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| Moderated by: chrisbet, | ||
| Author | Post | |||||||||
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Robert
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My main Lr catalogue and all my images, live on a RAID 0 external drive which I connect to whichever Mac I am using on the day. For some reason, using my Main Mac mini, Lightroom seems not to be able to connect with the images, only the catalogue. It claims the images are off-line or missing. They aren't, they are in the exact same folder structure they have always been, and the catalogue is the same one I have been using for at least a year. I don't seem to be able to sync the folders, If I select 'find missing images' it whirs for a couple of seconds, a progress bar progresses at the top left if the pane then nothing. Attachment: Screen Shot 2012-06-20 at 22.32.57.jpg (Downloaded 49 times) |
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jk
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The computer has changed/lost the path to the files. This sometimes happens with network drives. It can happen after an update of the network protocol in a Software Update. Try deleting the network connection and remaking it. |
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Robert
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Not networked Jk, it's firewire. I can see the images perfectly well by going to the folder manually. The Lrcat and the images are on the same drive in adjacent folders. I suspect the Lr catalogue has lost the plot! It has happened before but I have always managed to re-connect things, not this time. I am sure there is a button to press somewhere which will fix it. I just can't find the right button. I can of course create it again with no great trouble, just time, it will take a while to re-render all those images. Attachment: Screen Shot 2012-06-21 at 09.16.14.jpg (Downloaded 46 times) |
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Ed Matusik
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If I'm not mistaken, Robert, there's more than one type of firewire cable. Maybe either your external drive or the mini doesn't recognize each other because the cable isn't compatible. - EdM |
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jk
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Robert, Try restoring one previous backup then re-sync the folders then backup the whole cat if this works. Probably less tiresome than remaking the catalog. |
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richw
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Robert, it happens to me all the time with the NAS. You just need to go to grid view (hit G). Click on the question mark at the top right of the thumbnail for an image on the drive that you know the location of and click on 'Locate' in the message box that pops up. Find the image in the finder window that opens, Lightroom will automatically find everything else on the drive for you. |
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jk
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There you go that was simple. Well done Rich, I'm sure Robert will be very pleased. |
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Robert
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It seems not... I tried that method Rich, Thank you but it onlt 'found' a couple of images at a time, I tried it several times with different images, but no dice, so I am creating a new LrCat. It took 10 minutes to import the images and after almost an hour it has created about 1/3 of the standard previews, so perhaps it will need another two hours? I think I may know what the issue is but can't reveal it on open forum. |
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TomOC
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Robert- That's all I need to see that I must stick with my antiquated system of: -Current pix on local HDD - keyword them with Photo Mechanic (embedded in file - no sidecar) - transfer to external drive - ingest into Media Pro for archival catalog - copy to offsite external drive for safety - keep catalog file on Dropbox so it can be searched from desktop or laptop - keep my sanity which doesn't understand why iphoto, aperture and LR need their own catalogs hope you solve this - you're a better man than I am  Tom |
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Robert
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I went ahead and recreated my LrCat, it took ten minutes to import the images and two hours to create the standard previews for 16,000 images. Seems OK now, all the metadata seems intact. Thanks for the suggestions. |
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richw
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TomOC wrote:Robert- Well Robert's experience cost him two hrs, but the simplicity of the workflow might save you more than that a week Tom? |
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Doug
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Robert wrote:I went ahead and recreated my LrCat, it took ten minutes to import the images and two hours to create the standard previews for 16,000 images. But of course you would have lost your collections upon creating a new catalog |
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Doug
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Robert wrote:It seems not... It wasn't that you had renamed or moved something externally (in the finder)? If you had previously added the parent folder then you would be able to right click on it under 'folders' and relocate it and all of it's children in one step - I can't remember the specific command from the contextual menu It should work if the parent folder has been renamed or relocated, provided the folder structure inside hasn't changed |
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Doug
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richw wrote:Robert, it happens to me all the time with the NAS. You just need to go to grid view (hit G). Click on the question mark at the top right of the thumbnail for an image on the drive that you know the location of and click on 'Locate' in the message box that pops up. Find the image in the finder window that opens, Lightroom will automatically find everything else on the drive for you. With this method oesn't it just find stuff in the same folder? |
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Robert
