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

For one thing, it sounds as if you have two Lightrooms in play. You had a disk crash. Then you made some collections (Lightroom program #1). Then you 'found an app labelled Lightroom (Lightroom program #2)' which contains folders that did not show up in the Lightroom you were using previously. Tell us about both these programs.

kitrn23

Adobe LR version 7 ( this is where those 325 photos are)
Adobe LRC version 13.0.1 camera raw 16

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

Here's a way to get the old images into the new catalog. I'm assuming the image files are accessible, i.e. the external disk is connected.

(1) open LR 7
(2) Select the photos you want
(3) Export them as a catalog (File > Export as catalog). Here I'm assuming LR 7 works the same as current versions since I don't have LR 7 on my computer. When you click on 'Export as catalog' you will get a dialog where you can choose a name for the catalog and where to save it. It will be a temporary catalog so maybe just call it 'Temp LR 7'. LR will write a new catalog with that name. It will have an extension '.LRCAT'.
(4) close LR 7

You now have a temporary catalog with the selected images with their edits.

Next:

(5) Open LrC with your current catalog.
(6) File > Import from another catalog. That will give you a dialog where you can enter the temporary catalog.
(7) LrC will ask you to define the images to be imported. Since you created the catalog with the selected images, you can just tell it to import them all.

Now you have your old images in your current catalog.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I really wished you'd answered more specifically, with the full name of the products. When I go and check the current versions at Adobe.com, they list:

1, Lightroom Classic - v13.1
2, Lightroom - v7.1

So, it seems you want to import these "missing" images into your Lightroom Classic catalog, where somehow they exist / are known only to the browser-based Lightroom. Questions:

a, Do you consider your Lightroom Classic catalog, the local-installed software to be your 'master' version of all images files and editing, Y / N?

b, Do you even use the browser version of Lightroom Y / N?

c, What image format do you shoot in? What format are these files? RAW, JPEG, other?

I don't use the browser Lightroom version. It seems files loaded there are storage in the cloud, with no way to get to the underlying (original) images except via the browser-LR. Personally, I'd access the LR-browser and export those images as DNG, as suggested before, setting the target output to a local disk on your computer, the same place where you store all your other images. Then, I'd access LR-classic and import the images and consider the problem solved.

You might open a technical support chat with Adobe and ask the same 'how' question and see if they have a better idea, maybe having them remote into your system and see more of the specifics of the issue.

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

When the OP refers to 'LR' I don't know that it's the browser (mobile) version since it dates from 2016. My memory isn't good enough to recall which version was called LR or LR Mobile or LR Classic back in 2016. But she says the images are on her external disk, so they are local.

I don't use LR (mobile) either but I assume that the catalog from the version the OP is referring to can be used on the current local version (with an update by LR).


PS: another assumption: I have used the pronoun 'she' based on the statement that the OP has a Nursing degree. I understand that there are nurses of both sexes (and that pronouns are fungible these days) but my experience with nurses leads me to believe that the OP is female. Purely a guess on my part and I hope the OP is not offended.

Hip Coyote

This is getting all fubar'd. As Chg said, just call Adobe and maybe they can help you out. Figure out what versions of LR you have before calling Adobe. And when you get that figured out, use one and only one version of LR...namely the subscription one that resides on your desktop, and leave it at that. That is called LRClassic. (Actually its called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic. I have no idea why.) And as others mentioned you can simply export the photos in a DNG format, import them into your new catalog and move on. Its only 200 photos...so not a lot. And are those all keepers?

I strongly suggest that you look around for a few tutorials on what folders are vs. collections. Choosing to just have collections is not using LRC properly. You are asking for a massive amount of trouble doing that. You physically put your photos into an organized folder structure on what ever drive you chose. You should have only one copy of that photo so as to avoid duplicates. You do need back up copies, but you do not need multiple copies in the same resident catalog. Once you have an ORGANIZED folder system, you edit your pics as you normally would. And then, if you want to have a special collection of photos, you can make LR do that...it simply "points" to the photos selected in their existing folder virtually and organizes those into collections. You can have the same photo in many collections...say you want a collection of "Bridges" you select all the bridges in your catalog and make them into a collection. But say you want to have a collection of your best photos of the year and one of those bridge photos happens to be one of the best photos...well, you can tell LR to place that photo in that collection as well. Putting things into collections does not move your photos....because they are in folders, just like every other file on your computer or hard drives.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Spot on.

CliffMcKenzie Loc: Lake Athens Texas

KitRN, the answer is actually simple.

Go to LRC and on the far left side of the Library Module, select Import. Look at mid-screen and select Move (note, you use Add to keep them where they are, but I do not recommend this).

Note Collections maybe one of the most powerful features of LRC but misunderstood. As pointed out, it is virtual.
Send me your email in a private message and I will send you booklet (free) we used for LRC refresher course on Library Module.

Hope this helps.