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

I was not replying to the OP, but another poster who had copied ALL of his files to a new external drive.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-782284-3.html#14079668

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Use your computer's operating system to create the folder you want. Then use the OS to open the unwanted subfolder, select all the images inside, drag & drop them to the new folder. All this can easily be done outside LR.

Now go into LR and do a fresh Import of the images in that new folder you created above. LR may tell you the images are already imported and not want to duplicate them. Tell it to do so anyway.

Then delete the subfolder you moved the images out of.

Done.

I think a lot of the confusion comes from trying to manage folders within LR.... it isn't really necessary when creating, naming or moving folders. All that can be done in the computer OS.

Nothing is actually "inside" LR. All LR does is selectively display what's on your computer: the folder tree and thumbnails of the images, as "Imported". The original images are still in the folders on the computer.

If you move or rename one of your image folders using the operating system... i.e., outside of LR... LR will then show that folder grayed down and flagged with a question mark. LR can't find the folder. Right click on the folder in LR and a little menu will pop up that allows you to point LR to the new folder location or name, which will correct the problem.

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

Spoken like someone who is uncomfortable with Lightroom.

The procedure you present will lose any edits you have done unless you have the sidecar files in the same folder and move them with the image files.

IMHO managing files and folders in Lightroom is not at all difficult. You can learn how to do it in about 30 seconds.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Methinks you misunderstood. He said "when creating, naming or moving folders", and all that is done outside of lightroom, and I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.

It is perfectly reasonable to set up create and name the folder at a given locaiton, and dump the images into it before importing the contents into lightroom.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

RE read his post. You took it wrong. He knows exactly how LR works, and his statement was correct, of you move files outside of LR, after importing, LR will loose the connection.

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

Creating a folder (or subfolder) using the OS, then placing the files in it before importing into LR is the way to go.

But that's not the situation that the OP has and is not what I read in amfoto1's post. He says: "Use your computer's operating system to create the folder you want. Then use the OS to open the unwanted subfolder, select all the images inside, drag & drop them to the new folder. All this can easily be done outside LR." It really sounds to me as if he is referring to the OP's situation and is resistant to moving folders around within LR.

To be sure, it is certainly possible to do what he suggests and it will work. I just consider it more cumbersome than using LR to do it. Moving the files/folders outside of LR will mean you have to go into LR to correct the paths of the files in question. Additional work beyond just moving the files/folders. And as I mention, unless sidecar files are moved along with the image files, any existing edits of those files in LR will be lost.

Personally, I support creating a folder structure that you can use to organize your files on a basic level and placing your files into that structure and never moving them again. I will admit that my first try at a folder structure needed some adjustment so I had to move things around a bit but that only happened once and since then I have never lost any files (other than a couple that got corrupted and had to be restored from backup -- but they went into the same place).

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Everything you say is true. Same thing I do. I create the for with the op system, and the photos, then add to LR.

The op said "Tried to create a new folder in a LR cataloge. Wound up actually creating a new sub-folder inside another. Need some advice on how to correct this. I did this once before and got the issue resolved easily. Cannot figure out how to do that now. TIA."

What Alan told him to do is what you and I do, back up and use the op system. For someone not familiar enough yet, this was correct, and probably the easiest way for him to correct the problem.

I think Most of us create our folder structure outside of lightroom then add them to lightroom. I also think a lot of LR newbies think the have two do it the way the did.

Those of us that are familiar with LR can move things inside LR with no problem. But as you say, why change, I don't.

Maybe, after the op, reads you post and this one, he will start organizing outside of LR, as that is what he is probably more familiar with.

Btw, I hope you did not take my post was mean. We must read Alan's post differently.

Have a great day.

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

NP
Opinions are like snowflakes. They're all different from mine.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

yep this works on macOS as well.