I just reorganized my lightroom catalogs in my external drives.

Strangely enough Lightroom is not recognizing my external drives in lightroom. i can open up the catalog by launching  open catalog. Yet when I do
this my other external drives do not show up in lightroom even through all of my external drivcs are mounter on my desktop Imac intel dual

If you moved files outside of Lightroom, it has no way of keeping track of this.
If a folder is missing, you can right click (ctrl click if it's a one button Mac) on the folder and choose Find Missing Folder. Select where the folder is now and Lightroom will reconnect it.

Similar Messages

  • I  have a new Mac Pro computer and have migrated my files from my older computer to the new computer. In trying to open a Lightroom catalog on an external hard drive  I keep on getting the message "lightroom cannot use the catalog named " " because it is

    I  have a new Mac Pro computer and have migrated my files from my older computer to the new computer. In trying to open a Lightroom catalog on an external hard drive  I keep on getting the message "lightroom cannot use the catalog named " " because it is  not writable and cannot be opened. I have fixed all the "permissions" and yet it will still not open. How do I fix this?

    Hello Forum Members,
    I figured it out. You have to select  the actual logo of the Lightroom catalog and then click on  "get info" and allow what ever your new user name to "read and write". That worked!
    Henri Silberman

  • How do I have catalog on an external drive and update tags from multiple computers?

    I have catalog on an external drive but the tags are on the computer. Is there any way that tags can be placed on the external drive so that other computers can access and update?

    In case its just the tags that you want to have in one catalog that is easy.From multiple computers save the tags to the xml file.Copy the xml file to the external drive where the catalog resides.From there you can import the tags into the catalog.
    Command for exporting tags ->Save tags to file in the tags panel of the application
    Command for importing tags->From file

  • Lightroom - how to restore backed up files (not Lightroom catalogue) from one external drive to another?

    How to restore backed up files (not lightroom catalogue) from one external drive to another.
    I recently backuped my photo files from one external drive to another. The backup (carbon copy cloner) pointed to some corrupt files on the original drive.
    I have deleted those files and am finding good copies of them  in Time Machine backups.
    I want to get rid of the original external drive; use the recent backup as my main external and then back it up onto a brand new drive.
    What I am not sure about is how to point lightroom to the backups so it knows to look on the new drive instead of the old drive and all those exclamation marks and question marks go away.
    There are close to 60,000 images in numerous folders all with one 'parent folder.'
    My best guess is from Lightroom Help - Create and Manage Folders -  Locate Missing Folders
    Can I point to the one parent folder and all the subfolders will come back?
    Is this the process to recover files into lightroom and will there be a problem with so many photos?

    http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

  • Lightroom Catalog on USB Thumb Drive

    I am currently using Lightroom 1.3.1 on a Windows XP desktop and a Windows Vista Premium laptop. I've been trying to figure out how to keep all of my actual pictures in 1 place, but be able to move between computers to do my work- keywords, ratings, basic development, etc. In all of my reading of this and other forums, it seems that this is a difficult thing to do. The external drives that I use are not USB-powered, so moving the drive from one computer to the other is not a reasonable alternative. So, here is what I've come up with, can someone please tell me if this works:
    1) All photo files- RAW, JPG, DNG, etc- in a folder on an external disk that I share over my network between the 2 computers
    2) Export full catalog file to a thumb drive
    3) Permanently assign that thumb drive the same letter on both computers
    4) Direct both copies of LR to that drive and catalog
    5) Synchronize catalog each time I start LR on either computer with the thumb drive installed
    Has anyone tried this? Am I missing something? I figure that by directing both computers to the same drive folder through the network, but keep the catalog local, all of my changes should stay up to date with minimal trouble, i.e. minimal exports and imports.
    Any input?
    Thanks in advance.
    Adam
    PS- What is a reasonable size thumb drive to give myself room to grow? I'm dealing with about 8000 pictures now, all from personal use, nothing professional.

