I made a mess of my Lightroom catalog!!

[Leftyplayer]

My Lightroom 3 catalog is a huge mess. I'm not sure that I can even recount how it happened (which is my first hint that I should've read a tutorial or two before jumping in ). But, alas, it is done. My biggest mistakes 1) moving photos and folders around OUTSIDE of Lightroom, 2) creating multiple catalogs, 3) going back and forth between Desktop and Laptop until I lost track of what's what.

Soooooo .....

1. How do I start over? There really is no choice but to do that (don't worry, I created a smart collection of photos with adjustments and then exported those images to a safe location, so I do have (most) of my photo edits). There are over 3100 missing photos from the catalogue from all that moving around, and I've driven myself crazy for days trying to manually find them ... some are even already in there, but associated with a different file (or some other sort of jargon like that). In any case, I'm getting all sorts of errors and problems. Can I can erase all catalogs and start over? Do I do that from inside Lightroom, or do I erase the catalog file on my drive? To really start over, do I uninstall and re-install the program? Most importantly, I assume that killing lightroom won't actually affect the original image files in my hard-drive folders?

2. I had bought Kelby's lightroom book and, while it should seem simple enough that I would've read it first, I just don't have much time to read (well, not as quickly as I have the time to photograph, import, develop and make a mess). I WILL be picking the book up my bookshelf now ... but is there a video that I can watch to take me through the basics quickly (focus/emphasis on organization is key! lol). I know about Lynda.com, but I hate their stuff. I've looked through youtube as well as other web videos, but that's too haphazard, meaning it's good if you have a very specific step you want to accomplish, but not as an overall, kindergarten-level, step by step tutorial kind of thing.

Thank you for any help you can offer. And, if you must beat me upside the head a few times, throw me a bone in the form of advice as well :mrgreen:

 

[Josh66]

With LR, you have to do all your moving files around before you import. If you move something, you can tell it where you moved it to - but for an entire catalog, it may be faster to just start over.

Just delete the catalog (or clear it out) and import everything again (after you have it where you want it).

The catalog file is on your hard drive somewhere (probably in 'my pictures/adobe/lightroom', unless you put it somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure you can delete it from within LR.

 

[reedshots]

Uninstalling LR will not remove the catalog, remove the image folders from within LR on the rt panel, (rt click) then search your hard drive for the catalog and delete, then re-import your images. As long as you moved the adjustment file with the image (same HD folder) LR will re-import that information as well, if not you will just have the un-edited image. You can do a total HD search/import and get every image file on your drive.

 

[KmH]

2. I had bought Kelby's lightroom book

I would say you bought the wrong book for your issue.

I would recommend this book: The DAM Book - Digital Asset Management: how to file, find, protect, and re-use your photos. The best solutions can be found in The DAM Book, the best selling guide to managing digital images efficiently and effectively.