Coordinating Lightroom and Backups

[Brownbear]

Just recently I had to purchase another hard drive to allow for sufficient space to back-up my images as a result of 3+ years of taking images without deleting the non-keepers.

The computer techie asked me if it was okay to rename my picture files (for organization purposes) to Set 1 and Set 2 according to which back-up drive the pics would be backed up on, to which I said yes.

This morning I opened Lightroom and none of my picture files are in there. I still have all my pics and edits as whenever I work on an image in LR, I sharpen it in Photoshop and save the PSD and Jpeg file, and all my pics are saved in my Windows pictures file.

Nevertheless I'm a little puzzled as to why this happened because all the original file folders kept there original names... ie; they were simply regrouped and placed into two different file folders.

Later today I'm going to import all of my images into Lightroom, in the two new file folders Set 1 and Set 2 (filed in my pictures folder). But before I do this I would like to check if there is anything wrong with this file folder set up, and/or implications for the future when one changes the name/location of file folders.

Thank you.

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Christina.

If you tecci has put your images into new folder called something new that LR hasnt seen before LR wont know where to look because of the new folder structure, your old structure should still be listed on the left of your library view with question marks next to them which means lLR has lost rack of them. You shouldnt have to re import, you can tell LR to find them and just point it in the right direction.

Just right click on the missing folder then select find folder, it will open a navigation view and you can select the relevant folder and that should re link them for you.

[Shadowman]

Happens all time, especially when I don't take my external hard drive with me and I open LR,. i'll get a "?" in my Library of photos; meaning I can't edit the previews. When I re-connect the external drive I have to either re-import or right click on question marked drive and reestablish the link.

[Mike Buckley]

Nevertheless I'm a little puzzled as to why this happened because all the original file folders kept there original names... ie; they were simply regrouped and placed into two different file folders.

To clarify the cause of the issue, the entire file path, not just the file name, of every image is recorded in Lightroom's catalog. The file path includes the disk drive at the highest part of the hierarchy, the file name at the lowest part of the hierarchy, and every detail (the directory and folders) in between. That file path is the address (the location) of the physical image file. When you change any part of that file path you are changing the address. If you do that "outside" Lightroom, which is what happened in this case, Lightroom doesn't know of the change and can no longer find the image file. You then "tell" Lightroom the new address and everything should be fine.

[Manfred M]

Christina - this is a Lightroom "feature". Unless you use Lightroom itself to move your files around, it doesn't know where thee files are stored are and you get this problem. The problem with using Lightroom to do the moving is that it is extremely slow, as not only are the files moved, but the catalog has to be updated.

I suspect the techie did not do this (not understanding that Lightroom's cataloging system), so the links have been lost and now you have to manually relink the files to the Lightroom catalog, as the others have already mentioned.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Mark, John, Mike and Manfred for advising... Truly appreciated.

I think this is different because I can' see any file folders/pics in LR, missing pics. I can see them in Adobe Bridge.

Here is a screen shot of what I see in LR



I suppose it is best that I start fresh, albeit I'm not keen on doing all the key wording again but perhaps it is something someone else can learn from...

Mike... Thank you for explaining why.

[Shadowman]

Thank you Mark, John, Mike and Manfred for advising... Truly appreciated.

I think this is different because I can' see any file folders/pics in LR, missing pics. I can see them in Adobe Bridge.

Here is a screen shot of what I see in LR



I suppose it is best that I start fresh, albeit I'm not keen on doing all the key wording again but perhaps it is something someone else can learn from...

Mike... Thank you for explaining why.

Click on the Folders in the left hand panel, if it continues to show "no photos" then it probably doesn't recognize your harddrive.


Did you have the techie install a new internal harddrive? If so, then you should be able to import from the new set of folders the techie renamed.

[Brownbear]

When I click the folders button it continues to show no photos.

Yes he installed an extra external hard drive... a small black box called Sea Gate.

Will do.

Thank you. Truly appreciated!

Click on the Folders in the left hand panel, if it continues to show "no photos" then it probably doesn't recognize your harddrive.


