I'm keeping my photos in a "sort of" date based structure, i.e 2013.04.28_EVENT NAME
Previously I'd just copy the photos from the camera card into the folder on the hard drive and then run a catalog "import in place" to get LR to find the files. I have now upgraded to a Canon 7D and thought I'd try the "Import from card" function after this weekend's shoot. I had too folders to import to, but in each case LR created sub folders under each of these as "2013" and "2013.4.28". I see from other posts that this may be a default folder structure that LR imposes. Is it possible to turn this function off and just import from the card directly into the folder of my choice.
Failing this I'm faced with the prospect of moving all the files back to the "root" sub-folder and then re-cataloging, or going back to my previous method of copy first (in explorer) and then cataloging.
I have been using Lightroom 3 for a number of years quite happily. My folders in Lightroom nicely reflected the folder names for their respective photo folders on my external drive. The top level folders were the years (e.g. 2012, 2013, etc) with subfolder names which reflected various photos taken that year e.g. Christmas 2013, Johnny's birthday, etc.
my last photo import my folder structure has changed in Lightroom and instead of showing the folder names it shows the number of photos in the folders. So instead of showing Christmas 2013 the folder name displays as 45 if there are 45 photos in the Christmas 2013 folder. The structure and hierarchy of the folders are still correct but the names have turned into numbers which is nonsensical and makes navigation between folders a headache.
This happened in LR3.7 and continued when catalog was imported into LR4.I import by date in these folders: year/month/date..So imports today would go into the 2012 folder - March subfolder - March 30 subfolder
But recently this happens: At the import screen, the correct sub-folder (March 30) is chosen on the right side with the correct number of images. But when the import is executed and I look at my folder structure on the left side in Library mode, the March 30 subfolder has appeared twice--once where it should be as as a subfolder to March, and once above March, and sometimes above all of 2012. The March 30 subfolder of March is listed as empty. The folder in the wrong place has the images. If I try to move the images to the proper folder, it says the images are already there! If I look at the system finder, indeed the image files are where they are supposed to be, and the phantom folder does not exist.
While managing my folder structure I inadvertently hit the button of the parent folder on my Folder Navigator box. As a result ALL of the time dated folders were deleted in the navigator tool. the Catalog file is still solid and the original source photos on my hard drive are in tact. No lost source data other than I no longer have a date structure for the folders to navigate.When I try to retrieve the folders and their accompanying structure by just clicking the button it doesn't allow me to retrieve, or reestablish, the links to the hard drive folder source files. I assume it is because they already are imported in my catalog so there is nothing to import?
I had folders on my internal drive that used the same structure as the populated folder structure on my external hard drive. I just went through and keyworded all the internal drive photos (which happened to be iphone photos), then, on the internal drive, I selected the 2013 folder, selected all the images in that folder and dragged them to the 2013 folder on my external drive. (all steps were done within LR5) Now, on the ext drive, when I choose 2013, I see all of the photos, but most of the subfolders now say 0. How can I get my images back into the folders they were already in?
I need to export a large number of photos as jpegs (about 5000). I also need to preserve the original folder structure to burn them onto DVD (as the folder names say what the photos are whereas the filenames are meaningless as generated by the camera)
How do I do this - I am using the trial version of LR4 - Doing it individually for each folder one at a time is getting tedious.
i have made changes to folder structure in lightroom 4. basically condensed folders, merged, deleted, etc. the only corresponding changes that i can see when i look at folders in My Pictures on my mac is that some of the folders are deleted. otherwise all the folders look the same as before i made my changes.
Is there a way to preserve the folder structure of a catalog when exporting JPGs of everything to a new location? I know there is an option to save the export into the same folder as the original file, but i am talking about a completely new location.
I just merged two catalogs from my work laptop and my home desktop.
One has this folder structure: YY/MM/DD
One has this: YY/YY-MM-DD
I'd like to get them together into one unified YY/MM/DD set of folders, preserving labels and collections from both catalogs.
