Help with missing photos in LR 6.14: I was backing up photos from our vacation. I was dragging a file folder to an external hard drive, but the drive said full. When I let go of the...

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

I was backing up photos from our vacation. I was dragging a file folder to an external hard drive, but the drive said full. When I let go of the folder I lost it. When I click on Find Missing Photos in LR it finds the photos and I can see them. I've tried a few things but nothing has worked. How do I get them back into a folder? I can't see the original folder now. Thanks! Lou

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Are they in the recycle bin of the computer? If you look at the folder in the operating system view, outside LR, are they in the folder? If you take one file name and search the computer HD, outside LR via the OS, can you find them? Are they in your back-up drive / strategy (i.e., someplace else)? Are they still on the camera card?

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

Thanks, No they are not in the recycle bin. If I look at the hard drive 3Tb; which is where my LR cat and LR photos are stored, they are not there either. I also looked on the external hard drive and they are not there. Yes, they are still on the XQD card. I tried to import them again, but they've been imported. Can I change the import parameters to allow duplicates and only import the missing ones?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

durango wrote:

Thanks, No they are not in the recycle bin. If I look at the hard drive 3Tb; which is where my LR cat and LR photos are stored, they are not there either. I also looked on the external hard drive and they are not there. Yes, they are still on the XQD card. I tried to import them again, but they've been imported. Can I change the import parameters to allow duplicates and only import the missing ones?

You don't need to import them again. Just resolve their 'missing' status be placing the files into the folder where LR thinks they should reside.

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

Where does it show me where they reside? Sorry, I'm looking but don't see that.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

durango wrote:

Where does it show me where they reside? Sorry, I'm looking but don't see that.

Right-click the missing icon on any marked as missing. Pick 'find' or 'update' (I forget exactly). LR then gives a window telling you where they used to reside. Or, right click the image and select 'show in folder'. This should take you to the library folder inside the catalog. I don't have a missing image at the moment to remember the exact process, but these should work.

tcthome Loc: NJ

[quote=durango]I was backing up photos from our vacation. I was dragging a file folder to an external hard drive, but the drive said full.

Drag & drop is not backing up! It is moving. I guess by now you know enough to make sure you have enough storage space to move your files to. Next time , right click on your files/folder & chose copy, go to your destination location & choose paste. You don't use LR's back-up feature that is asked when exiting LR?
Sorry I can't help for your situation. I have had missing photos before choose, Find missing photos from one of the drop down menus in the library module worked for me. Good luck.

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

I see the folder on my C drive with ? mark on it. Let me try to get it in the 3 TB drive. Thanks. I'll let you know if I was successful. Thanks again! Lou

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

CHG_CANON wrote:

Right-click the missing icon on any marked as missing. Pick 'find' or 'update' (I forget exactly). LR then gives a window telling you where they used to reside. Or, right click the image and select 'show in folder'. This should take you to the library folder inside the catalog. I don't have a missing image at the moment to remember the exact process, but these should work.

I was able to get them into a folder. Thanks for all your help! It's greatly appreciated.

Lou

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

[quote=tcthome]

durango wrote:

I was backing up photos from our vacation. I was ... (show quote)

Thanks, I do use the backup when exiting LR. They were in the LR CAT for 09.16.2021, but I did something and misplaced them. Lesson learned!! Thanks again for your suggestions. Lou

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

durango wrote:

Thanks, I do use the backup when exiting LR. They were in the LR CAT for 09.16.2021, but I did something and misplaced them. Lesson learned!! Thanks again for your suggestions. Lou

The LR back-up is just a compressed copy of the contents of LRCAT catalog file. Do not mistake that for a back up of your actual image files, which it is not. You have to back-up your image files yourself and you should be backing up the LRCAT file like all important files, to a separate disk and / or the cloud.

BTW, is the HD space issue related to the LRCAT backups? There's no automated maintenance process, so if you create a full copy of the LRCAT file every time you exit, this has the possibility of exhausting your available diskspace. You should know where these backup files reside and you should be purging the old LRCAT backup files periodically, using their datastamps. You should also reconsider your frequency where maybe 1 per week is a better approach and then once per month going into the OS and deleting all but the most recent.

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

CHG_CANON wrote:

The LR back-up is just a compressed copy of the u... (show quote)

Thanks. I also back up my LRCAT every time I backup my folder/files. I should do it more often and purge my old LRCAT, thanks. I though drag and drop was the same as copy and paste. I just returned from 3 weeks of vacation and was trying to back up the new folders and photos. I made sure that everything was backed up before I left. I thought I had more room on my external hard drive...my mistake. I have a new 4TB external hard drive that I'll back up all of my photos on. Thanks once again!!
Lou

one_eyed_pete Loc: Colonie NY

You didn't say if you're on MAC or PC. On a PC dragging and dropping copies if the destination is on a different drive but moves if the destination is the same drive. If you hold the Ctrl key while dragging windows will create a copy in the destination on the same drive. If you hold the Shift key while dragging to a different drive Windows will move the file to the different drive. A small note will appear below the cursor while dragging to indicate what is happening. I can't remember so I always check the note to make sure what is happening is what I want.

11bravo

For finding the actual files from the OS, if Windows, use Everything (voidtools.com). VERY powerful, easy to use search tool. Just pick a folder or file name of something missing, and it will find it.

For OS copying/moving, try TeraCopy (freeware version sufficient), both Windows and Mac. Displays what it is doing, provides a log of what it has done, won't hang on an error, and with Verify turned on, does a checksum of each file to ensure copy/move successful.

I use both every day.

durango Loc: Marietta, Ohio

one_eyed_pete wrote:

You didn't say if you're on MAC or PC. On a PC dra... (show quote)

I'm a PC with Win 10. I do it so automatically that I'm not sure if I used the Ctrl Key or the Shift key on the mouse. Thanks for your input, I'll make note of this and try it again. Lou