I did some dumb things when changing hard drives and have the dreaded ? beside the missing files. I go through the process of finding the files in the hd and try to reimport them. I then get the message that they allready exist so I click show in Library(Only option) it shows the photo but images are still not editable because they are still missing. This is going around in circles. Do I delete all of the photos and start over reimporting?

In library module, click on the "?" to tell LR where is that photo. If you check the "find nearby photos" checkbox you'll have to do it once per folder (once per photo otherwise).

After clicking the ? all I can select is "find missing folder" which is what is taking me around the loop. I select the folder ,it asks if I want to import,I say yes,it then gives me the message that they are already in Lightroom. Do you want to show them in Library,yes. I open an image in develop and have the missing file message again. Round and round I go.

Dan,

Your issue is a bit different from the one I was discussing with Bud here. In my case I could actually edit the file in LR, but it still had the "?."

I believe there is some sort of bug. I re-imported the file. Of course if you do that you have to redo all the edits, which hopefully will not be too much of a pain. I also posted the question in Adobe's LR forum, but got no solution there either.

I'm curious: What type of files are they?

Dave

I had a similar problem,lightroom kept repeatedly losing images from one particular folder over and over again.
I had to rename all the images a different name with bridge and re import them again

Boy, renaming would be a serious pain. What about deleting the photos from the catalog, optimizing the catalog, then re-importing under the same name?

Dave

if they are in one folder then a simple batch rename with bridge takes seconds.

Yes, renaming itself is simple, but I think there are other associated issues, like backing up all new files, what to archive, what will the new names be (most people have a strict naming structure), etc.

Dave

Dave,

If you are running a centralized database of the image adjustments, then yes, you can make adjustments even when the images are not present. If you use an .xmp workflow then you cannot make adjustments unless the images are linked to LR correctly.

I don't know why you would have issues. Try this, right click on a missing file's thumbnail, click find folder in library, then right click on the folder name (in library) and click find missing folder and reconnect the folder location on your system. That's all that is needed. If you are experiencing issues beyond that, then optimize your catalog, perhaps go to an .xmp workflow (which I think is best).

I teach classes on LR, used it since beta and your issue is not common so something else is askew. Mac or PC?

John,

Thank you for the reply. Actually, my issue was only one image discussed in the other thread I linked to above. I solved that by simply removing the image, going back to my original and re-importing that. In this thread I was trying to give Dan, the original poster, some more info. Unfortunately I don't think I've helped him much! Dan appeared to have a more serious problem.

My issue was specific to one image among many on a similar drive/folder. The "?" was there but LR could find it and the folder was connected. It was strange... [mac OS 10 BTW]

But regardless, you make a statement below that is a bit above me:


The image I has problems with was a jpeg converted to dng. My typical workflow involves LR catalog on my mac (macbook pro - that's all I got right now), with images stored on external LaCie drives. Those are backed up to a few network drives. The images are almost all DNG's, with a few psd's or jpegs mixed in. I'm not sure if this is a "centralized database of image adjustments" or not. I'm guessing not, since I thought the dng's use xmp files, but they are 'bucketed' together in the overall dng package. I have LR set up not to auto write to the xmp, but I save them all out (cmd-S) before I exit.

Dave

With your DNG workflow, you should be fine. The DNGs will encapsulate LR adjustments. Camera raws (other than DNG) are the primary files in wanting to work in an .xmp workflow so the xmp's can always travel with files as needed. Jpegs, PSDs and Tiffs will also store LR adjustments in the their metadata if the LR preference is set that way.

Sorry if I got the user issues crossed between you and the OP.