Exporting folder structure

Hi all,
I'm a newbie to Adobe Lightroom. I have been playing with it and love it. However, I have one concern. I notice that changes you make in Lightroom are not applied to the original file, which has its obvious advantages. I also noticed that export will only move pictures into a single flat folder, i.e. there doesn't seem to be a way to tell it to export into a folder structure resembling the original one.
I am concerned that if, one day, I decide to move away from Lightroom, I will have to go through a very painful export process: either exporting every folder individually or having to recreate my original folder structure.
Is there any way to either:
1. Tell Lightroom to export all pictures to the same folder structure as before, or
2. Tell Lightroom to apply changes that you've made to the original image so that I can actually just use the original folder structure?
If this has been asked anywhere else, I apologize in advance, and please send me a pointer in the right direction. I looked in the forums, Google, and some FAQs and couldn't find an answer to this question.
Thanks, Ed

This is another missed, conventional, standard, industry wide feature that defies explnation as to why it was left out. Add it to the list of inane I/O features (or lack thereof) in LR, and wait to see if it is fixed in the dot version.
While i don't use jpegs (well, very rarely, if a customer wants them), Lee Jay's suggestion is a good one, but I think there is an even better one. Make sure that your work in LR is written to either sidecars or files directly (dng, jpeg, or tiff). And, make sure that is very regularly backed up offline. That should insure that your work will not be lost--as you can always open it in Bridge or other metadata aware DAMS or editors should you decide to move from LR.
As for folder structure, that should be fully conceived and implemented outside of LR and imported--or modified and reimported when necessary. It will be faster in Bridge, for example, and you will avoid having to mess with the LR I/O mess--at least at this time. Hopefully, they will get all that standardized next time around.

Similar Messages

Export folder structure in LR1.1

Hi there,
I downloaded LR1.1 this morning and hoped to see a long waiting and missing feature, but it seems that it is already lacking.
My pictures are stored in folders like \2007\2007_05_02_Vacation and I want to export my pictures keeping the structure. It seems to me that I cannot specify a path separator (\) in the export dialog and therefore all exported images are stored in a "flat" folder.
Is there really no way in LR1.1 to keep or create a folder structure?
In my opinion this should be easy to code and is helpful for nearly everyone how wants to backup it's processed pictures as Jpegs.
Btw: I have written a small ruby script (http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/) which replaces all "$$"-characters by path separator after the export, so there is a workaround for this problem available for me. I export my pictures in a format like "folder name$$picture.jpg" and they are then moved by the script to "foldername\picture.jpg".
If there are a lot of people interested in this script I would create and publish it on a website (which currently do not exists), otherwise I would also send it per mail to everyone who wants it (without any guarantee aso).
Best regards
Frank

Why not export the files to a folder, setting LR as the post processing step, which makes LR import the exported files into the catalogue - setting the file handling option to Move to new location, and choosing to organize by date.
This obviously needs a date-based export. Ideally all exports (eg from a keyword or collection) should be able to reflect the hierarchy from which they're launched.
John

Folder Structure Archiving: exporting folder structure + content

Hi,
I would like to copy a part of an existing folder structure (with included contents) from a production UCM 11g instance (I'm using Folder_g) to a development instance (using a tar of the newly created archive).
I'm trying to use Folder Structure Archiving component.
I'm using the guide:
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E21764_01/doc.1111/e10792/c06_migration.htm#CHDFHEEI
Now, I successfully executed step 6. of "8.10.3.1 Creating a Folder Structure Archive".
However if I list on filesystem the newly created archive, what can I only see is the archive.hda file (...without references to selected folders) and no contents.
Contents was exported?...if yes, where I can found them?...if no, how can I export them?
What I expected to have is a "regular" archive as produced by the Archiver tool...
I'm missing something?
Any helps will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Best regards.
Simone.

Hi Simone,
I was also facing the same issue. You can try one thing, create an archive folder in your source ucm server through archiver. In the Export Data tab specify the custom query as -> xCollectionId = <Your Folder Collection Id>.You can get the collection id of your folder by seeing the preview without specifying any query and then select the extra column 'Folder' to see in the table. In this way you can export the content for the selected folder.
After that, go to the Folder Structure Archive tool and select the archive you just now have created and then slect the folder structure you want to archive.
This is not the correct way but you can try.
Thanks,
Sachin