    Adam.
    That is exactly how most people do it, for now... a PocketDrive for the catalog, and a the originals on the network. Plug the Pocketdrive into the computer, set the database to backup every time it is opened and back it up whenever you switch computers, and 'find' the originals if necessary due to drive mapping differences.
    And don't forget the great LRViewer program as an adjunct. It allows you to read the catalog on a PC or Mac without LR installed. It also allows you to extract the previews as JPEGs, which means that if you have rendered 1:1 previews you can get a pretty decent quality image from your catalog even if you do not have access to the originals.
    I say "for now" in my first sentence because hopefully Adobe will have redesigned it's catalog sufficiently in V2 that it can be hosted on the network directly. Remember that it is NOT a multi-user issue that keeps the catalog from being network available (that is easily resolved via many file locking mechanisms), but the performance of the network, and the high level of database interactivity, that keeps the catalog from being network hosted. The issues of external database sync, database locking, etc are well understood, and in this case the "it's only Version 1" excuse is actually valid, and hopefully V2 will add real functionality of this type instead of bug fixes as we have seen so far.

  • Moving entire catalog to bigger external drive

    ...or any different drive external or internal...
    A friend just had major problems moving his v3 files. He had one top folder for all Lightroom. He keeps his catalog and photos on an external and now needs to increase the capacity of the external. So he copied them over in Windows with the entire Lightroom folder remaining intact, and reassigned the old drive letter to the new external hard drive, so the path to all photos is preserved.
    However, everyhting shows up Missing. "Find this folder" doesn't work. You navigate to the new location but it's not clear what exactly you "do" to relink. Clicking the name of the lost folder in the resulting dialog box (new-but-named-the-same-as-old-drive) didn't cange anthong back at the Library display of that folder..
    I know I -- myself -- will be moving to a new internal drive from the one currently storing my photos in the near future. So his problem is relavant to the hassle i can expect.
    What step was missing?
    jonathan7007

    A better way would have been:
    Move the entire folder (you call it the Lightroom folder) with all sub-folders and all images to the new external drive. Do this move in your OS (Win Explorer / Mac Finder).
    Do not change any folder names or the folder structure at this point. Do not assign a different drive letter at this point.
    Open Lr, right-click the folder (i.e. the Lightroom folder) and select <Find Missing Folder>. Navigate to the folder on the new drive and select it.
    You wrote: "You navigate to the new location but it's not clear what exactly you "do" to re-link. Clicking the name of the lost folder in the resulting dialog box (new-but-named-the-same-as-old-drive) didn't change anything back at the Library display of that folder.."
    This should work - normally. I suspect that something went wrong when your friend assigned the old drive letter to the new external hard drive.
    Check in Control Panel >System and Security >Administrative Tools >Computer Management >Disk Management what the actual situation regarding the drive letters is.

  • When backing up LR catalog to an external drive, what do I copy?

    Hi,
    Let me explain what I'm doing with back ups for the LR catalog.  First I backup the catalog to the same drive my photos are on, simply to allow LR to access the catalog without having to power up an external drive.  That LR folder contains 1.) the LR catalog, 2.) a previews file (lrdata), and a backup labeled with the date of the backup.   At least once a week, however, I copy the LR file to an external hard drive, to another LR folder.  I notice when doing this that the entire catalog is transferred to the external drive each time I do the copy.
    Question 1:  When doing a catalog backup to the photos folder, should I delete the previous backup?  I.e., I did a back up today;  on Saturday I'll probably do another.  Should I just save the last dated backup and delete the earlier dates?
    Question 2:  Should I just copy the updates to the external drive?  Or is it more appropriate to copy the catalog, previews, and latest update?  It seems to me the latter is the best alternative, but perhaps it's not necessary.
    Thanks much in advance,
    BAB