If I delete images out of the catalog and re-import (to get LR to automagically move/create folders) I lose labels and collections.
If I export as catalog then import as catalog (to keep labels) the folder structure doesn't change.
Creating folders manually in the finder or Lightroom would take foooorever. Is there a way to get Lightroom to move everything into the structure I want, keeping labels, etc?
I have managed to have to re-load my Lightroom 5 catalog which unfortunately is a month out of date. During that month I changed my folder structure and whilst I can see the folders and images on my hard drive, my Lightroom 5 catalog is as it was a month ago without the new folder structure and with a lot of photos missing. Obviously the link between the images and Lightroom has been lost because I changed the folder structure without backing up the catalog. re-link my photos and album structure to Lightroom ?
I have +25k images organized in a folder structure today. This structure has served me well for many years, but I realize that it has it limits.Testing Lightroom made me decide to go for a new approach, but having some 'nightmares' of how to include my images from my old folder structure (25k images....)
I know I can keep my folders intact in Lightroom, and I have done this. But I also want to have some kind of description on EXIF/IPTC. Today this description is in the folder name, and only there.
How can I automatic include the images current folder name into the image file IPTC Caption or any other EXIF/IPTC field? I want to do this for all images and folders in one batch, and not select each folder manually.
The old images will be more in line with images I import from now on, and they will at least be universal searchable based on the old folder name.
Is there any software that's ready to go for this? Could it be a task for Automator?
I have access to both PC and MAC for this kind of batch operation.
The external hard drive I was storing four years worth of photos on crashed the other day, and I learned the hard way that they weren't on the backup drive like I thought they were. Luckily I was able to recover at least most of them using FileSalvage. Unfurtunately, my ~15,000 images are now in three folders based on file type (JPG, TIF, DNG/NEF), don't have their original file names, and aren't in any particular order.
Is there any way short of manually sifting through the files for me to rebuild the year/month/day chronological folder structure I was storing them in? I'm running Lightroom 4.0 on a OS X 10.8.4.
There is a folder on my hard drive that does not appear in the list of folders in the import dialog. I have tried expanding all the other folders around it (my photos are filed by date of capture) to see if it was somehow imported as a subfolder. It is simply not there. I can find and open it and access all the pictures in Photoshop Elements but not in Lightroom 4.
I guess this is new in LR 4, but when I import, I select the folder I want the images imported to, but LR creates subfolders for each day, not what I want.
For example, I just imported from my CF card all the images shot this past weekend and ended up with four subfolders (2012-05-24, 2012-05-25, 2012-05-26 and 2012-05-27).
What I wanted was for all the images to go into one folder.
when i do import pictures into LR 4.2 (Win8 Pro x64, i7 2600K, 16GB), i'm having the following problem:
In import dialog window i can create a new target folder without any problems, i can import the pictures to that folder without any error.
After import process is complete, in the left pane (Folders) the pictures are in the folder i created a step before, but the folder is listed topmost in the "root" directory, not at the right place matching the directory structure - the pictures are physically stored in the correct folder. (So i can't just drag'n drop the folder to it's right place, says it's already there...)
Before this behaviour came up (worked well before), i did two changes to my system:
1. Upgrading W7>W8
2. Splitting System and Data: OS and programs are on SSD, data is on a RAID 1 MatrixRAID
My users-folder is a hard linked directory junction from SSD to MatrixRAID (mklink)
So sometimes you want to just import everything on a card into LR in one go, and then move it around later (like when you shoot 2 jobs in day, but you need to have the files in separate folder).
At the moment I have to import into LR, come out of LR into explorer and move the files, then reassociate them in LR. I would be nice If you could just import an empty folder and them move the files within LR
if i import some pictures, i wanna created a subfolder to import all the picture there. Until now it has functioned very well. Since a few days, the pictures are imported only on the parent folder and the subfolder didn't get created.
I use the latestet LR 4.3 Version on my MAC 10.8.2.
