Lightroom 3 Dreaded "File Is Offline OR Missing" message

[Pete JF]

Yeah, Im in Lightroom 3..don't be mean to me.

Im using LR3..Im mostly a PS user but decided to rev up an old copy of LR3 that I had to keep track of lots of images in a couple of projects Im involved in.

I've got everything worked on and databased at this point and I'm now getting the "Fille is Offline or Missing message"

I recently moved my only  LRcatalog to an external drive because it was getting to big for my Laptop's internal drive. the move went well, it seemed..LR found itself and I was up and running. For a while it was fine

I just want to know how to make this message go away, it obviously greys out any function in ACR.

I can't really afford the massive upgrade I need to get past to get up to speed in Lightroom versions..New Computer, Software, etc, et al..

Anyone know how to do this? I've been reading all sorts of different stuff online and Im basically confused. My files do still exist, in the same place, on my Drive. I checked and they are there.

I did a couple of rounds of "find missing imaqes" and it seemed to find everything (I ended with a huge, scrollable grid of my images}..But I don't know what to do with that??

..It didn't make the message and subsequent lockout go away.

Thanks

[Robert55]

IIRC - and assuming you did not change directory structure or file names - there should be in grid view in the top right corner of each 'missing' file aquestion or exclamation mark. Right click on one of them and a dialogue will appear. That will ask you whether you want to find the file, click that option and Explorer will come up. Point it to the new location, select the same file. Lr now will be able to find all files in that directory again (not sure if it will see files in other directories)

[JGU1956]

Hi.... I was writing the query below (which I think this should be an easy one to solve) but for the life of me I can't find a solution by trial and error or looking at previous forum entries.  It seems I have a similar situation to the OP's, except I am using LR5.6.  Great minds think alike, or perhaps encounter similar problems.

All my photos and associated Lightroom files (catalogue, sidecar files, thumbnails, etc) are on a portable HDD.

I have 2 computers- a laptop which I travel with and a desktop with a good monitor etc which I use as my "main" computer.  The laptop runs on Win 8.1, 64 bit, and the desktop runs on Win 8.0, 64 bit.

The laptop has one drive, an SSD labelled "C".  The desktop has two HDDs, labelled "C" (for the programs and OS), and "D" (for data, but excluding photos because they are all on the portable HDD.)

The laptop correctly recognises the location of the photos, catalogue etc when I plug it in.  It always labels the portable HDD "I".  (No idea why it skipped the intervening letters!)

When I plug the portable HDD into the desktop, Lightroom does not recognise the drive.  It shows the folders (correctly named), thumbnail images etc as being located in drive "D" (where they are NOT), but not the originals.  The "Folders" panel in the Library module shows question marks in front of all the folder names, I assume because they are not on drive "D" in the first place.

Windows Explorer recognises the portable drive with my photos correctly (and the photos are in fact there, intact and uncorrupted).

Using the menu command File>Open catalog and navigating to the portable HDD, and selecting the catalog (I only use one catalog), does not result in the catalog opening in Lightroom- it just shows "D" again with the thumbnails but no originals.  I have also reinstalled Lightroom (v5.6) a couple of times but that did not solve the problem.  It is unable to export any photos on the desktop machine, as the sources files are (it thinks) "offline or missing".

Any ideas o esteemed Lightroomers?

[JGU1956]

And to acknowledge Robert555's reply, I've tried that but I don't really want to do that individually for close to 10,000 photos!  Is there a way to do it as a batch command?  Thanks!

[john beardsworth]

When I plug the portable HDD into the desktop, Lightroom does not recognise the drive.  It shows the folders (correctly named), thumbnail images etc as being located in drive "D" (where they are NOT), but not the originals.  The "Folders" panel in the Library module shows question marks in front of all the folder names, I assume because they are not on drive "D" in the first place.

It sounds to me like you imported the files when Windows called the drive C and it can't find them because it's now calling it D. Maybe that's a difference between the two computers.

In this kind of situation, don't reimport files and don't hit synchronize - these are as likely to worsen the situation. Instead right click one of the folders and select Find Missing Folder (may be slightly different in 3). Now point to where the folder is on the D drive. You'll need to do this for each folder, so it's less work if you can do it for a parent folder, which resolves its subfolders.