    there's really no right answer, but these are my recommendations
    Do not make a backup of your catalog file to the same folder as the photos unless it is on a different physical hard disk than your working catalog. You can save as many backups as you want, the amount of insurance that you take out (the number of backups) is entirely up to you. I keep at least one month, and then some older catalogs as well.
    I don't know what updates you are referring to, but there is no reason or benefit to copy/backup previews
    Additional comments ... I strongly prefer an automated backup approach, that doesn't rely on a human being remembering and having the time to make a manual backup. Thus, I would recommend you have Lightroom automatically place the catalog backup on the external drive. I don't really know why you are opposed to powering up your external HD, that's what it was made for, to be used! Mine is powered on 100% of the time. Furthermore, if your backup to the photos folder is on the same hard drive as your working catalog, I would strongly recommend you not do this ... because the day that this disk fails (and it is 100% sure it will fail at some time in the future), you have lost your working catalog AND most recent backup and thus it is possible that you could lose nearly two weeks of work when this disk fails (and more if you just so happen to have forgotten to manually make copies to the external HD).
    Additional comments 2 ... Nowhere have you mentioned making backups of all of your photos. I assume you are doing that, and if you're not, stop what you are doing, do not celebrate Hanuka or Thanksgiving, and make backups of all of your photos immediately. Of course, you might have been asking only about the catalog backups and you have done a thorough job of making backups of your photos, in which case ignore this paragraph

  • How do I place the Lightroom Library on an External Drive?

    Q: How do I change the location of the Lightroom Library on an external disk drive whilst also ensuring that lightroom maintains the connection with the new location?
    A: The easiest way is to copy the folder containing the Lightroom Catalog and the Previews to the new disk drive, navigate to the new folder location, then double click on the Catalog file to relaunch.
    Note: the Lightroom catalog and preview package use the
    lrcat and
    lrdata extension respectively.

    1. Drag the library to the external drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and point it there.
    2. Get a second. Having the backups on the same drive as the original data won't help when that drive fails.
    (66929)

  • Moving files/catalog to an external drive

    I have an iMac with a 1TB Time Capsule via ethernet and I am running out of room on my 320G HD in the iMac. I'd like to move my 100G of photos from the iMac to the Time Capsule and then point to them.
    Would this be better done via LR vice Finder?
    Can I then move the library to the external drive as well? I'd like to free up as much space as necessary. I've recently purchased a Canon 5D MKII and the RAW files are coming out in the 25Meg range and it won't be too many flash cards before I've filled up the 320 again.
    Sam

    My understanding of the time capsules is there plenty fast and server-grade. However to get the speed, you need to be directly connected. Who knows that the speed is via wireless, I'm guessing not so hot. I do know that you can add another USB external drive to TC. So while it 'may not' be possible to use TC directly for files (I don't think this is true though) you can still access another drive attached directly to it via wireless connection.
    My plans, unless I find otherwise, is to use one TC for a backup with a normal external HD connected to it for all my photographs. When I need a little more speed, I'll connect directly to it, but if I want to be mobile with a laptop, I can still access all my photographs.
    This is the plan mind you, unless someone says it's just not possible or there is faster method that lets me stay mobile.
    Hope this helps!

  • Lightroom 4 Quit Recognizing External Drive

    I am running LR4.3 on a Vista 32 bit system. I have a new Toshiba external drive that has been storing my work from lightroom. All has been working great until last night. I was working on photos and all of a sudden a banner came across the top saying photos is missing or offline and then that the folder was missing. The external drive was still plugged in but not lit up. I unplugged it and shut everything down (multiple times) but the drive has disappeared from the selectable drives on the left hand side. I can access the external drive through windows and my photos are there but LR4.3 does not see it. How can I get LR to see the drive again?

