Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad my tutorial helped. As you bring those 13,000 photos in be sure to add lots of metadata. Metadata is the backbone of a well-organized photo storage system.

David

I don’t have an answer for you. I like Scott’s questions but am inclined to think that the problem is in the hardware. Are you are using a USB drive connection to this external hard drive? Does this drive have a robust cooling system? Again, I have no answers for you but I know that Lightroom moves files better via eSATA, or Firewire 800 than via USB. I have also seen lots of problems with external hard drives that lack adequate ventilation or a sizable cooling fan. Hope this helps.

David

That definitely sounds like a frustrating issue. If it occurs as you described, rather randomly and without provocation, it may be difficult to diagnose in this forum. A couple of quick questions:

1. Do the entire drives seem to loose their locations, or just specific folders within those drives?
2. What platform/operating system are you using?

On Windows platforms, the drive letters (D:, E:, etc) for external drives can change when they are unmounted and remounted. This causes Lightroom to loose track of drive, folder, and image locations. Could this be what’s happening in your case?

-Scott

I am am having a rather frustrating problem with LR2.

I have my images on an external drive. LR often looses track of the mappings to the folders, but does it arbitrarily in terms of which folders are no longer mapped. Also, in a seemingly healthy folder, i.e. no question marks, when I create a subfolder, it has a question mark and does not allow me to place anything within it.

(Note that I have not changed anything in the finder or external to LR since I know that will affect the mappings.)

Also, when I try to remap a folder (point to them with the locate feature), LR sometimes does not acknowledge it.

Note that I have reinstalled LR on the same system, and I have tried it on another system. I encounter the same issues regardless. Actually, I am surprised that I do not see many forums with these issues in them.

Do you know what is going on with regard to those issues? If you could help, I would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks, Hanna

You can right-click on folders on that unused volume within Lightroom and choose “Remove” to remove them from view. Once all the folders on that volume are gone, the volume itself will disappear.

-Scott

Just wondering if there is a way in lightroom to delete old volumes within lightroom that you no longer use? I have looked everywhere with no luck!

Cheers
Rob

I swear I wrote a response for you yesterday but it seems to have vanished. Apologies. I can think of three reasons why you might be getting this message. The first thing that might stop Lightroom from renaming a folder is if a folder with that same exact name already exists in the same place. Computers cannot store two files or folders with identical names in the same directory so in this case Lightroom might be doing you a favor. The second possibility is that your folders are locked or write-protected. You can find this out at the operating system level with a right-click and the “Properties” or “Get Info” commands. The third possibility is that there is a Lightroom bug preventing this activity. See http://www.lightroomforums.net/index.php?topic=2798.0 for more details.

In this case, you could rename the folders at the operating system level and then reconnect them with Lightroom using a right-click and the “Locate Missing Folder” option but I probably wouldn’t bother. Folder names are far less powerful and useful than adding meaningful metadata to each image. Likewise, collections are a far easier to rename and to use then folders.

–
David

Then use that same hard drive with same images and connect that hard drive, separate from the laptop (ie- no network) and continue to work on those images on Macpro desktop.

Also maybe vis versa where I would do work on images as I travel that have been imported via the desktop.

Also thinking long run where I would have many external hard drives (backups, archives, etc).

How do I keep track of all that and not confuse the catalog?

Will look at your answers now as well.

Thanks,
Jim

What you are asking is simple enough but I don’t think you are going to like my answers. To put a copy of your files onto a CD or DVD do the following:

1. In Lightroom make a new collection.
2. Add all of these files into the collection.
3. Once everything has been added select them all and then hit the export button.
4. Select the “Burn Full Sized JPEGs” Lightroom Preset but before you hit export change a: the export location folder to the choice that says “Temporary Folder” and b: the file format to “ORIGINAL.” This second step is critical so that your files that get put on the disk retain their current file format.
5. Once the disk is burned label it carefully and put it away.
6. Now in Lightroom make sure that every file in your collection is selected and then hit the show “All Photographs” button in the Catalog Panel or at the top of the Film Strip.
7. Press the Delete key. When the delete dialog pops up select the “Delete From Disk” option.
8. Delete the now empty collection.

If you follow these steps your files will be burned to an optical disk and then removed both from your Lightroom index and from your hard drive once you empty your trashcan / recycle bin. So far so good….

