bob fleer Loc: Annapolis, MD

I had pictures emailed to me from my wife. Placed them on my desktop to be printed then imported into lightroom. to do this told light room to import from desktop. Move went fine but desktop change. The things that I kept there all went somewhere, to where I do not know. how come this happened anyone know and where it might have gone. I have a PC.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Did you copy, move or add the images to the catalog? Each option does something different with regards to the image location.

bob fleer Loc: Annapolis, MD

I did an import from my desktop to my lightroom photos. All photos on my desktop about 6 showed up. I selected the 2 I wanted and imported sam. They showed up as expected. After printing said photos backed up lightroom and closed. At this point my xesktop showed up and other photos along with some Google downloads and other things were gone.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

When you imported into the LR catalog, did you use copy, move or add?

What is Lightroom Photos? A folder you have created that has all your images?

Where did the 6 photos show up? In the Lightroom Catalog?

You do realize that if you use the backup function in LR you are only backing up the catalog, and not your image files. Did you use the LR backup function or did you back up your images to an other medium?

What do you mean by google downloads and other things being gone? Gone from where?

I am thinking that with the level of your computer skills you may be best off connecting with a local photo club, or someone who can help you navigate your computer. Without a basic understanding of how the LR catalog works, and what your options are as far as the import options and backup is concerned, this will remain a complete mystery to you. I wish I could be more helpful.

bob fleer Loc: Annapolis, MD

Photos copeyd over to lightroom ok. My lightroom photos is a file i put together it has a main folder this is the catalog. I have 5 external hard drives one is catalog backup one is the working catalog two are full copies of all of my photos one is a full backup of the computer. I can find all of the things dealing with Lightroom. The question I have is when I copied from desktop to Lightroom why would my desktop be altered. 4 downloads gone from desktop two were copies of some Google files fro some emails almost all of the shortcuts on desktop disappeared. It was as if it was a clean slate. I have recovered several.

bob fleer Loc: Annapolis, MD

Oh the 6 photos were on my desktop when I set up to import to Lightroom I was asked from location I put in desktop copy to I put in my lightroom pictures and they were there plus 4 others only picked the ones I wanted to. The other 4 were gone from desktop. I lnow where they are they were sent to me as emails and are in my saved email file. Guess it comes down to why would so much be removed from my desktop. I agree that computers are not my strong point. I have gone to several clases and use the tutorials tge educated. I am learning but it is not intuitive for me. Not how my brain works.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

If you had more than image files on your desktop, and instructed LR to MOVE the files to the catalog from your desktop, it may be LR realized it couldn't catalog those 'Google downloads' and discarded them, then the MOVE process removed them from the desktop. (I'm guessing here!!)

bob fleer Loc: Annapolis, MD

Guess it is possible. I have found some items in areas where they were brought in as emails or downloads in their oriinal locations before being brout to the desktop as shortcuts.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Bob, I think that part of the problem here is your lack of understanding as to what happens when you import into Lightroom depending on which type of import you do. Other responses have tried to point this out but I guess they have not made it clear to you.

When you click the import button, you should notice at the top of the screen the options to copy, move, or add - depending on which of these you select light room behaves a little differently while importing the image files (well, technically, the pointers to the image files since the actual files are not brought in to Lightroom).

Copy will instruct Lightroom to copy the files you have selected to a location you have pointed to while leaving the originals (in this case, the ones on your desktop) where they are. From there, Lightroom will be " pointing to" The files it copied to the location you specified.

The Move option instructs light room to take the files you selected and relocate them to the folder as per your instruction on the left side column, perhaps this is the setting you had which caused the files on your desktop to be moved elsewhere.

The Add option instructs LR to leave the selected image files where they are and simply create pointers to that location for them.

I hope this makes the process a little more clear-my guess is you have light room set to the Move option and so it took those files from your desktop and place them in some folder that was selected.

stratmantes

Find out what format your lost files were in e.g. Jpeg raw etc then you can do a file search on your computer. This could involve a large number of files

FL Pics

It sounds as though you did 2 imports. What kinds of files (.???) were the Google files - were they files LR could import? IF they were, one explanation could be that you COPIED some of the files (those that remained on the desktop) and MOVED the others (those that disappeared from the desktop). But you also said that you imported 6 photos into LR, selected 2, and then imported them into LR. Normally, LR will not import duplicates, so can you tell us how you did this? Did you create another catalog into which you imported/moved duplicate files (those you had already imported into the first LR catalog)? Did you name or need to rename an LR Catalog?

BTW, you probably do not need to devote an entire HD to the catalog. I doubt yours will be much over 5MB, if it is that large, after you have done all of your importing, because as others have pointed out the .lrcat file does not contain the actual images. It is essentially a database that points to the images and the changes you make in post processing. Very important - because it is a database, anytime you move images that are in LR, if you do not move, rename, etc. within LR, LR will not be able to find them. You might believe they are gone, but they are not. You simply will need to repoint LR to their new location.

bersharbp Loc: Texas

Sounds like you may have accidentally 'hidden' you files and or desktop. Search for SHOW

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

If the items from your desktop have been really moved to another folder, a quick way to locate them would be to do a search on the name of one of the items (that you can remember). If you find that one, odds are the other items may be located in the same folder, and you can copy or drag-and-drop them back onto your desktop.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

You folks pay $10 a month for the privilege of de-bugging LR. Why do I see so many complaints about a god-like program... described in Genesis... 1:3-5 "God said, Let there be light; he willed it, and at once there was Lightroom." Later he used the clone tool to make Eve.

Seriously, you pay for this problematic patched up Beta launched in 2006. UHH search gave 30 topics with out changing my search wording.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

You have some good suggestions about finding the lost stuff but there is a chance that won't solve the problem. This is a long shot but do you use Google Drive? If so, look there.

I had a similar experience once in which Google Drive, for reasons I can't explain, imported my desktop into itself. It took a tech from Google to extract it remotely, and it happened again while he could see it. Meanwhile, my desktop sat there blank and anything I tried to copy to the desktop went straight into the Google drive. Changing the preferences on Google drive to disable contextual menus for right-clicking prevented it from happening again.