Seems this feature is highly requested... exporting folder, album structure

Been lookin on how to do this on the forum but no luck and I can only assume that this feature is not available...
Scenario...
2 machines, one powermac, and one laptop...
Come home from a shooting session, organise my photos into Folder, albums:
ie:
Client ABC (folder)
Projects Imports (folder)
All projects stacked in here (projects)
Species (folder)
Bird (Album)
What ever (Album)
etc etc etc....
Now I have to take these photos organised to my client tomorrow on my laptop.
So I somehow need to export the rated betters shots into my latop, to show the clients...
Yes I could create a smartfolder that looks for 3/4/5 stars blablabla and export all shots to one folder which I could copy accross to my laptop...
What I want is a way of exporting my whole Aperture folder/album structure into my empty Aperture Library on the laptop... So that I retain the original shots, in their folders, albums, in order that the client sees all photos organised as they are on my machine at home...
Seems many people want to do something like that, and seems that there is no way of doing that...
Or is there....
G5, D2.0, 5G-ram, 1TB storage, 30''display, macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Yes, but my folder structure is not below my projects.
I have multiple projects kept in a project folder, but the folder where I keep each species (for example) in kept in a seperate folder, with albums for each species....
Right...
You gave me an idea, I am testing this and see if I can get the same result by changing my structure...
I am creating a new project, dragging all my pics from various projects into this one projects (well, for that one client that is of course), I will then recreate a folder structure within this one project, and drag my albums into these new folders.... Hopefully it won't screw up my photos, and hopefully I will retain the ease of browing through my pics...
If this works, like you said I will just need to export the top project, and mission accomplished....
Saying that I think that it would be a good idea to be able to place projects within projects....
I tend to put dates within the title of each project, but now I am losing this and I need to use the date within the EXIF..
Can live with it though...
Will post again and let you know if this has worked....
Maybe it is down to how you organise your library and then things get simple...
And there was me thinking that my library was spot on...
Thanks for the input,
Steph

Exporting Aperture photos to an external HD while keeping existing folder structure

Hi,
I have over 300gb of photos on my MBP. I need to export the photos onto an external Hard Drive and keep the existing folder structure. How can this be done?
My source for the Aperture library is iPhoto. I know that I can 'show package contents' from right clicking the iPhoto library, but this only displays the masters. I need the versions as I have done many edits on the majority of photos. I am fine with having the photos separated out by date - renaming the folder isn't a problem. I just don't want to have to sort through ALL of my photos and place them into different folders.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!

Thanks for the information everyone! I apologize if I'm not being clear.
Here are a few call outs:
1. I have my aperture library and iPhoto synced (the source of all my photos is iPhoto. I exclusively use Aperture for photo editing however).
2. I am actually using a work computer and I am leaving the company. Therefore I need to give the computer back. I will be 'uninstalling' Aperture and eventually erasing all the photos.
3. I don't know what my next photo editing computer will be at this point as I have not purchased one.
4. Since I don't know my next computer, I would like to have all of my existing "Folders" and "Projects" (as Aperture defines them) on an external drive so I can pick and pull the ones I would like to view / edit.
5. On my next computer, I would not like to import my exact settings / folder structure from Aperture. I will be starting fresh. With that said, I would prefer to have all my existing "Folders" and "Projects" in one giant folder called "Pictures" on my external HD.
Example folder structure on my External HD:
Folder 1: Pictures
Folder 1a: Aperture "Folder" 1
Folder 1ai: Aperture "Project" 1
Folder 1aii: Aperture "Project" 2
Folder 1b: Aperture "Folder" 2
Folder 1bi: Aperture "Project" 1
Folder 1bii: Aperture "Project" 2
I have roughly 90 "Projects" inside about 5 "Folders". Of course I can create a folder on my external HD, select all the pictures, and click export for every single one of my "Projects", but I would prefer not do to that as it is incredibly time consuming. I am looking for an automated way of copying all my photos to an external drive while maintaining my existing folder / projects hierarchy into what 'finder' defines as 'folders'.
Although I would like to keep my 'masters' and 'versions', my original thought was to just export the versions. So actually, I guess just 'moving' the entire library would work. But since I don't know what computer I will work on and I may be on a temporary computer (install Aperture and manually select photos to import and work on), I wanted to have them be in a folder structure for easy importing and viewing if I wanted to on any mac.
My existing structure in Aperture are Folders --> Projects.
In order to copy my entire library, I have gone into (from finder) "Hard Drive" > Users > Wingmandan > Pictures > iPhoto Library. I have taken that icon and dragged into my external HD. It was 300 gb, and took about 8 horus to complete.
Desired end result
-Be able to quickly reference/view the versions of my pictures on any mac through my external HD (Versions)
-Be able to choose what photos to import based upon my existing 'folders' and 'projects' into my next computer (Versions and Masters)
-Have a full backup of my Aperture Library
I hope this makes more sense and I'm a bit more clear. Again, thanks again for your help. I need to return the laptop by the end of the week.