A folder does not appear in my import menu. It is there on my hard drive and in my Photoshop Elements organizer. I want to import photos from the folder into Lightroom 4. What can I do?
Running Macbook Pro, OS 10.8.4.Trying to import abouth 65 images from a folder on my desktop. I can clearly see the folder and all the images in Finder, so I know they're there.
However, in LR4 the folder in question is ghosted (others are not), with no contents at all. Note: I have heard of a PNG/XMP image issue with this problem, so I converted all the images to .jpgs, but still have the same issue.
I am new to LightRoom and am about to import more than 600 folders.These folders on the disc have names that relate to the content, and I was wondering if it is possible to add the folder names as keywords during import?
So if a photo is in /Weddings/New York/Chris and Charlie Hansen it would be tagged with 'Weddings, New York, Chris and Charlie Hansen' as keywords during import.
Naturally I would like this to happen dynamically so when import hundreds of folders in one go, the keywords are assigned as relevant. should I do it manually after import (which is of course possible, but quite a bit of work).
I am new to Lightroom, and just purchased LR 4, upgraded to LR 4.1 and catolog my photo files. After this, I uploaded some photos from a SD card to a common folder (e.g. "Uploads 2012") on my hard drive using LR. This worked well. I then used Windows Explorer to drag/drop those files into their respective proper folders (there were many files on the card that were appropriate for different existing folders on my computer).
Here's where the problem starts. Prior to this uploading session, I had 297 files in a photo folder. Afterwards, I had 427 photos in this same folder. Using LR 4.1, I chose to "synchronize folder", then "import new photos" (it recognizes that there are new photos in this dialogue box). The program tells me this task is completed, but afterwards there remain 297 photos in the LR folder, and 427 photos in the location in Windows Explorer.
I am trying to sync my folders but Lightroom is not importing all of the photos in the folder. In one folder I have 675 photos (both jpg and CR2) and Lightroom is only importing 1. Even though you can look at the folder in another window and see all 675 (photo below). This is happening in several of my folders.
The folders that have problems have arrows that are greyed out versus solid grey arrows. If the info is needed:
- Mac Mini - OSX (Leopard) - Lightroom 3 - Photos were in Aperature prior to exporting out to import into Lightroom - Photos were either taken with Canon Rebel XS or Canon Powershot S3IS - I have tried optimizing my catalog. - I have tried remove the folder from Lightroom and re-importing. Still only recognizes 1 photo. - The do not import duplicates button is not clicked - I have confirmed that all filters are off.
How to import photos from my SLR to a folder on my desktop before I import them into Lightroom.
I use a card reader to import photos. I do not wish Lightroom to open first but to go straight to my desktop? I set up a folder on the desktop, but my camera does not recognize the folder .I do not have my Nikon's editing application installed on my computer.
The program keeps crashing/closing ( not freezing in screen) when I try to change the destination folder when importing.
i've not encountered tis problem before. It's just appeared since my upgrade to Lion.
It occurs regardless of the camera being used (or import from external HD). If I import to the currently selected folder everything works fine. And all editing functionality seems normal when working with images currenly in my LR library.
The crash occurs when selecting the destination folder and hitting "choose". That is to say it's before hitting the final "import button", and is definitely triggered by choosing the alternate folder.
I'm using import for several cameras and I would like to have possibility to change 'Date Format' of destination folder name in import dialog:
Yes, there are several formats, but it would be very useful to have possibility to define my own. E.g. instead of 2012-10-06 I would like to have 2012_10_06. Now I have to rename all my folders after import, which is not very comfortable. I think the best way to make this perfect would be possibility to use 'Filename Template Editor' (used for renaming files) for folder names too.
Just got lightroom 3 for Christmas. I cannot figure it out and it's a headache so far. How am I supposed to set up the auto import to the My Pictures folder when I am supposed to chose an empty folder for Lightroom to watch? I must be misunderstanding something because I imagine that everyone who buys Lightroom already has photos in their My Pictures folder.