    toomanytaken wrote:
    I don't think the drive is asleep. I can access it through computer and see all the photos there. The work I did in LR is not there but the originals are. A drive F is grayed out in LR and I don't know where that came from. I don't have that drive on my pc.
    The drive may not be in "sleep" mode now, but it probably dozed off while you were working in LR. Do you understand what I'm saying?
    USB storage devices are assigned a "temporary" drive letter designation when plugged into a USB port on your computer. It normally uses the next available letter, unless assigned a permanent drive letter as suggested. Any phone, ipod, or other device with storage you plug into your system's USB port(s) temporarily takes up another drive letter. You probably had a phone, ipod, camera or other usb device plugged into your system when this problem occured, and then later removed it. See an example here:
    http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/external_drive_frustration
    I suggest first assigning a permanent drive letter first, such as M: or even Z: to prevent future conflicts:
    http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/how-do-i-force-windows-to-assign-a-driv e-letter-to-an-external-hard-drive-when-attached/631
    Once completed use the 'Locate Missing Folders' procedure here to reassociate your photos's with edits inside Lightroom:
    http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WSE828B644-9097-46ab-98A7-E2719BBB6647.html#WS 43660fa5a9ec95a81172e081234ea5bf2d-8000
    Message was edited by: trshaner
    'Locate Missing Folders' added

  • Moving Elements 5.0 catalog & images to external drive

    Due to capacity reasons, I needed to move my pictures to my external drive. I followed instructions on backing up my C drive catalog and images and then restored it to my intended external drive, with the file structure maintained. I confirmed that the catalog and images are all on the external drive now. And, I changed my Preferences so that the files, camera/card reader and scanner files would now also be saved to that drive.
    Unfortunately, now I can't seem to get the catalog to find the moved picture files. (and, I've deleted the pictures off my C drive) Any advice, anyone? Thanks in advance.

    What I have experienced (and I am not sure if it was PSE 4 or 5) is that as long as the photo files still existed in their previous location, the Restore process did NOT update the pointers in the Catalog to the new location.
    When did you delete the photo files off the C drive  - before or after you did the PSE Restore command?
    You can look at this FAQ
    http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Quickly_reconnecting_large
    Your cause is not exactly the same as that writeup, but this solution may apply to your current dilemma.

  • Importing into lightroom catalog on a mac

    I just moved my lightroom catalog on an external drive to a mac from a pc.  I got the entire catalog moved with no issues or problems except for this.  When I try to import new photos i get a message saying that the file cannont be read and that the files were not imported.  Has anyone else run into this issue while using a mac?  Thanks for any help

    How did you format the external drive?  It needs to be FAT32 if you want it to be able to be read and written by both PC and Mac.  Sometimes when LR says "cannot be read" it also or instead means "cannot be written".
    John
    John G. Blair Studio
    Occidental, California

  • Shared Lightroom Catalog???

    I use Lightroom exclusively for my photos.   I initially used it with my desktop Mac (PowerPC G5) and then started using it also on my laptop (Macbook Pro).  Both computers have all photos on external drives.  There is a separate Lightroom catalog on each computer corresponding to each computer with it's individual external drive.   You can imagine my problem now, I'm sure.  I have, effectively, TWO Lightroom catalogs, each with unique images, but also I've copied some photos over between them.  The problem is growing exponentially.
    Here's what I'd LIKE to do.   I'd like to install a shared NAS drive (perhaps an Apple Time Capsule drive) on my central hub in my house (my whole house is wired for Ethernet so that's not a problem), then put all photos on that single hub, thereby using a single Lightroom catalog and with it's images from either computer.  If I have to travel somewhere and take some photos with me, I can deal with that because that it is typically the exception, not the rule.
    Has anyone tried to do this?   I don't need to nor expect to hit the shared catalog from both computers at the same time.  I'll be using one or the other, but not both.  But I'd like to bring these two environments together.
    I'd love some insight from forum members who've attacked this problem and solved it.  I just don't know if Lightroom will allow the catalog to be on a shared drive, thus accessed by either computer.    If it will, then I imagine the work I need to do is:
    1)     create a large shared NAS drive.
    2)     copy all images to that drive.
    3)     pick one of the two Lightroom catalogs and make that the master and somehow point it to the NAS drive.
    4)     import the remainder of the photos on the NAS drive to Lightroom.
    5)     make sure that both computers reference the Lightroom catalog on the NAS drive.
    or maybe not.  Maybe there's a better way.  I'd like your input.
    if this won't work, then has anyone successfully merged two Lightroom catalogs together.   One of my catalogs has about 80,000 images, and the other about 35,000 images.   At least 50% of all images are keyworded and I'd really hate to lose my keywords and collections that I've created.
    anyway, insight is welcome.  Tell me if I'm nuts too.
    Thanks in advance.
    Dennis

