Fed up with Lightroom - please suggest alternatives (Page 3): For your info: Lightroom uses YOUR file structure, it does not have one of its own. If you have ten folders each with 3...

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

BboH wrote:

My file structure is governed by how I determine it to be using Windows Explorer. The programs I use - PaintShop, DxO, CaptureNX, ViewNX all use the file structure I have created with Explorer. I will use no program that insists on its own file structure.

For your info: Lightroom uses YOUR file structure, it does not have one of its own.

If you have ten folders each with 3 sub-folders on your hard drive, that is exactly what you will see in LR, no more, no less.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I know of no photo management program that does alter a file structure of its own accord, nor of one that actually imports the original images.

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

wings42 wrote:

Greetings All,

I'm quitting Lightroom and never going back to it because of how LR uses one catalog to keep track of photos and changes to those photos.

A backup hard drive on my PC died. When I replaced it I made the bad mistake (because of LR cataloging) of putting the drive containing my photos in its location. Windows changed the drive letter designations so all my photos were now on D: drive instead of the previous E: drive. My LR catalog was located in the LR directory on the the new D: drive but thought that itself and all the photos and changes it had cataloged were still on E:.

With the change in drive letters ALL photos became invisible to LR.

Similar LR confusions on a smaller scale had happened to me in the past. Since all additions, deletions, changes to photo file names or relocations MUST BE MADE USING LIGHTROOM TO BE VISIBLE TO LIGHTROOM if anything is done with Windows that doesn't exactly follow LR requirements, imagine the difficulty in recovering files. In other words, your only tool to recover photos and changes is using an application, LR, where those same files are invisible to it. The recovery procedures are difficult with one or two directories but its almost impossible with thousands of files in hundreds of invisible directories and sub-directories.

I exactly (I thought) followed the LR procedures for recovering lost files. The first attempt with the first file didn't work, so I made a small change which I thought was correct and that seemed to work. But very quickly, the ONLY thing my one LR catalog remembered were a few files I successfully recovered, but none of the LR modifications were remembered for thousands of other photos.

I obviously did something wrong, but a photo processing system shouldn't be that fragile and hard to manage with something as critical as cataloging and keeping track of changes to photos.

Besides this catastrophic loss of so much work, LR can be a slow dog of a program. My PC isn't a speed demon but its pretty fast, with 12g of memory and a dedicated graphics card. I've literally waited 20 seconds for two comparison photos to come into focus using LR, a royal pain if a day's shoot had 250 photos!

I'm looking for another photo processing system that's powerful with a good work flow. Right now, Paintshop Pro X8 is top contender. Any suggestions will be very appreciated.

Greetings All, br br I'm quitting Lightroom and n... (show quote)

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I would suggest that you connect with UHH member "dngallagher" or "searcher". Too many opinions will only confuse you more, they are very knowledgeable with LR and will get you back on track.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

wings42 wrote:

Windows changed the drive letter designations so all my photos were now on D: drive instead of the previous E: drive. My LR catalog was located in the LR directory on the the new D: drive but thought that itself and all the photos and changes it had cataloged were still on E:.

With the change in drive letters ALL photos became invisible to LR.

You can change the letter of the drive back to E: Just Google how to do it.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

bcmink wrote:

If one changes drive letters using Diskpart in Windows (a resident utility to the Windows OS) assigned drive letters will not change even if you change the configuration of connected drives or connect and reconnect drives at will.

I go to Disk Management and change the drive letter there, and it always changes back.

This is the problem with MS utilities - lots of words, not much info.

"You can use Diskpart to change the drive letter." Really? Why not tell us how?

http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/300415

chfrus

Maybe you should go to a Mac.

Peachseed

It looks like you are getting a lot of advice on how to use Lightroom and not a lot on answering your question. I am inclined to prefer LR as well but - I bought a new laptop the other day and it came with a package I wasn't familiar with, it is called Cyberlink Photo Director 6, the upgrade to the full product was downloadable and pretty reasonable in price. It has a lot of tools that LR does not, such as HDR processing, plus all the tools LR has. The file management seems somewhat more intuitive.
I haven't explored it thoroughly but you might check it out.

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

ClutchDisk wrote:

You might have been able to go to "disk manager" in win 10 and change the dive letters. I have 3 hds, C operating system, 2 hds storage d and e. My drive letters where also changed. Just saying you might have been able to change them maybe avoiding corrupting photos or program that got a little lost. Just something for the future in the event it happens again.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: This is the simple answer. Win does scramble drive designations when a drive fails. Been there. Finding how Win does and can undo this is the key. This may be your answer to recovery.

Psergel Loc: New Mexico

BboH wrote:

My file structure is governed by how I determine it to be using Windows Explorer. The programs I use - PaintShop, DxO, CaptureNX, ViewNX all use the file structure I have created with Explorer. I will use no program that insists on its own file structure.

Lightroom does not insist on It's own file structure. In fact, it does not HAVE a file structure.
You can ,and for sanity's sake, should have lightroom's library, mirror your computer's file structure. Then, in terms of images, you manage the growth of that file structure from within Lightroom.

RDH

wings42 wrote:

LOL. Can you imagine processing 250 photos in a darkroom . . .

in color?

Darkroom is a program, quite well reviewed. Another alternative is Rawtherapee,. It also has good reviews.

tomcat

The OP's problem was indeed due to 2 letters, not LR, but PC. As soon as I read what the PC archeology had done in changing the drive letters, I knew there would be trouble coming. I used to hate, hate, hate the PC's design for automatically assigning drive letters to new drives. However, I don't have that problem now with a Mac. I am sorry that you are having so much problem with LR, but as the other posters have stated, the problem is not LR, it's your stupid PC that caused the problem. I realize that I have not added anything constructive to your post, but just wanted to add my 2 cents worth to the other posters' comments about LR not being the problem here. If your budget can afford it, take a look at the Mac. It's worth every penny of peace and quiet. When you add a new external hard drive to the Mac, you get to name the drive with whatever name you want to call it: 1 or A or Bruce, etc

Jayne Loc: Wisconsin

He's not alone....using Lightroom scares the " begeebies " out of me. If it was as easy to use and people have smooth sailing with the software as some make it sound why are there a gazillion training videos out there? I can understand training for photoshop, but all that training for a cataloging program!

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Ron 717 wrote:

"
I would suggest that you connect with UHH member "dngallagher" or "searcher". Too many opinions will only confuse you more, they are very knowledgeable with LR and will get you back on track.

Indeed! ;)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Jayne wrote:

He's not alone....using Lightroom scares the " begeebies " out of me. If it was as easy to use and people have smooth sailing with the software as some make it sound why are there a gazillion training videos out there? I can understand training for photoshop, but all that training for a cataloging program!

Good point!

Glide1340 Loc: Hollywood, Fl

wings42 wrote:

Greetings All,

Windows changed the drive letter designations so all my photos were now on D: drive instead of the previous E: drive. My LR catalog was located in the LR directory on the the new D: drive but thought that itself and all the photos and changes it had cataloged were still on E:.

Why don't you just change the drive letter to E: in Windows? Simple fix for a simple problem.

Bill MN Loc: Western MN

Jayne wrote:

He's not alone....using Lightroom scares the " begeebies " out of me. If it was as easy to use and people have smooth sailing with the software as some make it sound why are there a gazillion training videos out there? I can understand training for photoshop, but all that training for a cataloging program!

I agree with you. They could make it a lot easier. I just downloaded Cyberlink Photo Director 6.