Smart previews- photo is missing

I created a catalog with smart previews from my PC (Win 7, 64 bit) and copied it onto my macbook pro (OSX 10.9.1) via a thumb drive. I can view the photos fine, zoom in and use the develop controls. However I get no histogram, cannot export and below the histogram it just says 'photo is missing'.
The whole point of this exercise was to choose and export lo-res selects to customers when out of the office. I can't do that. Any ideas? Thanks.

Well, if you didn't copy over the preview cache, then the only way that Lightroom could regenerate previews is from the Smart Previews. So if you now have a preview image on the MBP for the file in question, then obviously the Smart preview must be present.
It sounds as though you might have encountered a bug that I reported last year, when basically Lightroom partially loses track of the Smart Preview....you can edit, zoom etc., but there's no histogram and the status is shown as "Photo in Missing". I can't remember how I got round that problem (it was on a test system so not critical to me at that time).
Are ALL the files on the MPB showing the same status, or only a few? If only a few, it might be worth going back to the main computer, discarding the Smart Previews for those images, rebuild them, then re-copy the Smart Preview cache back to the MBP.

Similar Messages

Is there any way to recover files when the back up catalog has been deleted accidently. I can see a preview of the photos, but I cannot access or edit them. They say "the folder cannot be located" and "the photo is missing". I have gone through multipl

I can see a preview of the photos, but I cannot access or edit them. They say "the folder cannot be located" and "the photo is missing". I have gone through multiple Adobe tutorials to try and recover them to no avail. Any tips?

Backup catalogs wouldn't have helped with this problem anyway, but naturally, you shouldn't delete backup catalogs for a while.
The solution to reconnecting the folders is given here: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

Deleting photos that are in Smart Previews

I observed that when photos are deleted while in a smart preview collection the photos are not removed from the smart preview collection. Resulting over time in a large smart preview file with unused photos, consuming your hard drive space.
It is therefor important only to delete photos when they are first discarded from the smart preview catalog.
When eventually photos are removed while they were available in the smart preview catalog the work around to delete them is to locate the catalog named: "Lightroom 5 Catalog Smart Previews.lrdata" and to open it with Lightroom. When opened you can select the photos and remove them. After that you can remove the folder from your Lightroom folders and the file itself will consist of only 0 bytes.
It would maybe a good idea that removing photos automatically would discard them from the smart preview.
I hope this was helpful.

Smart previews are discarded upon startup if it's been more than an hour since photo was removed from catalog.

Selecting photos by smart preview status, changed metadata, etc

I want to be able to select photos inside Lightroom based upon criteria which the program tracks but does not let you select on, for instance pictures without smart previews, pictures that have had their metadata changed externally, etc. The system knows which pictures these are but doesn't let you view them as a set or act upon them as a set ( building smart previews, as far as I know requires manual selection in an updated catalog or universal operation, you can't select just those without smart previews). Since the system keeps track of the status, it would be nice if you could select that status to view or act upon them as a set. If anyone knows how to do this, I would appreciate it.
David

You need to look at Smart Collections. Both of those examples are available in the smart collection criteria.

Smart Album errors detecting photos w/ missing faces

I created a smart album (Faces is "unnamed") to find photos with missing faces. I went through and identified each of the photos. As I did this, as soon as I put in the name, many (but not all) disappeared from the album.
However, the Smart Album still has a number of photos, even though there are no unidentified images. I checked each one to see if there were small boxes that I missed, but there weren't.
I deleted the album and set up a new smart album (with the same criteria) and the images still appear in the album.
Is there any way to make my smart album smarter? (remove a plist???)
Thanks!

. "Affe". I have a face named "Sculpture".
I was quite impressed that Aperture's Face Recognition recognizeed the baboon's face.
I have some nice tagged sculptures too.
And some of the more cheeky suggestion by Aperture I named "Funny Face", for example - where does Aperture see a Face here in the bottom part of the picture?

Do iPhone photos sync to Lightroom Mobile in Original Quality or Smart Preview?