    The closest think to this that will work is to put all the images on a large Firewire 800 drive with the LR catalog on the same drive, possibly in another partition. And alternately plug the drive into one machin or the other.
    It is Networked drives where one can't put a Catalog, as John says.
    Don

  • Wanted: Lightroom Catalog Viewer

    Am I the only person who would love to see an Adobe Lightroom Catalog Viewer, available for all to use to view the contents of LR catalogs?
    Why?
    Here's one example: I have a portable USB drive on which I keep several catalogs. I work on these catalogs by plugging into my LR-installed computer. But sometimes I have the drive with me, but without my computer, and I find myself wanting to show a few pictures on a friend's computer. It would be great if I could just plug into his computer, and use a LR Viewer to show him my images.
    I know, I could just export a copy of the images to this drive. But that's sort of a waste when all I need is a simple view once in awhile. Plus, Export doesn't seem to retain file/folder hierarchy if I export more than one folder at a time, so exports are sort of painful to search through if you're trying to find one photo to show off... especially when you don't have LR handy.... which brings me back to the need for a LR viewer.
    Could this be in the works?

    Yes, actually I've used SQLite for some of my database needs within Perl applications (web/cgi, etc.). So I've been able to look over the contents of LR database files that way. But as you surmised, I'm looking for a slightly more elaborate solution.
    I know Adobe would never want to erode Lightroom sales with a freebie such as Lightroom Catalog Viewer (my own name for the idea), but I think if the functionality were limited only to viewing thumbnails, screen-full displays, and simple slideshows from a LR catalog, it wouldn't erode sales, and may actually serve to entice people into LR who otherwise might not have the motivation.
    I would think that there should be no library editing, no flagging, color coding, none of that. No develop module, no printing, no web page generation, and only a single type of basic slide show.
    Why would people use it, being so basic? Because it applies all of the database-stored settings to an image without first exporting the image. I would be able to save an entire catalog to my external drive, take it on the road, and invoke the viewer from any computer to browse through the catalog. No editing, no frills; just let me see my corrected images without having to export them all.

  • Can I move the Lightroom Catalog from one location to another?

    Lightroom by default, places the Lightroom Catalog in the Pictures folder on my PC. My image library though, is located on an external hard drive. I've read that it is better to have the Catalog at the same location to avoid disconnected images, which sounds reasonable. Is it feasable to move the Catalog over to the same drive as my image library, or will that cause a problem? In other words would I need to start over again and create a new Catalog on the external drive? I know this sounds like a dumb question, but I've learnt to my cost that the obvious solution isn't necessary the correct one. 

    For better performance it is preferable to have the catalog located on an internal hard drive. By default the catalog and the preview files have to be located in the same folder since there is continual read/write taking place while working in Lightroom. Lightroom does not make any changes to the original files so its fine for them to be located on another hard drive internal or external. Lightroom loves lots of hard disk space to operate so if your catalog is on an internal drive make sure it not starved for disk space.
    However its ok for your catalog/previews files to reside on an external HDD with your original photo files.
    Your photo files can reside on a HDD conected to a network but your catalog and preview files cannot be located on a network.
    e.g I have my catalog / previews on the main HDD with my operating system with over 50% free disk space. My Photo files are on a secondary internal HDD with over 75% free disk space. I back up to external HDD.

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