Lightroom Problems, HELP!

[brittanyallyn]

I just spent the past couple hours cleaning out and organizing my desktop and external hard drive to prepare for the upcoming year of work. I was working really slow, and writing things down to ensure that I didn't miss any steps and didn't miss a single beat. {I had many many hiccups this year with lost images and such, and have been seriously burned by moving too quickly.}

I just went into Lightroom to do some editing, and a question mark is popping up on the entire folder and all of the images. {i wanted to scream.} I just emptied my trash and I think that particular folder may have accidentally gotten thrown into a different one which ultimately ended up in the trash. Just ran my recovery programs with no luck. It's also not in my backup folder.

If the thumbnails are showing up, is there a way to retrieve them even if the quality is less than ideal?

I don't know why, but I have been struggling immensely with lost images since I started using Lightroom. I see how it's made my workflow go so much smoother in regards to editing, but I have never lost images until I started using this program. Can someone please shed some light on this for me? Is anyone in the Chicago area who would be willing to take me under the wing and show me the ropes of this program before my busy kicks back up in March? I am desperate. frustrated. and feeling a little hopeless!


-the lightroom newb.

 

[KmH]

You probably didn't use Lightroom's Library module to do your clean up and you changed the path in memory to the images.

Lightroom does not know where the images are now.

To locate a missing file, click on the question mark icon, and the following dialog will appear.

If you have renamed the files outside of Lightroom, each file will need linking individually.
If Lightroom appears slow to re-link related photos, restart Lightroom to force a search for ?le locations.
A few preventative measures, to avoid missing files in future:

1. Rename any files before importing into Lightroom, or use Lightroom to rename them.
2. Set Lightroom’s folder list to show the full folder hierarchy to a single root level folder. If all of the files are moved from their expected locations, they can easily be updated using the ‘Find Missing Folder…’ command in the top level folder right-click menu, or by using the ‘Update Folder Location…’ command even if they’re not yet marked as missing.
3. Move any files or folders within Lightroom’s own interface, simply by dragging and dropping around the folders panel. Folders can only be moved one at a time.

If you don't have it already, I highly recommend this Lightroom reference book (page 607 for your issue) - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

 

[Mully]

Your files are safe ...You must have moved the files from where LR knew they were..... click on the ? and show LR where the files are and it will recover. You can not move files just because you want to. I keep all LR files in one hard drive e.g.