Oops, might've just made Lightroom 4 very mad....

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I've been doing some digital house cleaning lately. And, well... I cheated on Lightroom.

I ran a duplicate image finder to get rid of some clones hogging up hard drive space. I deleted some duplicates. Some of those duplicates were the file Lightroom referenced. Lightroom doesn't like it when you move files around behind it's back.

Anyway, long story short: The files all still exist on the drive... They are just buried in a mess of sub-directories. And Lightroom doesn't know where 10,000 of them are.

FML.

Thoughts on how to automate lining them back up? Or am I stuck locating one file at a time?

On a system level, should I get rid of the tangled mess of all the folders and sub-folders, basically just flatten things out into a few major folders with a ton of files?

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Start a new catalog, ADD everything you wish. Make sure it is ADD, not copy. If you copy, it will copy new files to a new folder.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Start a new catalog, ADD everything you wish. Make sure it is ADD, not copy. If you copy, it will copy new files to a new folder.

Thanks, read this somewhere else as well.

After that, then what? How do I re-integrate back into the primary catalog?

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Just ditch the old catalog. You have done too much damage. As long as the sidecar files are still there, you should still have all of the adjustment, title, caption, copyright etc. It will be as good as before.

 

[JClishe]

I recommend a slightly different approach. Fix your 'tangled mess of folders and sub-folders' first, outside of Lightroom. Create a folder hierarchy on disk that is consistent and will scale. My recommendation is to keep it simple and use as few subfolders as possible, let Lightroom do the organization that it was designed to do....keywords, ratings, collections, smart collections, etc. I have top level folders for the year and subfolders for the month. For example 2013\2013-04. So this year I will create a grand total of 12 folders that will probably end up containing around 15,000 images. Well 13 folders if you include the top level 2013 folder. That's it.

Then create a new catalog and add your new folder hierarchy to it.

 

[The_Traveler]

Undelete files?

 

[Derrel]

You could probably re-create the catalog and have it render all the file previews in 2,3 days' time. I did something similar and was mightily twerked at the way LR behaves in this regard.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I recommend a slightly different approach. Fix your 'tangled mess of folders and sub-folders' first, outside of Lightroom. Create a folder hierarchy on disk that is consistent and will scale. My recommendation is to keep it simple and use as few subfolders as possible, let Lightroom do the organization that it was designed to do....keywords, ratings, collections, smart collections, etc. I have top level folders for the year and subfolders for the month. For example 2013\2013-04. So this year I will create a grand total of 12 folders that will probably end up containing around 15,000 images. Well 13 folders if you include the top level 2013 folder. That's it.

Then create a new catalog and add your new folder hierarchy to it.

Thanks. I'd like to keep everything in one catalog if at all possible but I've really gone and screwed the pooch.

Undelete files?

I think this is still a possibility. I did "shift delete" the files. But won't solve my problem of 200gb of amassed duplicates!

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

You could probably re-create the catalog and have it render all the file previews in 2,3 days' time. I did something similar and was mightily twerked at the way LR behaves in this regard.

That's an idea! But I lose all keywords and ratings that way I thought?

 

[David444]

Unless I'm missing something, just do an 'import photos' and direct Lightroom to the disk and folders where the missing photos are stored. Lightroom will locate the files and install them in your current catalog.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Unless I'm missing something, just do an 'import photos' and direct Lightroom to the disk and folders where the missing photos are stored. Lightroom will locate the files and install them in your current catalog.

Since these photos already exist in the catalog, if I select "don't import selected duplicates" the number dwindles down from 50,000 to < 1,000.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

You guys ready for a fun adventure?!?!?

Here's the play by play:

I'll call it:

the Ultimate User Guide to reconstructing your screwed up Lightroom Catalog, v 1.0!!!

1. Missing photos 11,419. That's a lotta photos! This should be fun and not time-consuming at all! Click the question mark:

2. Yes I would like to Locate it!!! Thanks for asking, LR!

3. At this point I recommend some music and a cool beer (searching drive for the file)

4. Alrighty, maties, we've found the file! And a handful of other files named the same thing! Unique file names are for PANSIES AND SISSIES!

Now the EASY BREEZY part. Find the file path!

5. Back to Lightroom for more fun-filled tasks!

6. Simply navigate through hundreds of folders and thousands of files to manually select your file! It couldn't be easier! Make sure you have "Find Nearby Missing Photos" checked!

114

7. Select your file!!! Adrenaline Rush, AMIRITE?

8. Started with 11,419 photographs. Now only 11,265!!!! That's 154 files. You're probably feeling like a really swell guy. Good for you, guy.

 

[The_Traveler]

Hell, if the files are still there and the folder structure is the same in LR as in the disk, just navigate to the top folder and that should work.