LR4 moving folders between drives.
It's difficult to know how to phrase this question on Google but my pictures folder in C drive is almost full (it eventually happens) and I want to move all those pics to a separate desktop hard drive. I have 3 desktop drives, one is a new one for this job but I can't figure out how to move all these pics to it.
Maybe not the smartest way but it works
Create a master folder on your new disk in explorer, then put a picture in it and import the picture to lightroom. When you then got that folder into lightrooms catalogsystem its easy to move other folders between different drives in Lightroom
/Kjell
Create a master folder on your new disk in explorer, then put a picture in it and import the picture to lightroom. When you then got that folder into lightrooms catalogsystem its easy to move other folders between different drives in Lightroom
/Kjell
Good lateral thinking my friend. I'll have a go at that later this evening. Thank you
The simplest way I think is to move them all with Windows explorer - drag and drop whole directories in one go, so for example if all your photos are in a master directory called 'My photos' with multiple levels of subdirectory, just click and drag 'My folders' so everything is moved in one operation.
Next time you open LR, you will be able to see the thumbnails but the images will all have an exclamation mark topright showng they have disappeared from where LR thinks they are. Also, in the pane to the left the directory names will have a question mark against them.
Right Click on the questionmark next to the top level directory and clink on 'Find Missing Directory' - click on the top level folder name in its new location and press 'OK' LR will do the rest.
Next time you open LR, you will be able to see the thumbnails but the images will all have an exclamation mark topright showng they have disappeared from where LR thinks they are. Also, in the pane to the left the directory names will have a question mark against them.
Right Click on the questionmark next to the top level directory and clink on 'Find Missing Directory' - click on the top level folder name in its new location and press 'OK' LR will do the rest.
If you consider the pictures to be valuable, I'd first do a "copy" to the new drive in Windows Explorer. Then when you've checked that they arrived safely and uncorrupted, you can delete the source file.
One good friend lost an important shoot during a "move" and I suspect it was a case of finger trouble. Ever since, I've avoided using "move" if the file is unique or I don't want to risk loss.
One good friend lost an important shoot during a "move" and I suspect it was a case of finger trouble. Ever since, I've avoided using "move" if the file is unique or I don't want to risk loss.
People are mentioning Lightroom.
Are the pictures already catalogued using Lightroom?
If they are then use Lightroom to move them, it updates the catalog at the same time so stops any exclamation marks.
If the destination drive or parent folder isn't showing in Lightroom you can make it appear.
Use Lightroom to make backups too using export.
Are the pictures already catalogued using Lightroom?
If they are then use Lightroom to move them, it updates the catalog at the same time so stops any exclamation marks.
If the destination drive or parent folder isn't showing in Lightroom you can make it appear.
Use Lightroom to make backups too using export.
You can use LR but IME LR is slower to transfer the files than Explorer - plus you can do what william suggests and copy first then delete once you know the copying is secure.
Also, some people have reported that moving mass files with LR can be a tad unreliable (and as I have only done it with small numbers of files, I can't confirm either way).
Also, some people have reported that moving mass files with LR can be a tad unreliable (and as I have only done it with small numbers of files, I can't confirm either way).
I think Lightroom tells explorer to move them but keeps track of the changes which might make it slightly slower, but saves the relinking later.
One of the official Lightroom videos I watched, think it's the one with woman with the glasses, says you should always use LR as there is far more chance of corruption moving them "behind Lightroom's back".
After having a clearout I used LR to move all my 2001 to 2013 files from my D drive to C as that's where my OneDrive folder is (which means it auto backs up to cloud). So LR moved 38,000 odd images - many dng, some tiffs, some psds and many crw and many cr2 (plus their xmp files) without a hitch.
One of the official Lightroom videos I watched, think it's the one with woman with the glasses, says you should always use LR as there is far more chance of corruption moving them "behind Lightroom's back".
After having a clearout I used LR to move all my 2001 to 2013 files from my D drive to C as that's where my OneDrive folder is (which means it auto backs up to cloud). So LR moved 38,000 odd images - many dng, some tiffs, some psds and many crw and many cr2 (plus their xmp files) without a hitch.
Hi Chris_L
Before I dip in to all this I fancy taking a look at the woman in glasses, where might I find her?
Before I dip in to all this I fancy taking a look at the woman in glasses, where might I find her?
Many thanx guys, Chris, this is Adobe TV is great.
They do it to my liking. I like how they get bang into the subject without loads of intro fluff, how succinctly the information is conveyed and how easy it is to identify with the problems before seeing the solutions demonstrated. You come to understand why things are where they are and why they work the way they do.
