# Lightroom folder organization question



## Jon_Are (Sep 5, 2009)

Working with Lightroom 2 here...

The left panel, where it lists Navigator, Catalog, Folders & Collections...

Under the Folders tab, I have listed my external drive in which I keep all my photos (Drive F). Underneath the Drive F label, I have lists of various folders on that drive with titles I've given them.

My question: I expected this list, on the left panel of LR, to automatically populate itself so that the folder titles/hierarchy would mirror what is shown in Drive F if I looked at the drive within 'computer' in Vista.

Well, it doesn't. Fair enough. So then, when I right-click on a folder and select 'sync', I expected the listing to _then_ mirror the folder arrangement within 'computer' in Vista.

It still doesn't do that. I have sub-folders that are simply not showing up within the LR panel unless I manually create the folders and 'move' my images to them (still within LR).

Bottom line: It seems I have to update this Folder panel manually. And its structure seems to be straight-up alphabetical, with no indication of folders/sub-folders.

I'm sure the problem lies within me and not the software. I'd appreciate a little guidance as to how I can make the Folders panel automatically stay current.

I hope this makes sense; if not, please ask some specific questions.

Thanks,

Jon


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## Josh66 (Sep 5, 2009)

Jon_Are said:


> It still doesn't do that. I have sub-folders that are simply not showing up within the LR panel unless I manually create the folders and 'move' my images to them (still within LR).
> 
> Bottom line: It seems I have to update this Folder panel manually. And its structure seems to be straight-up alphabetical, with no indication of folders/sub-folders.
> 
> I'm sure the problem lies within me and not the software. I'd appreciate a little guidance as to how I can make the Folders panel automatically stay current.



How are you importing?  Are you doing something other than pushing the "import" button?

The structure should match the structure on your hard drive.  When you import stuff, then move it - it tends to not know where it is anymore.  Put your file where it will stay before you import.

There is no way to make it automatically stay current, but it will always be current as long as you don't move stuff around after you import.


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## dl4449 (Sep 5, 2009)

If I understand correctly you are creating folders outside of lightroom.
If so Lightroom will not recognize anything that is not imported by Lightroom. You need to specify how Lightroom will handle files as they are imported.
If I misunderstood you pleas disregard all of this .
Troy


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## Jon_Are (Sep 5, 2009)

Well, this is where it gets a little iffy.

Some of these folders are from, I'm thinking, before I knew to do everything from within LR. (They must be, right?)

Anyway, syncing should make things right, shouldn't it? 

When I sync a folder, it does not show subfolders in the panel (subfolders I know are there).

I guess I have to mess around with this some more.

Jon


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## Josh66 (Sep 5, 2009)

I never do it that way, so I just tried it to check.

When I sync, it updates everything in the folder, including sub-folders.


Synchronizing should make everything current.


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## Jon_Are (Sep 5, 2009)

> Synchronizing should make everything current.



Yep, it should, Josh. But it doesn't for me. 

I just created various test sub-folders (from within Vista's 'Computer'), then tried syncing the appropriate parent folders. 

Not once did it recognize one of my test folders.

There must be some setting somewhere that's off.


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## Josh66 (Sep 5, 2009)

Did they have anything in them, or were they just empty folders?


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## Jon_Are (Sep 6, 2009)

> Did they have anything in them, or were they just empty folders?


Mostly empty folders, though I think I put a photo in one of them and it didn't work.

I'll try again and check back in.

Edit: Now that I think about it, the one I added a photo to, I did so outside of LR; not sure if that makes a difference.

Jon


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## Jon_Are (Sep 6, 2009)

So here's my latest test...

Within LR, I created a subfolder within an existing folder. So far, so good.

I went into Vista Computer (outside of LR) and moved a file into my new test folder.

Now, back into LR. The test folder shows zero images. I right-click the test folder, then click on synchronize.

The pop-up window shows there is one image to import. I click OK. Another window opens, telling me that the image already exists within the catalog, and so it will not import it into my Test folder.

I close this window. My test folder still shows zero images, even though the folder contains the file I previously moved.

Is LR supposed to behave in this way?

Thanks,

Jon


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## Jon_Are (Sep 6, 2009)

I seem to have found the answer: There is a check box within the import dialog window that says "Don't re-import suspected duplicates".

Mine was checked. I unchecked it. Happy days are here again.

Thanks to all.

Jon


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## dl4449 (Sep 6, 2009)

If you moved it from a Lightroom to a lighroom folder with windows explorer I think LR will see it in the old LR folder and not import it. There is an option to move the photos in LR
Duff


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## Josh66 (Sep 6, 2009)

It sounds like it's trying to prevent you from having the same file in multiple locations...
(Which, while it might be helpful, still sounds weird.)

I don't think empty folders will show up (but they might).


What, _exactly_, are you trying to do?  It sounds like the easiest thing might be to delete all of the folders in LR, and start over.  Re-import everything.

You're making new folders inside of LR, and outside of it.  You shouldn't ever have to create a folder in LR.  It gets created automatically when you import the pictures in it.
Don't import anything until you have the file where you want it.


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## Jon_Are (Sep 6, 2009)

> What, _exactly_, are you trying to do?



Good question. :mrgreen:

OK, I'll try an example of why I might want to create a new folder.

Say I go to a baseball game and shoot 100 photos. I use LR to import these 100 photos from the SD card into a folder called Baseball.

Now, of these 100, I go through and edit the 20 images that I find of pitchers in the act of pitching. I want to convert 10 of these to sepia tone. 

So now, I want to create some new folders. I want to ultimately have:

BASEBALL (100 original images)
-(subfolder) PITCHERS (20 edited images)
--(sub-subfolder SEPIA (10 edited images)


So, in this case, I will have created two additional folders. There will have been a significant amount of folder creation and file moving. Obviously, this is an over-simplification.

[possible brainstorm]: Is it preferable to just leave images and folders where they lie and never move them nor create new folders? And, in accomplishing this, is it preferable to use COLLECTIONS to categorize and sort my images, rather than moving them physically on the hard drive?

Is this (collections) how most folks organize/sort?


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## Josh66 (Sep 6, 2009)

Jon_Are said:


> [possible brainstorm]: Is it preferable to just leave images and folders where they lie and never move them nor create new folders? And, in accomplishing this, is it preferable to use COLLECTIONS to categorize and sort my images, rather than moving them physically on the hard drive?
> 
> Is this (collections) how most folks organize/sort?



Yes.  This would be the best way.

Or you can just tag the "keepers" with an appropriate tag (there are many, stars, colors, picked/not picked...)


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