John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

I was online last month seeking advice about upgrading to LR5, which I have now done. I had some trouble moving photos from a small remote drive connected to my laptop, to a 3T drive connected to my network so can be accessed by all.
At one point I decided to re-download some images from a trip that I still had on the memory cards. This went smoothly as I followed several YouTube video descriptions by Scott Kelby and others. I created new folders from within LR, and downloaded the photos into each folder through my desktop computer to the remote 3T drive. HOWEVER, when I look at the LR Folders view, the little triangles are not solid (they look like they are dotted, and lighter gray) and there is a "?" next to each of the folders. I cannot tell if I need to re-find the folder or synchronize the photos in to the folder. It seems like this should not be an issue as I created the folders in LR and have not moved them. WHAT AM I MISSING.
Thanks for any help. John Howard

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

When you imported the photos from the memory cards into the new folders on the remote drive, did you do the import via Lightroom Import procedure or did you drag the photos from the card directly into the new folders?

John Howard Loc: SW Florida and Blue Ridge Mountains of NC.

Did it all in and per LR. I think somehow I got the file folders disconnected. To make things a bit worse, sometime when I right click on a folder, I do not get the full list of options on the menu screen. Sometimes I only get Find missing, Rename and Export Folder, and not the Create folder inside, Rename, Show Parent, Sync and Update Loc'n, and show in finder. Somehow, my list of file folders in LR is slightly different from that in finder. I guess if I sort through it one folder at a time I can get rid of the "?'s".

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

The small list of options shows up when LR does not know where the folder is.

If your external was disconnected, LR would know of its existence but not the location. So first to do is ensure the external is connected. If the problem is not solved straight away, right click on the folder name, select "Find Missing folder" and in the ensuing screens navigate to the folder and select it.

flyguy Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico

Looks to me as though Lightroom is "seeing" these images as duplicates and the import box has a parameter check box titled "don't import suspected duplicates" , which may be checked --- that may be the source of the problem.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

The ? mark on the folder means that LR does not know where the folder is. If it were a question of duplicate files, whether true or not, they simply would not be imported. There would be no reference to them in the Library module.