LR Library folders

divamum

LR3 is driving me nuts. It used to be that when I imported something, LR would then list that folder in the library module, on the left hand side.

Now when I import something, it's usually not there. Only sometimes it is. Except when it isn't. It's driving me NUTS because I can't figure out

1. How to make it display those imported folders consistently
2. Why it isn't displaying them.

It's making it a real pain in the proverbial when I want to switch between different shoots in the course of an afternoon...

Is it a setting? Something I'm doing wrong? Bad karma? Gremlins?

Help, oh mighty gurus.........

arodney

I’ve never seen what you describe but might be misunderstanding what you are seeing. You see NO folder structures at all, or some are seen and others are missing? Do you see an expandable area called Folders (below Catalog, above Collections)? Each drive you might be cataloging will have its own heading area too. Each can be collapsed or expanded.

divamum

arodney wrote: »

I’ve never seen what you describe but might be misunderstanding what you are seeing. You see NO folder structures at all, or some are seen and others are missing? Do you see an expandable area called Folders (below Catalog, above Collections)? Each drive you might be cataloging will have its own heading area too. Each can be collapsed or expanded.

Some are seen, and others are missing. In LR2, once I imported images, the folder where they were stored on the hard drive would appear in the list and stay there - it would just always be there. In LR3, it seems to turn up randomly, and usually some time after I've imported. But then, it will disappear again for no apparent reason! I just wish I could figure it out - I'm assuming it's a glitch of some kind since it's so random, but keep wondering if there's some setting deep in the library or import menus that I've inadvertently missed. Tx for any suggestions!

One thing: because of accessing pictures from different machines in the house, I now store my photos in the "public" director of windows rather than "users" - could it be something to do with reading the network? That said, it always used to work perfectly set up like this, so I'm still perplexed as to why it's being so temperamental now.

arodney

divamum wrote: »

One thing: because of accessing pictures from different machines in the house, I now store my photos in the "public" director of windows rather than "users" - could it be something to do with reading the network? That said, it always used to work perfectly set up like this, so I'm still perplexed as to why it's being so temperamental now.

I suspect that may be it. I’m a Mac guy and all my images are on local drives. So that’s certainly a possibility, especially if you find that the “missing” folders are always those on this network drive.

divamum

Hmmm... thing now is to figure out how to resolve it. What's weird is that the pix are there (for instance, I can sometimes hit "previous import" to get to them, and if I try to reimport, they're shadowed out to indicate previous importing), they just don't display in the directory. Annoying.

machine

I noticed that also right after the LR3 upgrade, and eventually found the imported images down a rabbit hole under c:\users\(somewhereorother)\2010\(date).

Now I make extra sure that in the import dialog that my image drive is the "To" listed in the upper right of the dialog. So far it's worked.

cab.in.boston

divamum wrote: »

One thing: because of accessing pictures from different machines in the house, I now store my photos in the "public" director of windows rather than "users" - could it be something to do with reading the network? That said, it always used to work perfectly set up like this, so I'm still perplexed as to why it's being so temperamental now.

I doubt this is the problem. I have almost all of my photos stored on one PC running Ubuntu, but I edit on a separate PC running Win7. When the Ubuntu PC is turned off, LR3 still displays the entire file/folder structure where the photos live, I just cannot access them (the green light is turned off at the top of the folder tree). When I turn on and mount the drives in Ubuntu, LR3 then "sees" them, so the green light comes on. But even off, it still knows where they are and displays the full structure.

I have never seen this behavior, when I import, the new folder is there and displayed immediately. Sorry I can't help...

Icebear

divamum wrote: »

Hmmm... thing now is to figure out how to resolve it. What's weird is that the pix are there (for instance, I can sometimes hit "previous import" to get to them, and if I try to reimport, they're shadowed out to indicate previous importing), they just don't display in the directory. Annoying.

If, when you find them in "Previous Import" you then right click on a photo and select "Go to Folder in Library" what happens?

divamum

Machine, there is indeed a random rabbit hole of dated directories that has turned up - I have no idea what that's about! But, the "missing" folders are still an issue, and aren't related to that (that's an entirely different issue). I actually upload images from cards via Picasa rather than LR so when I import to LR I'm merely telling it where to find images on the HDD rather than external media.

I still haven't figured out *why* this non-display-of-folders is happening; sometimes just closing the program will fix it, and a reboot almost always does, but I would like to figure it out more thoroughly at some point. If I ever come up with something reproducible enough to "find", I'll post back!

aj986s

divamum wrote: »

Machine, there is indeed a random rabbit hole of dated directories that has turned up - I have no idea what that's about! But, the "missing" folders are still an issue, and aren't related to that (that's an entirely different issue). I actually upload images from cards via Picasa rather than LR so when I import to LR I'm merely telling it where to find images on the HDD rather than external media.

I still haven't figured out *why* this non-display-of-folders is happening; sometimes just closing the program will fix it, and a reboot almost always does, but I would like to figure it out more thoroughly at some point. If I ever come up with something reproducible enough to "find", I'll post back!

Not sure if this is the same problem I encountered immediately after upgrading to LR3. But when importing, watch the right side of the screen, and confirm whether you're importing to a "subdirectory" of an already existing directory. I'm not at my home PC right now to confirm. But I recall there's a check box to indicate using a subdirectory. I was accidentally creating new folders within existing folders without realizing it, and the pictures were going there. Once I figured out how to use the checkbox, things appear to be going where I want. If this doesn't make sense, I can revisit when I get home tonite.

aj986s

Any luck resolving the "lost pics & folders" problem?

divamum

Nope. It's still not consistent enough for me to diagnose, which is one of the annoyances. Thankfully, they do always turn up in time, but it's a nuisance when I'm under pressure trying to work on multiple shoots.

aj986s

This is the Import dialogue I was referring to. I hadn't noticed this first few time I imported pictures, and it was actually saving them in subfolders I didn't realize I was creating. Its a bit confusing, because if you right click on the folder names, you can "Create a New Folder". But as long as the other box is still checked, the pictures end up going into the unexpected subfolder.

Here's a screen capture to help illustrate:
LR3_Folders.jpg