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Doug wrote:It wasn't that you had renamed or moved something externally (in the finder)? No, the folder structure was exactly the same as had worked fine previously. I had imported a couple of recent image folders in the previous week and accessed and exported some of the images. Doug wrote: If you had previously added the parent folder then you would be able to right click on it under 'folders' and relocate it and all of it's children in one step - I can't remember the specific command from the contextual menu I selected the top folder 'Pictures' then selected a JPEG. While it did 'find' other missing images they didn't seem to be all of the images from the same folder as the selected one but a random selection although I could be wrong on that because I had the entire collection displayed and not in folder order. I did check back to the folder but I was a bit tired by that stage. Doug wrote: It should work if the parent folder has been renamed or relocated, provided the folder structure inside hasn't changed I didn't try ctrl + click (I don't do left click) on a selected image. I simply followed Rich's method above. This is the first time I have lost the connection with an entire catalogue. I have lost contact with the occasional image file if I moved it or renamed the folder in the finder but have always been able to return it to the catalogue. It's working OK at the moment. I will keep an eye on it, I haven't deleted the faulty catalogue so I may try your method later Doug. |
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Robert
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OK, I sussed it. It was my fault. I had been experimenting with uploading multiple images to the Forum Gallery. To make the pathname more 'PC' like, I had removed the capital letters and spaces on the path to the images I was attempting to upload en mass. I had clean forgotten I had altered the folder names. It was only when I used Doug's method of refreshing the Catalogue path that I realised what I had done. Here is a walkthrough of Doug's procedure: Select the master folder, right click or ctrl+click to get this...  Navigate to the actual folder and select it  Accept the 'Merge' option.  |
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Doug
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This works perfectly provided your master folder was already visible in lightroom before the catalogue became corrupted I recommend that anyone using lightroom should right click on one of their most deeply nested folders and add the parent folder, repeating if necessary with that folder and each folder above it in the hierarchy until they get to the top level image folder. At least then it becomes a lot clearer where everything is located on your hard drive In the event of any issues. (As dictated to Siri , Yes including the smiley face) |
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Robert
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WOW! Been playing with Dictation too, not managed smilies yet though... It's quite remarkable. And accurate. |
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Ric
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I was going to start this as a seperate topic, except it's similiare to Robert's issue. I have a few pictures that say the same thing that Robert is showing. It says that the file is off line or missing. I don't understand how it can be missing and still have a picture. Most of my pictures are there in the files so when I right click on the picture file, the box does not ask to find the missing folder. Not exactly sure how I'm going to find this file in the midst of a lot of folders and files. Most are not that important, a couple are. I am trying to organize my files and am making good progress. By the way, I'm using a Windows pc. Thanks, Ric |
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Robert
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OK Rick, Rich may have his thoughts on this but here are mine. The images you see in Lightroom are the Lr rendered images which are stored in the LrCat (Lightroom Catalogue) They are a very quick way to display the images while you browse the catalogue but they are NOT the actual images stored on your HD. It would be far to slow for Lr to dig them out, process and render them while you are browsing the Library. What Lr is complaining about is the link between Lightroom and the ACTUAL images is broken. I know nothing of PC file structures (which is why I use a Mac!) but I do know there is a folder called 'My Pictures' or something like that. ALL of your photograph files should be in sub folders in that folder and NOWHERE else (Unless they are in a 'My Pictures' folder on an external drive). In my system I have a similar folder, 'Pictures'. ALL of my general images are held in that folder. If you look at the screenshots above you can see the folder structure Pictures> Year 1> Folders> Shoot 1> images Shoot 2> Images Shoot 3> images Etc. Etc. Year 2> Folders> Shoot 1> images Shoot 2> Images Shoot 3> images Etc. Etc. Year 3> And so on... All my shoot folders are dated "yy-mm-dd Brief description". It took me a while and a lot of frustration before I devised this simple but effective hierarchy which works very well for me. I have a separate HD for my botanical images with it's own LrCat. In that I have something that looks like this... Botanical Images> Kew Botanic Gardens 1> Images Oxford Botanic Gardens 1> Images Ness Gardens 1> Images Kew Botanic Gardens 2> Images And so on... You need to create a similar type of system which you can use to save your images into so you can find them and perhaps even more importantly, so Lightroom can find them too. The structure is up to you but it needs to have structure and order or it will quickly become a mess as you add more images over time. You don't have to go by years you could go by subject, Football, Landscapes, Bears, Motorsport, etc. The problem arrises then if you mix subjects on one shoot... But it's up to you. Once you have done that, create a new catalogue, point Lr at the folder "My Pictures' and go have a beer, or two! Then discard the old LrCat file. Use the new one. |
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richw
