LR3: I can see the image, but can not open it to develop it

[freefall]

Hi all,

I'll try and explain this as best as I can. I have a load of RAW files in LR3. There are hundreds in one particular folder. At one point I have edited them all but only a few select ones in LR3.

Now I am wanting to go back to the ones I edited in LR and edit them again. Here is my problem:

* I have the RAW file on my PC and can see it.
* When I open a folder in LR3 to import my image I have to have selected "All Photo's" in order for me to see the image. Otherwise I see all my images barring the few that I have already tweaked and edited.
* So, I can now see my image that I want to re edit but it is a dark hazy grey and when you hover the mouse over it you get the message: "This appears to be duplicate of another photo already in the catalogue."

OK, so maybe it is a duplicate. Just let me open it and take it to the develop tab!

It'd the odd little things like this which I just do not get about Lightroom. :bonk:

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[StuD]

If it's saying it is a duplicate, it must already be in your catalogue. Can you not browse to the folder it's in from the Library module instead of re-importing it?

If it's definitely not in your catalogue then change the selection for importing duplicates (it's a tickbox I think on the import screen).

 

[tdodd]

It sounds like your LR library/catalog has got in a bit of a pickle. Probably the easiest way to straighten things out is to right click on the highest folder in your image hierarchy and then choose "Synchronise". That will then make sure that the library/catalog structure accurately reflects the true physical location of your files. Any references to AWOL files will be removed and any files that had disappeared will be found.

You may lose some edits, but maybe not. It kind of depends on what sort of mess things are in.

Another option - if you moved or copied files around in your drive using something other than Lightroom then this may be the cause of your problem. If you want to move/copy image files then use Lightroom to do it. If you use some other approach then Lightroom needs to be brought up to date with what you've done. It won't sort it out on its own.

Just a small word of caution - all the above is sound advice for straightening out your original source files. If you have processed/exported files mixed up with your original files in the folder structure then synchronising the folders will add the exported files to your catalog. You'll need to remove them manually. Since you shoot raw it should be pretty easy to filter out the JPEG files and only remove those, leaving the raws in the catalog.

I avoid this problem by having a mirror folder structure for my exported files. Imported files and exported files do not get mixed up in the same folders.

 

[freefall]

Thanks for the help. The whole above post seems helpful but I am in a rush and could not get it to work. Will have to come back to that later to try and sort out my messy files.

In the meantime I just put the RAW's into a new folder, renamed them and imported them as new pictures. Then I could edit them again. What a farce though. LR would just not find them even though it would let me click on the images.