The part that you are not going to like though is that Lightroom has no ability to track or record information about files that have been removed or burned to disk. These files exist outside of its index so it cannot help you find them later. Other programs like Microsoft Expressions have more options here but sadly this is one of Lightroom’s limits.

best of luck,

David

I am not sure that I understand your question. Do you have two separate Lightroom catalogs– one on the G4 and one on the MacPro– or do you have a single catalog that you would like to use with both computers but that is stored on the external disk?

If the later, one catalog on an external that you want to use with both computers, is the question then I would ask how is the drive formatted? In this case these articles might help. See:

http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/01/formatting-an-external-hard-drive/

http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/05/my-photo-storage-system-two-external-hard-drives/

If, on the other hand, you have separate catalogs on each computer then you need to import the files from the external disk into the Lightroom catalog on the MacPro. I am guessing that the MacBook index has no idea that you have another drive nor does it contain references for any of the files (photographs) that live there. If you need to import these files into the MacPro’s index use the “add photos to catalog without moving” option and be sure not to rename them. If you move them or rename them then the catalog references on the other computer will be all messed up.

I wish that I could give you a clearer answer but there are just too many options. What I can give is definitive advice. Lightroom is not a network program. Since it cannot run across a network, two computers cannot share a single Lightroom catalog–a single library of photographs–unless that index lives on an external drive. Again see this post for more advice:

http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/05/my-photo-storage-system-two-external-hard-drives/

best of luck,

David

In LR, I have original files that I have developed. Now, I’d like to burn the originals onto CD because they are taking up much space and remove them entirely from my computer. (I don’t want to keep them on an external drive taking up space there because I already have what I need – the developed images and photoshopped finals.)

1) How do I do this without confusing LR?
2) If I do this, would the originals be deleted from the catalog? If so, is there a way to “track” their location onto the CDs?
3) Anything else I should know?

Thanks, das

Next time that the backup reminder pops up slow down. The reminder asks you every time where to place the backup file. All you need to do is guide it over to your external drive! Thanks for the excellent question and for taking the time to make backups. Please don’t forget though that the Lightroom 2 backup utility only protects your catalog and does nothing to protect your precious photographs.

For a more complete backup strategy please check out this post:

http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/05/my-photo-storage-system-two-external-hard-drives/

–
David

I have moved all of my Lightroom catalogs and photos to an external drive, using the direction in your tutorials. Everything has worked slick so far, but I have one question: When I went to run my once-a-week back-up, Lightroom created a new folder on my hard drive and used that to store my new back-up. How do I change the location for my future back-ups?

Jen

There is no way to copy folders from one location to another within Lightroom but you could easily do this using your Operating System and then you could associate the new files with their placeholders in your existing Lightroom database.

If you choose to go this route I think that you need to follow all of these steps:

0. BACK EVERYTHING UP. BE SURE YOU MAKE A SECOND COPY OF YOUR LIGHTROOM CATALOG AND ALL OF YOUR IMAGES.
1. Before you move anything launch Lightroom select all of your images and save your metadata down to the file level. In the Library Mode with all filters turned off go Edit > Select All and then Metadata > Save Metadata to File.
2. One everything has been saved go to the folders panel and right click on one of your folders. Click the “Add Parent Folder” button. We want Lightroom to show the name of your top-level image storage folder. For most Lightroom users this will be the “Pictures” or “My Pictures” folder.
3. Quit Lightroom.
4. Copy this entire folder to your external hard drive.
5. Restart Lightroom.
6. Right click on your top-level parent folder and then click the “Update Folder Location” button. Select the copy of your parent folder on the external hard drive. Lightroom will update its database so that all of the file path references now lead to this folder and its sub-folders on the external.
7. If I were you I would then delete all of the images in your internal top-level photo storage folder so that you get the drive space back and so there is no confusion.

Here’s the thing. This is a somewhat complicated process and in the end it doesn’t achieve anything that you couldn’t have accomplished by just moving the files from disk to disk from within Lightroom. It’s arguably safer since the files are copied rather than moved but for its complexity I don’t see how its anymore efficient.

best of luck,

David

Thanks!

now that i got my new bigger external-drive, i am ready to put together all my photos from internal-drive and 1 external-drive into a single-external-drive..

my question now is:

instead of moving the foldersout from the source(internal , external), can i just just them using Lightroom into the new external-drive?

thanks!

