Lightroom reorganisation - lost settings

benners

benners

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Ben
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hi everyone, I've been using LR for a while, but my file management has been terrible as I didn't really know how to organise properly and understand it!
But I've watched a bunch of tutorials and now know what I should be doing!

So I'm trying to organise old folders of images which I've moved from my laptop HD to an external HD.

The problem I'm finding is that all the Developing edits, star ratings, etc. I'd applied to the RAW files are not there. So it's like I've got all the files straight from the camera for the first time.

Is this something I can recover, or are they lost forever?
 
Hoping this answers it or we might need more info.

If you're getting an message like "Image cannot be found" then you need to connect your external drive and click on the image that can't be found in Lr and it should give you a dialog box (or perhaps it's in the left column, I forget now) - you need to show Lr that the image is on the external drive and then the whole folder will connect.

When you disconnect the external drive, Lr will revert to the error messages again as it cannot find the image. Connect again and usually it can find them.

In future, you can get around the problem by moving the images in Lr from the folder to the external drive. To be honest, it's a total faff!!

As a warning, you need to back up your raw files, then your DNG files and also your Lightroom database. If you lose the database you'll lose all your settings and adjustments you've made to your files. If you lose the DNG images then you'll lose all your settings in effect. And if you lose your raw files you lose the ability to start all over again if something goes badly wrong.
 
If there is a question mark next to the original folder you can right click on that and point it to the new location.
It really is best to move files from w/in LR to prevent these types of issues.
 
Seems a bit unclear. Is LR indicating that it can't find the files or does it know the location of the files but you've lost edits, ratings, etc?

By the way, no need to have RAW files and DNG's. Choose which one you want to use (+ and - for both formats) and stick with that. Keeping both is, quite frankly, a waste of space.
 
johnnypanic said:
By the way, no need to have RAW files and DNG's...
Click to expand...
I mentioned it because I had a major disk crash (I've had two now but that's beside the point) - on my first crash some folders containing raw files were recoverable but not the relevant DNG's, and other folders containing DNG's were recoverable but not the associated raw files. As a result my magic man managed to retrieve most images in the end of either raw or dng as they were kept in different places on the hard disk.

Very frequent - and double - backups is obviously the way to go (and I do this now) but if these aren't done I feel having both types of file is safer.
 
sk66 said:
So a backup on the same drive???
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Not 100% sure what you're asking/meaning but for clarity I have recent files on my computer and make two backups of both raw and dng's on two different external drives. After around 6 months or so when my laptop needs clearing I check the backups and then can clear the laptop.

Perhaps it's overkill but as I learned many years ago - there are two different types of people: those who backup and those who don't. And as most of us know, you tend to learn once and if you didn't that time you certainly learn the second time!! lol :)
 
thanks everyone, this is really useful and I appreciate your understanding with dealing with an OP has so far managed files, well, horribly!
for example, I didn't even know about DNGs! I've been happy with RAW/.nef files (until now! I'll explore DNGs further).

i think the problem is that my original .nef files and their .xmp files have been disconnected.

so an example of process before was:
- after a shoot, download .nefs from memory card to laptop
- open lightroom, create a new catalog (for each shoot...) and import .nefs
- edit/pp/rate files, export jpeg as needed. done.

then, to make room on my laptop, I'd move the folder of images onto an external hard drive via Windows/OS (behind LR's back... I know...oops!)
now if I try to import those files back into LR from the external hard drive, that's fine, but all the edits/ratings are not there (the xmp files?). there are no question marks, etc. it's as if LR has just imported the files straight from the shoot again.

so it feels like the .nefs and .xmps have been disconnected and need reconnecting? is this something that can be done? I still have all the catalogs, i've not knowingly deleted anything.

no need to lecture me on my awful workflow and management, I completely get what I need to be doing now (esp. moving files IN LR rather than behind its back) ;)
 
The simple answer is to just export everything as a catalogue and include the original files, copy that catalogue to an external HD (assuming that's where you want to keep it) and then import it.

Edit, so in your case just import catalogues, simples.
 
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A couple of things to remember. .xmp files are not required to maintain your edits. Your changes are stored in the catalog, but if you loose your catalog or it becomes corrupt then you will loose all of your edits.