John

[Osprey]

Isn't there an option after you do the above to have Lightroom find the other missing directory based on the directory that you just pointed it to?

[john beardsworth]

Isn't there an option after you do the above to have Lightroom find the other missing directory based on the directory that you just pointed it to?

No, you're thinking of when you find a missing photo, not a folder, and in that case there is a "Find Nearby Photos" checkbox which finds all missing photos in the same folder as the photo you've identified.

Generally, if switching drives is a continual problem, the best solution is to have one parent folder on the drive with all the photo subfolders beneath it. In LR you right click the photo folders and choose Show Parent until you reach that one parent folder. Then you just have to fix this one top level folder each time the drive letter changes. I do this all the time when I move my external drive from my PC to my Mac laptop and it only takes seconds.

[JGU1956]

John seems to have nailed it.  I used the "Find missing folder" command and almost immediately all the folders and files appeared as normally, but without the question marks or the "file not found" status in the individual photos' metadata.  "Find missing photo" did not work, and indeed would have been incredibly time consuming.  The trick is to select the top level folder so that everything within it (ie both the folders and the photos) is recognised correctly.  Just out of interest, I'm wondering why/how LR on my desktop knew what the photos and folders were called if it was looking erroneously at a drive with no photos or folders.  

Anyway I hope this helps Pete JF who posted the original question- it wasn't my intention to hijack the thread.

John.

[john beardsworth]

Just out of interest, I'm wondering why/how LR on my desktop knew what the photos and folders were called if it was looking erroneously at a drive with no photos or folders.  

Because it isn't looking at that drive, not real time anyway. Instead it has already recorded ("imported") the images in its catalogue (database) and has already built previews/thumbnails in the previews.lrdata file. So rather than looking at the drive and showing what's currently there, it's saying "these should be there, though I can't find them right now". That's what's so good about catalogues as opposed to browsers like Bridge/Finder - even if the drive gets destroyed, the catalogue can tell you what should be there and helps you reconstruct your picture collection from your backup.

[JGU1956]

Thanks, but....

My catalog is on the same (portable) drive as the photos.  Thus if it can't "see" the photos (plus sidecars) why can it still (apparently) "see" the catalog?

Does this mean that when I plug the portable drive into the computer, it knows automatically to open the catalog (hence the thumbnails), but has to be told "manually" where to find the photos themselves?

Maybe I had better get that Lula video: "Digital Asset Management: Where the #%*! are my Pictures?" 

(TIA) John.

[john beardsworth]

When the drive is plugged in, Lightroom happily opens the catalogue because on each computer the Lightroom program remembers where the catalogue was (it records it in a preference file). But if the drive isn't plugged in, Lightroom is unable to open that catalogue.

[JGU1956]

Thank you!  That makes good sense.  Odd that LR has not been programmed (via preference files) to also remember where it last found the originals.  Perhaps because originals (if you have a large collection) could be in multiple locations, which in turn I guess is why we have smart previews.  I'll shut up now! 

John.

[Pete JF]

JGU,

thanks, I just tried that..however, (in LR3) when I point at/select the top folder in question in my Library..the one I want to "find"..and then right-click on it, I dont get the option to "find missing folder".

I only get the "find missing folder" option when I right-click on a subfolder in within..

And, when I do that and get a screen with the missing photos listed as files..it's always the same images..no matter which folder I click on..

Still have question mark icons etc..still the "file offline or missing" message.

Can you run me through exactly how you are doing this? Are you right clicking? Or, is there a menu choice in the main menus that I'm missing.

 I think Im missing an important step..Remember though, Im in LR3 so it might not even work in the first place..

:  )

[john beardsworth]

Are there question marks on any of the folders?

[Pete JF]

John,

Yes..all of subfolders underneath one particular folder have question marks..

[john beardsworth]

Then if that folder has no question mark, right click each subfolder and choose Find Misding Folder, point to where it is, and Ok.

Don't synchronise and don't re-import.

[Pete JF]

Yep, got it. Some kind of weirdness in one folder from August but I did some damn thing and it resolved. No clue but everything's back to cookies and cake.

Thanks John and JGU and everyone, much appreciated..this was driving me nuts.

:  )