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There are two ways this problem can happen. The first is if the drive on which the pictures are kept is 'Offline' i.e. it's an external hard drive or network attached. If you reconnect the drive and then come out of the image you are in look at something else, go back and all should be well. The second way this problem might occur is if you have moved images or changed folder structures using something other than Lightroom. You should avoid doing this, but if you have not all is lost as long as you can find the image on your hard drive. Doing this the locate trick will re-map that image and any others where the same path issue exists. If you right click on an image there is an option that states 'Show in Explorer' that shows you where the image was meant to be and is a good place to start. You can use the windows search for file function and put in the file name (which you can see in Lightroom). Most times find one and the rest will sort themselves out unless you have done a major restructure outside of Lightroom. If you want to move images around best way is drag and drop in the Lightroom File structure, this will keep everything mapped. |
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Ric
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Robert and Rich, Thank you for the explanation. I get it. I do have an external hard drive. I will see if that file is in there. Thanks again, Ric |
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Bob Bowen
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LR4 brilliant for imaging processing but tortuous for filing IMHO. Now if you could switch off the catalogue bit and have the ease of access of Photomechanic to a folder then good to me |
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Bob Bowen
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Oop's sorry for the triple post but nothing seemed to happen after the first click. |
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Robert
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Sorted Bob! I like the DAM aspect, although PhotoMechanic may be better, I don't know. I can find a particular image pretty quickly if I need to and that's all I want. I find the keywording reasonable although I think it could be improved. Some sort of algorithm to help it learn which keywords go together and which don't from history shouldn't be too difficult. There is a pattern there, it's just extracting the core data then making use of it. If I have selected for example 'lake' and 'boat' for the last 50 images it should be able to cope with 'reflections' or 'sail' on a couple of images without completely loosing the plot. (Which it does.) It should be capable of building a list of associated keywords behind the scenes, which it should make available once a pattern develops. Although I do find it interesting to analyse which lenses I use and break down by camera etc. |
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Doug
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Robert wrote:OK When in the Finder (or Windows Explorer) you can keep images wherever you like (even multiple internal, external and network drives if you like) but when it comes to importing photos it's best to organize by event and/or date - nothing else (unless you like life to be complicated) As Robert says a problem arises when you try and organize by file type, ie. what happens if you have a beautiful landscape photo which includes a racetrack or similar? Do you put the photo into both folders? What happens when you edit one and then later find the unedited version from the other folder and spend time and energy recreating a similar copy. Mac and PC file systems just don't support photographers needs in this scenario and this is why programs like Lightroom can be so helpful since it is very easy to have a photo in any number of different albums which act very much like folders without the need for duplicates I would recommend that anyone unfamiliar with managing their photos just 'walk the corridors' to familiarize themselves with what is possible Try copying a couple of thousand assorted images to an external drive where you don't care if they are lost, corrupted or disorganised Create a new empty catalog then experiment with importing using 'add' then delete the catalog and repeat using 'move, Delete some images using remove then reimport by right clicking on the folder and using 'synchronize' Select some images and create an album choosing 'selected images' 'with virtual copies' repeat without selecting virtual copies Move images from 'library' to an album, repeat with the same images and see how the album doesn't add them twice Create multiple albums and note how the albums grow and how the library grows (or doesn't) Delete images from 'library' and see how you are warned and that they disappear from all albums, and note what happens in the finder when you choose 'remove' versus 'delete' (right click an image and choose 'show in finder' so the folder is open and you can check the file count as images are deleted) Add keywords in grid mode to groups of images then create smart albums that reference those keywords Note how smart albums automatically grow as these keywords are added to new images Note functions like 'show in library', 'show in album' Experiment with renaming folders in the left side column when in grid mode, add parent folders, add new folders - notice how new folders actually appear in the finder immediately and that deleting empty folders makes them disappear from the finder while deleting folders with images (and even other types of file which are not in Lightroom) does not delete the folder Experiment with roundtripping into photoshop and watch where the images can go Try exporting both with and without add to library Once you play this all becomes quite obvious and it's easy to learn because there is no fear of losing any images due to the fact that these are all worthless copies anyway Lightroom has it's flaws (no ability to sort by image size, no ability to search for 'missing' images, tendency to get bogged down with moots of images on slower drives etc), but it is far more powerful than most seem to believe and I think it is the best choice for those who would struggle to learn the concepts of a full and complete DAM solution |
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| A small amount of member data is captured and held in an attempt to reduce spammers and to manage users. This site also uses cookies to ensure ease of use. In order to comply with new DPR regulations you are required to agree/disagree with this process. If you do not agree then please email the Admins using info@nikondsl.uk Thank you. |