DNG files writes the edits directly to the raw file so no need for .xmp files and if your catalog goes belly up, no problem as long as you have your .dng files.

My guess is that your catalog has become corrupt and you have no .xmp files (or you have not moved them with the images.) If that is the case, not a lot you can do I'm afraid.
 
ecoleman said:
A couple of things to remember. .xmp files are not required to maintain your edits. Your changes are stored in the catalog, but if you loose your catalog or it becomes corrupt then you will loose all of your edits.

DNG files writes the edits directly to the raw file so no need for .xmp files and if your catalog goes belly up, no problem as long as you have your .dng files.

My guess is that your catalog has become corrupt and you have no .xmp files (or you have not moved them with the images.) If that is the case, not a lot you can do I'm afraid.
Click to expand...

Ahh there may be hope, all my catalogues are still on my laptop, in the default folder it set up, just the nef files which have moved, so I might be able to match them up again?
 
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benners said:
now if I try to import those files back into LR from the external hard drive, that's fine, but all the edits/ratings are not there (the xmp files?). there are no question marks, etc. it's as if LR has just imported the files straight from the shoot again.

so it feels like the .nefs and .xmps have been disconnected and need reconnecting? is this something that can be done? I still have all the catalogs, i've not knowingly deleted anything.
Click to expand...
As far as LR knows they are new images... In the LR Library view there should be folders for where the images used to be, and there should be a question mark showing that it doesn't know where those images are anymore.

If you can't sort it out, the best answer may be to put the files back where they were, and then use LR to move them back to the external again.
 
ok, i think i might have nailed it (with you guys' help!).

so if i:
- copy all my "old" catalogs from laptop > Ext HD
- open each of these catalogs and Locate (choosing "find nearby...") to match catalogs + images back to each other
- open one of my "new" reorganised collections on the laptop
- import the image files from the Ext HD (which have now been re-linked to their "old" catalogs)

sound sensible? seems to work?!
 
Just an aside - in case it's not been mentioned...

As said above, the catalogue stores all the info, but if you save the metadata (select the image(s) then CTRL+S) this will write all the develop settings + keywords + ratings (not collection membership or colour labels) back to the original raw file - in the header if it's dng or jpeg - sidecar xmp file if it's raw. This means you can open the image in LR on another PC and see your edits, or in a fresh install of LR or in a new catalogue. No help now, but useful to know for the future.

I tend to have a collection that picks up all photos with metadata that hasn't been saved so I can do a batch save before quitting LR. I then know that I have a copy of the edits with the original image.
 
You're losing one of the main benefits of Lightroom by not having all your images in the one catalogue. Why make different catalogues??
 
snap-happy said:
You're losing one of the main benefits of Lightroom by not having all your images in the one catalogue. Why make different catalogues??
Click to expand...

benners said:
no need to lecture me on my awful workflow and management, I completely get what I need to be doing now (esp. moving files IN LR rather than behind its back) ;)
Click to expand...

:)
 
snap-happy said:
You're losing one of the main benefits of Lightroom by not having all your images in the one catalogue. Why make different catalogues??
Click to expand...
I have a fair few catalogues. One for each year and others I make during the year for projects from customers.

I used to keep all my photos in one catalogue but after 25,000 photos the whole package turned to treacle and was so slow and cumbersome. I take 30-40,000 photos a year and it's noticeable how slow Lr is later in the year. Various projects like a wedding or equestrian fun ride will have a catalogue and when backing up/tidying up/removing from my laptop after a few months everything (raw, dng, jpg, Lr catalogue) can be kept in a specific folder on the external drives. By doing this my main catalogue can be kept to a more manageable 10-15,000 images.
 
There's been no mention of the minimum specification for RAM and processor speed. More RAM and faster processors affect any software's performance. I suggest a lot of problems may lie in this area. Due to an interest in video, running FCP X, I need 32 GB RAM and a 3.4 Hz processor. However I have only a modest LR catalogue of 11,000 images but never any speed problems. Martin Evening claims to keep his catalogues (if my memory is correct) at around 28,000 images.
 
Correction:- Martin Evening states in his book published back in 2012 that his main catalogue references over 120,000 photos.
 
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