HBPERER

Don't forget to look in your computers recycle bin. If you somehow accidentally deleted them they may be there. Anyway nothing to lose and worth the try.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Normal Operation? Hardly.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

I don't use less but LR but am guessing that you needed to transfer the files with the lr program itself. Otherwise delete the old catalog and reload the entire new drive. For Capture One Pro it works that way. I'd guess lr does also. Only problem would be the long period of time to reload an entire drive.

Meganephron Loc: Fort Worth, TX

As I understand LR, once you moved the pictures to the external drive LR lost track of them. Try importing the images from the external drive. If not call Adobe. They are quite good at fixing things like this

bobfitz Loc: Kendall-Miami, Florida

If I were you I would be on the phone with Adobe Technical Support. (800) 585-0774

RRS Loc: Not sure

Try going to your external hard drive and importing the files you need back into LR. You moved the files out, try copying them to the external hard drive to save them for your back-up.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Since the OP posted saying that all is well, there have been at least a dozen posts still offering solutions. How many people actually read the first post and skip the rest?

The pertinent responses mentioned backups (which I forgot to mention), and some stressed moves from within LR, but the rest just did not read the thread.

mjp

I agree. Admin should delete post recommending deleting catalog! That's the one thing LR can't recover from when no backup exists.

Solution proves LR can deal with operating system moves of photos. LR tools are the right way to movE them. I move catalogs between a MacBook Pro and PC using O/S copy all the time with no problems. I amazed how well LR works using the same catalog on different operating systems.

Jim

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

That brings me to a question I have often wondered about, you may have just answered it, but please answer again in case I have misunderstood.

Given that LR is installed on both a Mac and a PC
The Photos are located on an external drive
The catalogue and supporting files are located on the PC

Can the catalogue and supporting files be moved to the Mac without modification, LR opened on the Mac, instructed to use the (moved) catalogue and now access the external drive and its folders/photos?

kaybee Loc: Peterborough UK

How did you move the files to the hard drive? You must understand when a file is "imported" into LR all that happens is LR simply records where the file is in your computer (or hard drive} it just makes a note of where the file is. If you move a file without using LR to move it then LR will still think it is where it was(if that makes sense). If you use LR then you must always use LR to do the moving.
Are you using a Mac or Windows machine?

thephotoman Loc: Rochester, NY

Can you see, on the left side of LR, the name of the extermal hard drive? If not that is at least part of the problem. That would mean LR doesn't see the external hard drive. If it is there, then you need to import your photos to LR and on to the drive. If you are not sure about seeing the external hard drive PM me with a screenshot of your library page.

Larwbuck Loc: Seattle, Washington

One of the rules in LR is to not move your folders or LR will not see them. What you might do is start a new catalog, import your thousands of files into that catalog and you should be able to work with them again. You may have to remove the don't duplicate check box in Preferences however you will be able to see and work with your files. The only other option is to move them back to where they were and move them from LR, that was your first mistake - I've done the same thing so don't fret your not alone.

nhsunshine

Thanks all, but I figured it out last night with the help of Searcher :) I've got my photos and all is well in my life now :)

LiamRowan Loc: Michigan

Can't help but notice the irony of "Searcher" helping you find your photos!! :)

mjp

Catalogs are on external drive, more below.

I can't test plugging an external drive into both since my home PC has LR 4.4 and all my files are now LR 5. It would only work on a exFAT formatted external drive. I just plugged an old external drive from my PC into the Macbook PRO and LR said it couldn't make changes because it can't write to an NTFS volume.

Macbook is my main LR machine and external drives are formatted MAC OS Extended so that Time Machine can back them up. Therefore, I always use Finder's Connect to a Server function to connect the the D: drive on my PC at work. Then copy the folder to my PC.

When I create a catalog I have it create a new folder lightroom/2015/20150203-Shoot-Name and save the catalog there. When I import I create a RAW folder in that folder and save the raw files there.

That allows me to open the MAC catalog that was copied to the PC on the PC and LR is ready to edit. Since the files are in the same relative location LR finds them.

I've also copied files from PC to MAC and been able to open the catalog and edit files and resave catalog.

I'm pretty sure that O/S copy command converts files to target format (e.g. change end of line from MAC's line feed to PC's carriage return and line feed). Not sure if MAC writes in PC format when connected to an exFAT drive.

I can try plugging a MAC external drive into my work computer tomorrow. It has 8.1 Pro which I'm pretty sure I've open MAC formatted external drives on before. I'll also try an exFAt drive between the two. My home PC is Win 7 and won't open MAC drives since it's not the Pro version.

Obviously, catalogs are on external drive (backup up via time machines and copies on another external drive).

I have copied photos and catalog from MAC made edits on the PC and copied only the catalog back to the MAC and all changes are present.

I recently purchased a 4TB external drive to put as a backup that has one master catalog. I copied all of my photo/LR folders from PC and MAC external drives. Now I'm going through doing a LR catalog import. It's bringing them in knowing exactly where the picture files even on ones where I imported the next day's shoot with the raw files in a new folder while hooked to the catalog in the prior days folder since it knows to go up one or two folders and look for a specific folder name.

I started my catalog per shoot when I first got LR long before I started shooting project and employee photos for work. Being and I/T nerd it's my nature to control the environment. It has come in handy now that I need to get a copy on the network and sometimes edit at work. PC with dual 24 monitors is much easier than a MACBook Pro, but the Macbook is nice when working at home at night in the family room watching TV. I also have LR set to backup catalogs at exit.