Moving images in Lightroom

[James Gray]

I have often heard the claim that you must always use Lightroom to move any images from one folder or drive to another.  It seems to me it is often stated in a way that it is a catastrophe if you do not do it that way.  However, I have been referencing a book by RC Concepcion in which he recommends using Finder or Explorer to make big moves.  Then using LR to re-catalog/relink the images in their new location.  As he says this is actually pretty easy to do.  His reasoning is that since LR deletes images and folders from the old location as it moves them to the new location things can go wrong.  We all know that many things can go wrong with files on a computer.  That is one reason we maintain backups.  Finder or Explorer can copy files without deleting them from the source.  Using the OS you can check to see if the copy worked before deleting it from the source.  Using Finder I can have multiple windows open for different hard drives and can easily copy images or folders from one window/drive to another.  Is there a way in LR to have something like multiple windows of the folders where images are stored?  I only see the one panel on the left which can only show a limited amount of my image folders at one time.  Dragging and dropping do not work very well if you cannot see the source and destination on the screen at the same time.  What if anything am I missing?

Jim Gray  

[Naser Mojtahed]

Jim, 

Jim, 

I am by no means an expert in LR, but I think RC’s comment that LR deletes the image in one folder and moves it to the new folder is wrong. 

LR does not do anything to your physical folder containing images. All you do, and LR requires to function correctly, is to tell LR where your images are. Based on this information, LR creates a catalog. The catalog does not contain any image-which is a common misunderstanding. It includes information on your images, including where they are located physically on your hard drive (either external or native). The reason you have to move the images inside the LR is otherwise LR does not know where the images are located. Moving one image or 500 images will be the same from LR point of view. You can select the entire folder inside the LR and move it wherever you want. The speed of transfer depends on the features of your computer, not LR. Moving things inside or outside of LR should take the same time. This is different from importing which based of the set up it may take longer period to import. The difference is if you do it outside, then you have to find a way to tell LR where you move them. Regardless of how simple the process might be, it is a waste of time and redundant. 

One of the invaluable features of LR is that you can locate any image within seconds. Why should someone forgo such a feature and try to look up the image with finder or explorer? LR, by and large, has two functions: raw processing, which has increasingly become more powerful, and cataloging. If one decides not to use highly efficient cataloging and uses a somewhat primitive finder or explorer, then the question is, why use LR to begin with? Camera Raw has all the processing power of LR but not the cataloging. 

I have friends who are insisting that explorer is as good. The reason is they do not want to learn LR and have not used it. They are just used to the progress bar of explorer that at the end gives six or seven images, and none is the one they looked for. 

Naser

On Dec 26, 2022, at 4:57 PM, James Gray wrote:

Naser

On Dec 26, 2022, at 4:57 PM, James Gray <ja...@gray.org> wrote:



I have often heard the claim that you must always use Lightroom to move any images from one folder or drive to another.  It seems to me it is often stated in a way that it is a catastrophe if you do not do it that way.  However, I have been referencing a book by RC Concepcion in which he recommends using Finder or Explorer to make big moves.  Then using LR to re-catalog/relink the images in their new location.  As he says this is actually pretty easy to do.  His reasoning is that since LR deletes images and folders from the old location as it moves them to the new location things can go wrong.  We all know that many things can go wrong with files on a computer.  That is one reason we maintain backups.  Finder or Explorer can copy files without deleting them from the source.  Using the OS you can check to see if the copy worked before deleting it from the source.  Using Finder I can have multiple windows open for different hard drives and can easily copy images or folders from one window/drive to another.  Is there a way in LR to have something like multiple windows of the folders where images are stored?  I only see the one panel on the left which can only show a limited amount of my image folders at one time.  Dragging and dropping do not work very well if you cannot see the source and destination on the screen at the same time.  What if anything am I missing?

Jim Gray  

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[James Gray]

Hi Nasser,

Thank you for replying.  I think I may have not said what I was talking about clearly enough.  I was referring to moving images or folders of images that are already included in the LR catalog.  This is the sort of thing you might do if you need a larger drive to store your images when your existing drive is getting too full.  I did a simple test in LR by dragging one image from the grid view to a different folder.  I then checked the location of the file in Finder and the image was in the destination folder in Finder and no longer in the source folder.  I have attempted to learn about the issue by doing a Google search and that confirmed when you drag an image or a folder from one location to another in LR, the image or folder is deleted from the source location.  When you do that LR clearly uses the OS to move the files or folders.  As I understand it you can import images that are not yet cataloged without deleting them from the source medium like a memory card.  I understand the rationale that if I move images that are already cataloged using Finder, LR will not know where they are.  The reference book I am using says that relinking is fairly easy.  It seems that it is.  My workflow is a hybrid system using LR, Bridge, and Finder.  I routinely delete files using Bridge or Finder and then synchronize the folder with no problems I am aware of.  I agree with you about the advantages of LR.  I only got around to implementing LR in 2020.  It is amazing how fast it can find images.  Before implementing LR I would use Bridge which could take hours to find something LR can find in a few seconds.  There were a few times I used Bridge to search and Bridge crashed.

I do have other issues with my LR database that are not related to my question here.

Jim Gray

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[Colin Barnett]

When you move images in LR, it is equivalent to a Cut and Paste in Explorer/Finder.  That is, LR deletes the image from the original location and copies it to the new location. In contrast, Explorer/Finder allow you to copy the images from one folder to another, leaving a copy in the original folder. I don't know why you would want to do this as it requires not only re-linking the files in LR but also deleting the files in the original location using Explorer/Finder.  It's possible to work this way, but it takes more time, is prone to more errors, and, unless you do a strong delete, you are sending your deleted files to the Recycle Bin, consuming drive space on your computer.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elcc-chat/CAGLETg69Bgy0bPzrOZUi-VetAVWRq3gKtfz15JKT6358BMgV%3Dg%40mail.gmail.com.

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[James Gray]

I think the issue is security vs. efficiency.  In the workflow, I have used for the last 20 years moving files from one hard drive to another or even one folder to another has been quite infrequent.  Some of the times have been when a hard drive was threatening to fail.  Because it is infrequent, the extra time is not very important.  In my experience doing huge moves from one drive to another does not always go smoothly.  So far I have not had to do any of that since implementing LR.  It has also gotten easier than when I had 4 internal drives in a Windows PC.  I did a search and LR normally does send deleted files to the trash folder or recycle bin.  I still do not see how you do much dragging and dropping when you only have the one folders panel in LR.

Jim Gray

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elcc-chat/003cf8fb-370f-3b36-00e0-2507a326e2bd%40gmail.com.

[Naser Mojtahed]

Jim,

When you move an image from one folder to another inside the LR, you want that particular image inside whatever folder you move it to. So there is no reason to have that image in two places. This is different from deleting an image.  The question is why you want to have an image in two different locations. To delete an image, you need to select it, with backspace in windows and delete in mac you may remove it from LR or your hard drive. 

Naser

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elcc-chat/CAGLETg69Bgy0bPzrOZUi-VetAVWRq3gKtfz15JKT6358BMgV%3Dg%40mail.gmail.com.