onetimeduck Loc: OKC

I have somehow managed to snarl the works in lightroom 5.7 beyond use. Does anyone know how to reestablish the catalog. I took Kelby's advice and created a "Lightroom" folder inside the "Pictures" folder but Lightroom doesn't see it. Must I delete and reinstall Lightroom or is there an easier way? Thank you in advance. I'm using windows 8.1 if that has any bearing.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Can you define "snarl" and "reestablish" with a little more detail?

FWIW, Lightroom won't see anything until you go though the Import process and tell it where to look.

Best advice on this forum is to play with a half dozen photos until you get the hang of it.

onetimeduck Loc: OKC

I created a "Lightroom" folder inside the Pictures folder and moved all my images into it. I can now see all my files under "New Files" but most of them are greyed out with the message, "This appears to be a duplicate of a file already in catalog". I can't work on them while they are grayed out.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Sounds like you moved the files without consulting Lightroom. So it doesn't know where to find them. Then you tried to import them but they're already in the catalog.

Since they're in the catalog, the Library module should show you a bunch of images (if there are still previews available) or just blank spots (if the previews have expired). There should be a question mark by them. That means Lightroom doesn't know where to look for them.

Click on the question mark on one of the photos and Lightroom will give you a dialog in which you can navigate to the new folder. That will tell LR where that picture is. If that folder has other pictures that LR can't find, that process for the one picture will find all of them.

If you do that for a picture in the root folder of the new location it should be able to find all the pictures in a minimum of searches.

If you have really borked your catalog, you have two options. (1) use a backup catalog (I presume you do allow LR to backup your catalogs regularly, right?) or (2) start a new catalog and import everything. The second option will be a large chore if you have a lot of pictures.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

What did you use to create the folder? How did you move the images into that folder? From your description, you have already imported the photos. The "problem" may only be that you are not looking for them the right way in the Library module.

onetimeduck Loc: OKC

I think you are right. I can see all the images, it is just that some of them are grayed out. I'll keep working at it. Thanks for your help. I have a sneaky suspicion that if I were smart enough to define the problem intelligently, I'd know the answer.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

If you want to move photo files after they've been imported into Lightroom, make sure you move them from within LR - that way, it still knows where those source files are.

onetimeduck Loc: OKC

I have backup catalogs but that would be to revert to an old, disorganized state which is what I was trying to avoid. I see the question marks you spoke of now and I'm going to try "find the missing folders". I suppose what I need to do it chose "merge"?

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Dirt has you on the right track.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I just tried it out on LR 5.7 and it gives me an exclamation point instead of a question mark. The question mark may have been what you got in an earlier version of LR since it's what I remember seeing. But then it might just be my failing memory.

Anyway in LR 5.7 hovering over the exclamation point gives you the message "photo is missing". Clicking on it gives you a message "xxxx can't be used because the file can't be found. Do you want to locate it?"

There's a "locate" button at the bottom of the message dialog. click on that. You will get a file explorer (in Windows) dialog that you can use to navigate to the appropriate folder. In that folder, click on the appropriate file (the file name you're looking for is displayed at the top of the dialog). Double clicking on that should do the trick.

The process might be a little different on a Mac. Or on an older version of LR.

onetimeduck Loc: OKC

Thank you, DirtFarmer. I think maybe we at least figured out what went wrong. If I have to do that for 5000 images though, I think I'd rather delete LR and reinstall it, update it to 5.7 and then re-import and let LightRoom build a new catalog.

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

It should find all files that are in the same folder, so you only have to do it for each folder.

And you don't want to do what you proposed (delete/re-install, build new catalog) - unless those images have no edits to them. With your proposed approach, you lose all the edits.

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Allen knows....listen to the advice given here.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

It should do all the images in the directory and the subdirectories (at least that's what happens in LR 5.7), so if you start at the top directory, you should be able to minimize the number of searches you have to do, assuming you haven't changed your directory structure.

After you find most of the photos, you can go to the library module, click on Library->Find All Missing Photos and it will highlight all the photos that are still missing. You can go through the highlighted photos or you can put them in a collection to get them all together. That will make it easier to work on them and also will give you a count of how many are missing.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Now that I look at it, you don't have to put them in a collection. If you use "Find All Missing Photos" it creates a temporary collection in the catalog panel (left side of the window in the Library view). That will show you which files are still missing. When you find one, the temporary collection will still show it, but if you click on "Find All Missing Photos" again, it will clear out the ones that it found since the last time you clicked on it.

When they're all found, "Find All Missing Photos" will clear everything from the temporary collection and it will disappear from the catalog panel.