Are the images contained in “Montreal’s” subfolders in Lightrooom? In other words, has Lightroom indexed them, or is it just showing you any loose images that may be floating around in “Montreal” (but not in its subfolders)?

If none of Montreal’s subfolders are indexed then you could move them using Explorer with no errors in Lightroom.

Either way, though, you might just want to move those outside of Lightroom (with Explorer) and then tell Lightroom the new location(s) of the folders/files.

-Scott

However, I got sloppy and started creating various catalogs on my internal drive. I decided to combine all of them, so I created a “master” catalog on my internal and then began importing (moving) image files into the new catalog and deleting the various old catalogs.

I got sloppy (again!) doing this, and accidentally imported a bunch of unrelated images in my “Montreal” subfolder. When I look at the folder structure in Explorer, I see the various subfolders under the Montreal folder, but Lightroom doesn’t show Montreal as having any subfolders. Can I move the subfolders out of Montreal with Lightroom? I can’t see how, unless I just move them with Explorer and tell Lightroom where to find them afterwords.

Cheers,

Will

Best wishes,

David

Thanks for the positive feedback. I sure appreciate it. Working with files and a catalog on an external drive might slow things down for you but then again it might not. Performance here depends on two things– the external hard drive’s rotational speed and the type of port that you use to connect it to your computer.

Hard drives, both internal and external, are spinning magnetic disks. The higher the rotational speed (rpm) the faster data can be read / written to the platter. Likewise, using a slow drive connection can create a performance lag even with hard drives that spin at a super fast speeds. Basically, the connector creates a bottleneck and slows things down.

My advice is to get the fastest external hard drive that you can afford and no matter what you pick to connect it via your computers fastest port. For Mac users the fastest port is usual the Firewire 800 option. For PC users eSATA is the fastest common port, followed by Firewire 800, then Firewire 400. USB 2.0 is slower than any of these other options but still a world faster than USB 1.0.

For more information please read this post on our recommended external hard drives.

Thanks again and good luck,

David

Well that’s enough for the flowers, now the question.

I’m about to use an external hard drive to store my catalogs (sorry… I have to say that I have 2 catalogs… sorry, sorry, sorry!) and my picture folders but I have a question : will it going to slow down LR?

Thank you for your answer!

If I might just chime in for you too Billy, I strongly suggest sticking to just one catalog. That Lightroom allows for multiple catalogs is a nice feature but one that gets a lot of photographers into trouble. Like Scott, I am a big believer that having a SINGLE database, meaning a single catalog, is absolutely the most efficient and least complicated way to go.

If you only have one catalog, and if that catalog indexes all of your photos regardless of file format, subject matter, or date created then it is easy to find all of the photos that you have about a single topic in a single search. I love this when I want to put together a portfolio that shows off all my best work, a web gallery which shows off all the things that I do, or a magazine submission that features both my digital images and my scans.

best of luck,

David

–David

The answer is partially yes. Features like “add parent folder,” are introduced in Lightroom v.2. That said you can still move folders by dragging and dropping one inside of the other.

While Lightroom v.1 doesn’t display the whole folder hierarchy and the name of the hard drive you can still figure out the folder tree by right clicking on a folder’s name in the right hand panel and selecting “show in finder”(Mac) or “show in explorer” (PC.) All in all I would call this a minor inconvenience for you but not a serious obstacle.

–David

@Billy: I’m sure David will chime in, but I think he and I agree that a single Lightroom catalog is the best answer for most photographers. Lightroom 2 deals with large catalogs quite well. You’ll want to optimize your catalog once in a while and check out some of the Top Ten Lightroom Speed Tips, but you should be fine. Multiple catalogs, though they can be useful (if not required) for some photographers, add lots of complication to your life and are best avoided…in my opinion.

@Daniel: You’re absolutely correct. The ability to show different drives is a feature new to Lightroom 2. Lightroom 1 just shows the giant pile of folders you referred to. More information on the new features released with Lightroom 2 can be found here. Check out this article for information on upgrading from Lightroom 1 to Lightroom 2.

Enjoy,
Scott

i purchased a 1 TB external today and found this tutorial, thinking it would help. at about minute 10 in the video, i created the folder like you said, but on the right side menu for lightroom, it isnt showing the photos that are in HD and in external. it only shows “folders” and all the folders that have photos. any idea why its not displaying like you said ?
is it because i have version 1.3 ?

thanks in advance for your response.

daniel