is somewhere obvious, but it's eluded me.......

      I have a structure of derivative files. top level directory with a bunch of subdirectories that contain the .psd, .jpg, and occasional .tif files.

      I want to watch this folder in LR so when I put a file into one of the derivative folders it automatically gets imported into the LR catalog. I don't want to have to specify every one of the 80 or 90 folders, just give it the top folder and have it watch the subfolders. I don't want it to move my file somewhere else, just drag it into the catalog if it's not already there........ HOW do I do this in LR 2.1?
        • 1. Re: Watching a folder and auto importing
          ssprengel Community Member
          You are talking about wanting to do Auto-Synchronization where Import Missing Photos is what's enabled.

          There's no such thing, although you can manually kick it off, easy enough, with a right-click on the parent folder of the 80-90 sub-folders and choose Synchronize Folder and make sure the correct synchronzation options are enabled and disabled.

          I suspect the reason there isn't such a thing is that it is time-consuming where LR would have to constantly look in all folders to see if any more photos showed up by comparing what was on disk with what was in its catalog. This is a different operation than merely moving any files out of a directory and into another location w/in the cataloged folders because it is easy for LR to see whether or not there are any new photos in a location that typically does not have anything in it when the auto-import operation is complete.
          • 2. Re: Watching a folder and auto importing
            hrh gracie Community Member
            Yeah, the synchronize is what I've been doing. Just figured there'd be some method that'd keep an eye on my folders of derivatives so I wouldn't have to synchronize manually...