Lightroom does not display imported folders in correct location

Question

Hello,
OS X Yosemite 10.10.1
Lightroom 5.7
In Lightroom, I try to import photos and store them in a folder named by date.  All import settings are configured in such a way that Lightroom indicates that my photos will be imported as I want them to be.
Lightroom creates the folder in the correct location on disk.
However Lightroom does not display the newly created folder in the correct location after import, instead it adds the folders to the top level of my catalogue.
I've triedimporting from both from my cameras card and from a local folder, the results are the same for both methods.
Does anyone know why this is happening or do you have any tips on how I can trouble shoot this issue?
Something that may be related to this issue... while in Lightroom, if I right click the top level folder and click "Synchronize folder", Lightroom displays a dialog box indicating that there are new photos and missing photos...
"Import new photos (7934)
Remove missing photos from catalog (7931).
I have been importing photos in the same way for years.  I have have upgraded Lightroom once, and I have swapped computers once.

Answer 1

This problem most likely occurs when there has been a case change in a path on disk.  In other words (using the screenshot at the top of this post as an example), something like this:
/Users/hurley/Pictures/photographs
intentionally or unintentionally gets changed to:
/Users/hurley/Pictures/Photographs
(i.e., "photographs" was initially lowercase, but got changed to an uppercase "Photographs")
As you've discovered, Lightroom does not handle this well.  You can fix the problem by completely changing the path, and then updating Lightroom with the new path.  Try these steps:
1.  Quit Lightroom.
2.  In the Finder (i.e., on disk, not in Lightroom), alter the path that your photos are stored at.  In other words (again using the screenshot at the top of this post as an example), create a new folder called "Test" inside the "Pictures" folder, and then put the "Photographs" folder inside the "Test" folder, so that the new path looks like this:
/Users/hurley/Pictures/Test/Photographs
4.  Launch Lightroom.  In the Folders panel in Lightroom, you should now see a question mark “?” on the “photographs” folder (and all the folders within it) because Lightroom doesn't know where they are any more.
5.  Right-click on the “photographs” folder in the Folders panel in Lightroom, and choose “Find Missing Folder…”  Direct Lightroom to the new location of the folder, i.e., /Users/hurley/Pictures/Test/Photographs.  The folder, and the folders within it, should now be found, and the question marks should disappear from them in the Folders panel in Lightroom.
6.  Now try importing again to see if the newly imported photos go into the right place.
-Ben