Lightroom external problem

[jenkins]

<p>Hi Chaps<br>

I back my work up on externals ans noticed yesterday that on one of them there is a folder (This years work) that Lightroom isn't recognising.</p>

<p>So I deleted the folder and copied it again into the folder from an external that is working properly, deleted the backup and pasted that in again too, still I have question marks on that entire folder.</p>

<p>Other folders are showing up fine it's just this years work, does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this to happen?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

 

[tonybynum]

you just have to redirect lightroom to the new folder. If all your images live in one folder, filled with sub

folders, you should be able to direct LR to the new folder and all your images will be re connected. make

sure youre backing up your catalog and your images to separate drives or you're not backing up anything

. . .

[jenkins]

<p>Tony Lightroom has always known where these pictures are they are copied onto A external and then I copy them from A to B and then update the cataloge on both, something strange is going on here.</p>

[jenkins]

<p>I have just deleted the folder in Lightroom and reimporting the folder, slow going but should do the trick. I must have copied and pasted the folder from A external to B without Lightroom knowing about it, what's the best way to this in the future?</p>

[mark_sirota1]

<p>In general, re-importing is almost never the answer to any Lightroom question. Causes more problems than it solves.</p>

<p>In this case, all you had to do was right-click on the top-level missing folder in Lightroom's Folders panel, choose "Find Missing Folder" from the context menu, navigate to the new location, and you're good to go.</p>

[jenkins]

<p>Oh Lord! I see it's the Update Folder Location on right click :(</p>

<p>Oh well I will know for next time Mark, thanks for that.</p>

[travismcgee]

<p>I'm a little confused about the problem....</p>

<p>If these are backup photos, why is Lightroom looking for them at all? Are both your primary images and your backup images in the same Lightroom catalog at the same time? If so, I would think Lightroom would get really confused by the backup process if you backed up your data outside of Lightroom.</p>

<p>Others may disagree, but I normally think of my "primary" data and my "backup" data. In this context, I have one set of primary images that the Lightroom catalog knows about. I do all my work on that set of images and store the work in that Lightroom catalog. When it's time to backup, I shut down Lightroom and copy all the images and the entire Lightroom catalog to another hard drive. (Actually, to three other hard drives; I have my primary data and three identical copies of it.) That way, if my primary hard drive fails, I can just direct Lightroom to one of the backup drives that contains all the images and the catalog and everything is there. In your case, it kinda sounds like Lightroom can see both your primaries and your backups and that would be confusing to me, and probably to Lightroom too.</p>

<p>In other news....</p>

<p>If you delete a set of images from Lightroom, you must re-import them. Lightroom has forgotten about them and any edits you made to them.</p>

<p>If you just move a folder of images to a new location without telling Lightroom, you will have to tell Lightroom where it is now, but the images and the edits should be safe.</p>

<p>Hope that helps a little.</p>

[jenkins]

<p>Dave we have exactly the same way of backing up, thing that confused me today was Lightroom could see all the folders on the backup except this years work. Then I thought why don't I have both externals recognisable to Lightroom then i can alternate my primary if I so wished.<br>

If your back up is being updated when Lightroom is shut down then it can't see it? If the primary goes on the blink then all I have to do is plug in the other one and it will kick up, that's my thinking.</p>

 

[travismcgee]

<p>So you have two external hard drives and whichever one you plug into your computer is the one Lightroom looks at? Makes sense, provided you keep both external hard drives identical.</p>

<p>One thing you might think about is hard drive speed. Most internal hard drives in desktop computers spin at 7200 rpm and most external hard drives (and most laptop hard drives) spin at 5400 rpm. Lightroom will be faster if your images and catalog are stored on a faster drive. Personally, I have a dedicated SSD drive, which is very fast, in my desktop just for images and the Lightroom catalog. I use that as primary and then back up my data on slower drives in various places.</p>

<p>Cheers.</p>

 

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>Most internal hard drives in desktop computers spin at 7200 rpm and most external hard drives (and most laptop hard drives) spin at 5400 rpm.</p>

</blockquote>

<p> <br>

I have five external drives, 9TB in all, which are all 7200 drives.<br>

</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I have a dedicated SSD drive, which is very fast, in my desktop just for images and the Lightroom catalog.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br />SSDs are severely limited in capacity at this point relative to hard drives. For anyone who shoots a lot, it's not a good idea. The only issue I have with hard drive performance is that it takes a while for them to start up from "power save" mode.</p>