From my iPhone, I want to get the original (high quality) photo from my camera roll into Lightroom on my desktop. Currently, I am doing this by having Dropbox read my camera roll, and using WiFi, sync all new photos to a Dropbox folder. Then, when I launch Lightroom on my desktop, I have watch folder setup that imports all new photos sync'ed from Dropbox into Lightroom.
I recently downloaded Lightroom Mobile, which has the ability to import any new photos from the camera roll directly to Lightroom Mobile. I have set this up to sync to Lightroom on my desktop with my Lightroom Mobile. From what I have read online though, Lightroom Mobile only syncs "smart previews", not the original image. This make sense for RAW files as they are huge, but what about regular JPEGs?
My question is, if someone sets up Lightroom Mobile to sync in this way (from iPhone camera roll -> Lightroom Mobile -> Lightroom Desktop), does it sync the original (high quality) photo to your desktop, or just a Smart Preview? I am wondering if I can now eliminate the Dropbox syncing, and just use Lightroom Mobile instead.

When you import photos from your camera roll via Lr Mobile, then the original will be synced to Lr Deskop. But when you open up the photo in Lr Mobile you will see a smaller kind of smart preview. Hope that answers your question. - Guido

Can not remove ? from external hard drive folder in LR5 & can't link smart preview & original pic

I have LR5 and a MacBook Pro OSX 10.8.5 I have an external hard drive that when I imported photos from my cameras memory card I selected the hard drive as the source to move the pictures to. I forgot if I clicked ADD, MOVE, or COPY.
In the library mode in LR5 the external hard drive shows up under folders, but has a question mark on every folder on the external hard drive. I control clicked on the question mark for the first folder (the parent folder?) and choose “Find missing folder”. I then navigated to the external hard drive and clicked on that same folder, then clicked choose. Nothing happened. I tried this same method with individual folders and the same, I control click on the folder with a question mark, navigate to the same folder on the hard drive, click on it (I tried both just clicking on the folder so it was highlighted and actually opening the folder), and select choose, the question marks remain.
1. How do I link the two to remove the question mark?
Second question, possibly related. I have a collection in the library mode that has only previews, the originals were added to the same external hard drive as above. When I navigate to the hard drive via my finder (not in LR5), the originals are there. When I am in the library mode in LR5, in this collection, and click on the preview square in the top right corner of an individual picture in that collection, it says “image can be edited using its smart preview but the original file can not be found. Would you like to locate it".
The original location of it shows below this statement and is correct; it shows the path to the external hard drive and the folder where the original is contained that I mentioned previously. I navigate to that picture on the external hard drive and select it. I get another notice box pop up that says “the file is associated with another photo in the catalog. Each file can only be associated with one photo.” I select show in library and it brings me right back to the image that is a smart preview only. I am stuck in this loop and cant figure out how to associate the original on the external hard drive with the smart preview in LR5.
1. I have the originals still on my camera memory card, do I import again? I am afraid I will loose all my edits.
I hope I gave you the right info. Every link I find to answer this question is related but not quite the same, any link you know of is apreciated. Thanks!
Ashley

Have you ever re-named files using duplicate file names e.g. names that have been used previously?
See if this link helps to locate missing files and near posibilities:
http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/locate-missing-photos.html