Ann: LR2/TreeExporter - Export your images while preserving the folder structure

Hi,
I've just released a new plug-in that'll export images whilst preserving the original folder structure.
The plug-in scans the images to be exported in order to determine the deepest folder that contains all the images, and then exports the tree from this point (although you can optionally choose to start higher up) to your destination.
Real time examples are given so that it's very clear what's going to happen. The UI is polished and easy to use.
More details here:
http://www.timothyarmes.com/lr2treeexporter.php
and don't miss the quick guide:
http://www.timothyarmes.com/lr2treee...sec=quickguide
As usual, comments and feature requests are welcome.
Tim

Hi,
Unfortunately the SDK doesn't offer access to this
information.
I hope some day it will...
SDK should provide methods to enumerate collections.
Even if it did this would probably not be possible
since a photo can belong to many collections.
But this is not a problem - copies will be duplicated in correspondent folders.
Regards,
Grafin

How to export iPhoto Album in iMAC and have similar folder structure(with Timestamps) which can be viewed in finder

How to export iPhoto Album in iMAC and have similar folder structure(with Timestamps) which can be viewed in finder
In simple terms, I wanted to view the photos in Windows system, similar strcture of iPhotos

If you want to copy all of your photos to a Windows machine and have them in folders representing the iPhoto Events the were in quickly and easily just do the following:
1 - open the library with the Finder as shown in this screenshot:
2 - COPY the Originals/Masters folder to the Desktop.
3 - copy the Originals/Masters folder to the Windows machine.
This will give you all of your original image file in their Event folder on the Windows machine.
NOTE: With iPhoto 8 or newer the Event folders in the Masters folder will be titled by date (EXIF) if imported from a camera. If imported from a folder the event folder will have the same title as the source folder. If imported singularly or in a group without a folder the title will be a date, either the EXIF date or import date.
With iPhoto 7 (08) and earlier the Event folders in the Originals folder will have the same title as the Event has in the library.
This method would be quicker but not provide the additional metadata you might have added in iPhoto like keywords, titles, descriptions that exporting out of iPhoto with Format=JPEG and the checkboxes selected to include keywords, titles, places, etc, checked.
OT

Sharing (Exporting) and keeping folder structure - possible?

I have been amassing a collection of family pictures going back into the 19th century. They are stored in iPhoto in folders by year (e.g. 1967 is a separate folder). I would like to export this as files but keep the folder structure so that relatives can just look in the 19xx folder for all the pictures from that year. Is there any way to export pictures and maintain the file structure used in iPhoto? If this doesn't work exporting original format photos is there any way to export from iPhoto and have it reflect that structure (so relatives on Mac or Windows machines can view/use them)?
TIA

Arthur,
I have not come across any applescript and I did just search again.
What I did come across was a program called iPhoto Album Extractor. It is really meant to extract albums into a folder from a damaged iPhoto Library that cannot be opened.
i downloaded it and tried it out to see if it would be a faster way to get your year albums exported. It is really quite fast.
Download the program and open it.
Choose the path by navigating to the iPhoto Library folder and choosing it.
Your albums will quickly be displayed in the left column.
Make a new folder on your desktop and label it albums.
Now highlight the album in the left column and choose "extract"
In the next window choose the folder on the desktop and then hit open.
The images in the album will be extracted/copied into a folder with the name of the album into that folder on the desktop. It is really quite fast. I did this while iPhoto was closed.
iPhoto Album Extractor
Lori

Export with folder structure

When a folder in the library contains subfolders, and LR is set to show files in subfolders, when the parent folder is selected, and all pictures are exported, they all end directly in the export folder. It would be great to have an option to recreate the folder structure, to maintain the original classification without having to export each subfolder separately.

I would like to see the tree structure be available for every export type, maybe as a "filter" stage: i.e. publisher + exports.
In the mean time, there are plugins:
TreeSync3(export)
TreePublisher
Rob

Maintain smart folder structure when exporting

When exporting a project with albums the result is a folder structure that matches (the project is at the root with multiple dirs underneath that correspond to the albums). However when I do this with smart albums within a project the result is just a single directory with all images crammed in that one directory. Is there a way around this? I wa

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. You can connect the two computers so that the iPhoto Library on each can be accessed by the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager (residing on one of the two Macs) and then copy the albums or events, including keywords, descriptions and titles from the laptop library to the desktop Mac.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Preserving Folder Structure when Exporting?--A question

