Unable to find photos in the develop module

[mokenny]

I have this problem with Lightroom, after importing a set of recent of pictures and then I choose one to work on in the develop mode, I get an error message " the folder cannot be found".
Any and all help is greatly appreciated to unravel this.

Thanks

Mo Keny

[Bob Rockefeller]

When you imported, were you sure to copy or move the images and not add them in place? If they were left on a memory card, for example, and that was ejected after the import, the originals would no longer be found.

[john beardsworth]

When you imported, were you sure to copy or move the images and not add them in place? If they were left on a memory card, for example, and that was ejected after the import, the originals would no longer be found.

Forget the memory card example, because Lightroom would prevent you using Add in those circumstances. But using Copy, you could have put them on an external drive that is not currently connected.

More likely, have the files been moved after you imported them? In Library, Grid view, do the thumbnails have exclamation marks? In Library, Folders panel, are there question marks on those images' folders?

[mokenny]

Yes, the thumbnails have exclamation marks on them. In library folder, there is a question mark in front of the folders

[eliedinur]

In the Library module, right-click on the folder with the question mark and select "Find Missing Folder". In the window that opens navigate to the folder and select it. If LR lost contact with the folder because you moved it, it will now know the new location. In the future you can avoid having to do this by only moving things, folders or photos, inside LR, not outside it.

If the problem was that the folder is on an external drive that was not on-line, while the drive is connected you can make Smart Previews that will be used when the original files are unavailable (and in the future build them during importation) and when the full sized files are once again on-line, the editing done on the SPs will be associated with the originals.