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp? So far when I try to disconnect the external HD from the mbp, I get the following pop up window: The disk "external hard drive A" couldn't be ejected because "Lightroom" is using it. Quit that application and try to eject this disk again. When I do that and restart Lightroom 5, the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Select Catalog screen pops up but doesn't list my external hard drive A as a choice.
I've reviewed Adobe's Lightroom Help | Smart Previews Lightroom 5 web page and still haven't been able to figure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Your internal HDD. by default, is named 'Macintosh HD'. From what information you supplied, it looks like there is already a Lightroom catalog installed on you local (internal) HDD using the standard naming convention Adobe uses as well as a Lightroom catalog on your external drive which you created. To be sure of which catalog Lightroom is loading when it starts up, To do this, start Lightroom as you normally would. After it starts, select the Lightroom menu item, then select the Catalog Preferences item and finally, navigate to the General tab. The Location information will tell you exactly what catalog Lightroom is opening by default. This will likely be the Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog on your external HDD. Once that is confirmed, you are ready to proceed. As an additional test/verification, you can shut down Lightroom and, this time, start Lightroom while holding down the ALT/OPTION key. This will cause Lightroom to pause and display a screen which will allow you to chose a different catalog to open. Navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder and select the Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat file. When Lightroom comes up, there should be no previews or folders as this catalog should be empty. Now you can be certain which catalog is being used and which catalog has all your data and you are ready to migrate your current catalog. Shut down Lightroom.
To migrate your current catalog, use Finder to locate your Photography Mac Book Pro Versions folder on your external drive. Select the folder and select COPY from the context menu. Next, use Finder to navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder on you internal HDD. You can start at the Macintosh HD level and work your way down by opening each level (Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures). Select the /Pictures folder and then select PASTE... from the context menu. When the COPY/PASTE is complete, you should see the following files on the Macintosh HD:
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom/ and
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions
The Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder will contain the empty default catalog the Adobe created when Lightroom was installed and Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions will contain a copy of the catalog you created on your external HDD.
You are almost done now. Make sure your external drive is still attached for this step. Restart Lightroom using the ALT/OPTION key again. When the Select Catalog screen appears, select the Choose a Different Catalog button (lower left side). When you do, a Finder window will open to allow you to navigate to a catalog of your choosing. Navigate to Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions and select the file Photography Mac Book Pro Version.lrcat. This is the copy you just created. Select the Open button and Lightroom should start. You should see all of your previews and settings just as before. Also, in the left hand panel, all of your folder should show up and none of them should be dimmed and none of your previews should display a small exclamation point badge. Either a dimmed folder name or an exclamation point badge indicates that Lightroom can't find the associated image file. If everything looks good, go to the Lightroom menu, select Preferences and then select the General tab. Under Default Catalog, select an option to either load the LAST catalog opened or select the Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog from the drop down. Shut down Lightroom and then restart it normally. This time, when Lightroom starts, you should be viewing the new copy of your catalog. You can confirm this by looking at the General tab on the Catalog Preferences screen (Lightroom/Catalog Preferences menu items). Shut down Lightroom once again and this time, eject your external drive before restarting. This time, your folders in the left hand panel will be dimmed but you should be able to work with your smart previews. If Lightroom should display a Select Catalog screen with the external drive detached, double check your settings as it indicates Lightroom is still looking at the copy of the catalog on the external drive rather than the new copy you made.
Finally, if you are seeing dimmed folders and/or exclamation point badges with the external drive attached, this indicates a problem. You can select any folder and select Update Folder Location from the context menu. This will allow you to navigate to the copy on the external drive and select it. Lightroom will then update the catalog (select to synchronize the content). This will not only clear the dimmed folder problem but also remove the exclamation point badges for all photos in that missing folder. However, it may indicate that not all went well with the copy of the catalog so make sure to verify all went well. You can use the Get Info option on the two folders. You should see the same number of files/folders for both the copy on the internal drive as well as on the external drive but you can't rely on the byte count because of the possibility of differences between the geometry of the two drives. Hope this all helps!

Lightroom can't find Smart Previews?