Did you have the techie install a new internal harddrive? If so, then you should be able to import from the new set of folders the techie renamed.

[Mike Buckley]

Did you have the techie install a new internal harddrive? If so, then you should be able to import from the new set of folders the techie renamed.

I don't use Lightroom much but there might be a way to "tell" Lightroom the pertinent name of the new hard drive. If so, you would not have to import the images.

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Christine,

it looks to me that lightroom isnt reading you catalog, i think your teccie has moved your catalog as well as your images and lightroom isnt finding it and so its creating a new one, i think by default Lightroom creates a folder called lightroom it puts the catalog in the top folder and then makes additional folders within that folder for your images.

If you find your lightroom catalog where your teccie has put it with your images you can then ask LR to open it and your images will be there with all of your edits and keywording. if you cant see it try searching in file explorer for it.

To open catalog its in libary view file/open catalog

[Brownbear]

Thank you to Mike and Mark...

I've shared this with the computer techie and hopefully he will have some time this week to help me with this. For now I will use Photoshop. If I learn anything worth sharing I will post.

Mark... Thank you so much. I found the file and tried to open the catalog but it didn't work.. Because I'm not great at these types of computer challenges I'm going to wait and see if the techie can fix it.

Thank you to all!

[Brownbear]

Just to advise that my computer techie was able to find the LR file so I can restore all of my images to LR including the edits and key words. He did so by finding the LR back-up files and clicking on the latest back up which was just two days old. So all I have to do now is restore each file individually as previously advised.

Perhaps of interest to others... When he found the back-up files for LR he also found all the back up files from LR for the past two years, totaling 143 GB which is taking up a lot of space on my computer.... So as soon as I've restored my LR files I'm going to delete all of the backups except the last few.

Mike... If you're still following this thread. I advised how I am unable to download pictures from this forum for demonstration purposes, and that others are not able to do the same with my photos. It took him a while to figure it out, and he still can't explain why but we learned that if I use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox I can download pictures. So perhaps try a different browser to download one of my images. If that doesn't work, well I guess it will remain a mystery.

A BIG thank you to everyone!

[Mike Buckley]

if I use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox I can download pictures.

Interesting! I'll try to remember that next time.

[Mark von Kanel]

ust to advise that my computer techie was able to find the LR file so I can restore all of my images to LR including the edits and key words. He did so by finding the LR back-up files and clicking on the latest back up which was just two days old. So all I have to do now is restore each file individually as previously advised.

This was my next suggestion clever teccie!

Perhaps of interest to others... When he found the back-up files for LR he also found all the back up files from LR for the past two years, totaling 143 GB which is taking up a lot of space on my computer.... So as soon as I've restored my LR files I'm going to delete all of the backups except the last few.

143 GB!! no wonder you needed a new drive..... i only keep the last 4!

[Brownbear]

Hi Mark,

The fact of the matter is that my teccie was not at all familiar with Lightroom and I directed him to this thread to read the replies which helped him figure it out.

Indeed, that is a lot of space. It never occurred to me that the Lightroom back ups were accumulative, and as soon as I get all my pics in order, I will be diligent about deleting past back ups, and keep just the last 4!

Thank you for your help. Truly appreciated.

This was my next suggestion clever teccie!



143 GB!! no wonder you needed a new drive..... i only keep the last 4!

[NorthernFocus]

Christina, to clarify, when you mention the "Lightroom backups", are you refering to the backups that LR prompts you to do? Or are you refering to backups you were doing with some other software?

[Brownbear]

Hi Dan,

I'm referring to the "Lightroom backups" that LR prompts me to do once a week which I've been doing diligently for 2 years, which I just learned are taking up a large amount of space on my computer, and also on my external hard drive back ups.

Christina, to clarify, when you mention the "Lightroom backups", are you refering to the backups that LR prompts you to do? Or are you refering to backups you were doing with some other software?

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, Christina. My LR backups were only up to a couple of Gigs so far but did have several files that I was able to delete.

[Nicks Pics]

As you've probably figured out already, Lightroom can't recognize the files any more because they've been renamed. I won't make any more suggestions because I don't know I could make any that would be non-destructive.