A very simple need that I have: I have a Folder in IPhoto on my laptop, left over from a recent trip. The Folder is organized into ten "Albums, which are trip segments. All I want to do is to Export [or Copy] this Folder on an external hard drive, for security purposes and to Import the Folder [and Albums] into IPhoto on my primary desktop computer.
I can export all the contents of the Folder, but I have struggled to find a way to do this that preserves the organization of the Albums inside the Folder. What I end up with is all 652 photos [in this example] in one huge sequential order.
Please advise what I can do to export and maintain the Folder structure. Thanks!!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. You can connect the two computers so that the iPhoto Library on each can be accessed by the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager (residing on one of the two Macs) and then copy the albums or events, including keywords, descriptions and titles from the laptop library to the desktop Mac.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Exporting project- folder structure to other Non-Aperture applications

Hello,
I'm about to lay the foundation for a new Aperture installation. As far as organizational structure goes, this what I have in mind:
1 Project / year
1 Album / event
Example:
Project 1993
Derek's Birthday album
Linda's wedding album
Project 1994
Robert Birthday album
Bob wedding album
At some point, I will want to export the whole structure or some projects to family and friends who would like to view these images on their PC (not everyone is converted to MAC, yet).
I understand the Export>Projects command generates a file that can only be understood by Aperture, so useless for sharing with non-aperture users. What I'd like to do is:
1) Translate the project-album structure to a folder-subfolder structure in order to share images with other PC users.
2) At the same time export images versions as opposed to masters.
3) At the same time export all added Metadata.
I have the feeling Aperture is not ready to do all of the above with one command only. How can I maintain the project structure in order to share with other PC users? I guess only a script will be able to do this...
Thanks for your feedback.

fbellay wrote:
At some point, I will want to export the whole structure or some projects to family and friends who would like to view these images on their PC (not everyone is converted to MAC, yet).
1) Translate the project-album structure to a folder-subfolder structure in order to share images with other PC users.
Albums simply don't translate sensibly into Finder folders, in the same way that iTunes playlists don't. Any one Version can exist in any number of Albums, so you'd either end up having to choose one place for the exported file to be and remove it from all the other folders representing Albums, or end up with multiple duplicate copies of the same file.
Projects, on the other hand, can be mapped directly to Finder folders. So you might be better off using Blue Folders and Projects rather than Projects and Albums.
2) At the same time export images versions as opposed to masters.
3) At the same time export all added Metadata.
Exported Versions will automatically include IPTC & EXIF metadata, assuming you chose an export preset with metadata included.
I have the feeling Aperture is not ready to do all of the above with one command only.
There are some AppleScripts that will replicate the structure within Aperture when exporting (or Aperture Assistant* to do it without any scripting knowledge), but as I mentioned already, you will end up with multiple duplicate files.
Also, you would have to do this again every time that you alter a Version, import files or move Versions around.
Basically, the virtual nature of both images and organisation in Aperture mean that it won't really work in the way that you wish, and LightRoom wouldn't be much better even though it has closer ties to the folder structure.
Why not simply export a Projects-worth of images in this way rather than your whole Library?
Ian
* http://aperture-assistant.com/docs/how-do-i-copy-apertures-organisational-struct ure-when-exporting
“I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.”

Export multiple folders while keeping folder structure

I want to export multiple folders at one time. I select the folders in LR and then all the photos in those folders. When I look at the exported photos they're all lumped together (and the keywords are gone, if I do one folder at a time the keywords remain)
Any way to keep the folder structure while exporting multiple folders?
Thanks

You can use a publish service such as this one: Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » Jeffrey’s “Folder Publisher” Lightroom Plugin

Preserve folder structure when exporting JPGs?

Is there a way to preserve the folder structure of a catalog when exporting JPGs of everything to a new location? I know there is an option to save the export into the same folder as the original file, but i am talking about a completely new location. That would be really helpful.

Lightroom doesn't support it directly. However, try this plug-in http://photographers-toolbox.com/blog/2009/06/exporting-a-folder-hierarchy-from-lightroom- lrtreeexporter-released/

Is there a way to get an apple mail folder exported to outlook mail folder structure? I'm using Gmail on my IMAC and have a PC for work. Want to share folder structure between systems.

Is there a way to get an apple mail folder exported to outlook mail folder structure? I'm using Gmail on my IMAC and have a PC for work. Want to share folder structure between systems.

Use following steps to import apple mail to outlook:
Choose Mailbox->Export Mailbox, or choose Export Mailbox from the Action pop-up menu
Choose a folder or create a new folder where you want to store the exported mailbox.
Outlook for Mac: Choose File->Import Mailboxes. Select the mail application you want to import messages from.
If it does not work then you should use third party apple mail to pst applications. You can easily search in Google about these applications.

Exporting folder structure

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for