I have a Photographer trying to send me files via Smart Previews in Lightroom. She wants the edited files returned to her in the original NEF formats that she sent them in.
Here's what I've done:
1. I downloaded her original LR Catalog that you sent me, and also downloaded the original Smart Preview file that she sent.
2. I put both of them in one folder together on my desktop
3. I went to that folder and clicked on the Lightroom Catalog - it opened, but it said that the Photos could not be found. They are showing as NEF files.
4. Since the photos couldn't be found, I clicked on the Smart Preview file. This caused the photos to open in Lightroom - but when they open, they suddenly are DNG files, and in Lightroom it shows them as being "Original Photos" instead of "Smart Previews"
5. Since they are opened as DNG files, that is what they are showing up in her LR view as since, I am attaching the Smart Previews to the photos that I've edited.
The part that is baffling me is that a) when the LR Catalog and the Smart Preview file are in the same folder, and I open the LR Catalog, it is showing photos as missing and not picking up on the Smart Preview file in the same folder. And - b) Once I click on the Smart Preview files, it's converting them instantly to DNG files, and showing them as Original photos, instead of Smart Previews. It's almost like there is something wrong with the Smart Preview file? Or am I missing a step here?

Sorry - that first line item should have said the LR catalog she sent me - not "you" sent me.

Is it possible to use smart previews without my external hard drive?

I get it. I know I need to tell Lightroom that it's "this" specific catalog that I want to be working on while being away from my external hard drive.
But, just so I understand the logic: I have to opne Lightroom with the external hard drive connected and then, ejected it so I could smart previews that I've previsoulsy build. There's no way for me just to turn on my computer, away from my external hard drive, and work on smart previews?
So, I guess that this my real questions: If I make a copy of the catalog from my external hard drive onto my desktop, and I tell my computer to work with this catalog while away from external hard drive, will this clash everything up?
Let me know if I've missed a previous thread about this.
Thanks !
Patrice

It may help if you can understand how smart previews actually work, under the hood.
When you build a smart preview, what you are actually creating is a smaller version of the original master, which gets stored as a lossy-compressed DNG in the same folder as the catalog file. So, when editing, Lr looks for the original, and if online, uses it, and if offline, uses the smart preview instead (if it's there), as the source for image data.
It's really that simple. So if the original photo is not in the location expected by the catalog and the smart preview which corresponds to it is not in the expected location in the catalog folder, then you won't be able to edit the photo.
So to answer your question more specifically, you can edit a copy of the catalog which had smart previews (you must copy the whole catalog folder to get the smart previews, or do an export instead of a copy, regular previews are optional), then copy the catalog back when done (no need to re-copy smart previews, since they don't change, and no need to re-copy regular previews, since they can be re-created) - no harm, no foul... Or, if you exported the working copy of your catalog, you can import it after work done instead.
PS - there have been lots of threads about this.
Rob

Smart Preview Warnung at Export

Hi,
does anyone knows if it's possible to have a warning, if you're about to export just from the Smart Preview data? I really love Smart Previews and it speeded my workflow very much, but it happend some time that I exported my data without having my external harddrive connected, just working with Smart Previews. So the only "warning" was that it's much faster than usual if you export your files :-) It would be great to have kind of a dialog, if' you're really sure to export just from Smart Previews!
Thanks,
Harry

Bob Somrak wrote:
Lightroom tells you with the Icons under the histogram if you are using Smart Previews or The Original photo for your selected photos.
It is definitely worth looking at those icons before exporting, since it gives a complete summary of all selected photos (when it's working I mean - sometimes in my copy of Lr it just says "Photo is missing", when no photos are missing. And also, there are occasions where it may not be practical or visible, i.e. auto-publishing, exporting from develop module... For those cases, you can use Exportant's "Warn If Smart Preview" preset to alert prior to inadvertant exporting of smart previews.
Exportant (plugin)
Rob

Lightroom 5 - Smart Previews | What's New in Lightroom 5 | Adobe TV

Learn how to create lightweight, efficient Smart Previews to work with offline images in Lightroom.
http://adobe.ly/11rZI6q

Hello Julieanne,
I'm using Lightroom 5 and I'm interested in the smart preview feature; one question: is it possible a workflow like this one: work with a desktop with all the photos in one hard disk and no smart preview; then export one catalog with smart preview and open it in my laptop so that I can work with the files and modify. Then export it back to the desktop version once I'm back home.
Thanks and regards,
Marco

