Lost link to external hard drive

[mugge]

The link between LR and hard drive is broken.

I first upload my photos to the web based LR I then copy photos to my external hard drive. Secondly, I copy wanted photos to my LR (classical).

When the physical link is removed between LR (classical) and hard drive I can not work on those photos.

This is a recent phenomenon. In the past I was able to work on them. I now have to attach hard drive to computer before I can work on the photos.

What am I doing wrong? Help most appreciated
Cheers Ole

[Manfred M]

Ole - have you checked the "Build Smart Previews" box checked when you import the images into Lightroom Classic? So far as I recall, unless you build these on import, you have to be physically connected to the drive to edit.

I've just imported a number of images from my external drive and have no issues editing in Lightroom after disconnecting the drive.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cl...-previews.html


I personally don't like this workflow, as SmartPreviews take up a lot of hard drive space.

[mugge]

Ole - have you checked the "Build Smart Previews" box checked when you import the images into Lightroom Classic? So far as I recall, unless you build these on import, you have to be physically connected to the drive to edit.

I've just imported a number of images from my external drive and have no issues editing in Lightroom after disconnecting the drive.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cl...-previews.html


I personally don't like this workflow, as SmartPreviews take up a lot of hard drive space.

Manfred, I went through my usual process and it works now??

I do not use "Smart Previews" but simply import through web LH to external hard drive then into LR Classical. It has never failed before now. I suspect it will happen again though
Cheers Ole

[Manfred M]

Isn't technology wonderful? When it works....

[Caprice]

There was a time when I thought I had lost all my photos located on an external drive. I could see the preview of pics, but I was unable to edit them. Plugging the hard drive back in didn’t help. It turned out LR doesn’t like it when you move or modify photo files using your OS rather than LR. Provided you know where the photos are, you can recover them using Locate dialog box in Lightroom. I was about to use the hdd recovery service when I learned about these LR bugs.

[pschlute]

There was a time when I thought I had lost all my photos located on an external drive. I could see the preview of pics, but I was unable to edit them.

Very good. Glad you are happy now !

[rpcrowe]

I know that it is solely user error but, I had so many problems "losing" images when I tried Lightroom that I just gave up trying Instead, I use Adobe Bridge to open my RAW files and do much of the initial corrections and then revert to Photoshop for some final corrections.

Lightroom is a great program but, it is just that it is not intuitive to me; while the Adobe Bridge/Photoshop workflow seems to mesh with the way that I think!

We are fortunate that there are several roads which arrive at the same destination!

[Geoff F]

That is what I do, Richard. I have never made much sense of Lightroom so I also import Raw images through Bridge then continue editing with Photoshop.

Bridge seems, to me, like it has become a bit slower and clunky in operation after recent upgrades but it always gets me there, eventually.

[pschlute]

The thing about LR that you need to understand is this.....

Once you import an image into LR, it gets registered in the Library. If you edit it , it gets registerd in the Library.

Now if you delete the image, or move the image outside of LR, the Library has lost track of where that image is. You can reconnect the image by running the appropriate command. If you don't, you will have a mismatch.

The physical location of your images is the same whether you use LR or not. LR does not have its own repository for your images....you tell LR on import where you want those images placed.

[DanK]

In this respect, Lightroom is no different from any other software that saves file locations. For example, move an Office file with the OS and then try to open it from the list of recent files. The software won’t find it.


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