ITunes\Apple TV 2 Not Updating Aperture 3 Smart Album Photos

Hi,
Even after both updating the Preview photos in the Aperture 3 Smart Album and waiting for several hours, my iTunes photo link to the Apple TV 2 still shows the OLD pictures (and the photo count) from when I first linked the album. The link is off by scores of photos that have since been added.
In attempting to remedy the out-of-date Album link, I have:
closed all programs,
restarted the computer,
linked and unlinked the photo album.
The photos on the Apple TV still show old versions of the pix, since revised. I don't know where these are coming from since they have been updated. They must reside in the ATV's memory. I'd like to flush that out and replace with the new versions!
QUESTIONS:
--> Is there a way to get iTunes to see the updated Smart Album that resides in Aperture 3?
--> Can I force an update of the Smart Album photos to the Apple TV?
Perhaps there is a secret incantation and dance?
Thanks for your help!
Don

I figured it out. The Aperture Smart Folder was actually being updated in iPhoto!
The story...
I recently upgraded to the new commonly shared Aperture \ iPhoto file format and imported all my iPhoto photos into my Aperture library.
Unknown to me, Aperture was saving changes made in Aperture to the old iPhoto file (package) -- with no notice, advisory, or infornation to this effect!
Mind-numbingly confusing, but once I deduced that my Aperture Library was now kinda fronting for some data stored in iPhoto, I could link to the Smart Folder stored there.
I intend to export the whole mess to an entirely new Aperture Library to be entirely (I hope!) in an Aperture environment.
If you lose information in Aperture, try looking in iPhoto!

Is there any benefit for me to use smart previews if my Lightroom 5 catalog, previews and media are all on the same external USB HD?

I keep everything on 1 External USB3 HD so that I can pug it into my Mac at home or my PC at work and just keep working without syncing anything to the local machine. So is there any benefit with Smart Previews in this case? I heard somewhere that it might make the Develop module a little quicker, but is this only when using the Smart Preview and not the full res image?

Lr uses smart previews instead of ACR cache for initial develop-module view when photos are online - amount of benefit is, in my experience, very minor (not noticeable without using a stop-watch..).
But if photos are offline, you may experience more substantial savings.
Note: smart previews are reduced resolution - smart previews of raw files are 2560 x (say) 1920, so if your original raws were say 5120 x 3840, then you/Lr are dealing with 1/4 the number of pixels when editing via smart previews.
Anyway, if you are willing to give up zoom for one edit pass, you can resize the smart previews so 1:1 fits in your allotted display space (e.g. 1280 x 960, which would be 1/8 number of pixels..), e.g. using the PreviewExporter plugin - then things may be significantly faster in develop module. PreviewExporter also has a feature to take originals offline, and put them back online.
To be clear: the amount of savings may or may not be dramatic - how much there is depends on your system, size of raw vs. smart preview image, number and type of edits applied, etc..
Why don't you try it and tell us what you think?!
Cheers,
Rob

I have been using LR5 on a Mac mini. The LR was installed on an external drive. Now I would like to use Smart Previews on my Internal drive to take advantage of the speed. When I make previews they go to originals. How can I put them on the internal drive

when started with LR 5 on my Mac I used advise from Adobe's LR5 book, I installed it on an external drive, processing originals was a little slow so I decided to make smart previews on my internal drive to get faster processing. However the smart previews hook up with the originals and so there is no advantage just a bigger file. Is there anyway when I make the previews stay on the internal drive or am I locked in with the current setup. I can find no LR5 folders on the internal drive.
Thanks,
John Sr.

Are you doing a lot of spot removal or brushing?
This doesn't sound like a disk drive issue at all. Once Lightroom reads the file from the disk, and you are editing, the disk plays no further role. Using a faster disk drive here will not make the slightest difference.
So, I would check your graphics drivers to see if they are up to date. I would also temporarily disable your virus checker and firewall.
How much memory does your computer have? What CPU do you have?
How big (in megapixels, not megabytes) are the photos you are editing?

Smart previews- photo is missing

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