Lightroom Classic 8.1: Not all folders picked up after upgrade

Please explain in a bit more detail what you did and what you are (not) seeing. Lightroom does not show you any folders that do not contain images that were imported. If you are not seeing the parent folder like you used to see, then right-click on a folder and choose 'Show Parent Folder'.

Good morning, if I understand the question, same thing happen to me, I import my photos from a folder in my external drive and Lightroon Classic CC moves them to another location, in my case, they are being moved to OneDrive, and I can not find a way to fix that issue, because I want my photos to be kept in the original location.
It also changes the folder name to date being processed

I updated my LR Classic program. Then opened it. I told the program where my parent photo folder was. It found it but there were several folders that were on the hard drive as shown in Explorer but were not in the folder listings in the new LR 8.1.  I reopened the older version and it properly shows those same folders in the same locations as in Explorer.

Frank,

Did you convert your older LR version catalog to LR 8.1 and the folders that had been in the Folder panel in the older version are not there in the newer version?  

What do you mean by "I showed it where to look"?  Do you mean in the Import dialog or the folders Panel? or someplace else?

Dan

1. How do you convert the catalog to LR 8.1.

2. When I opened LR 8.1 there were pictures in the catalog with question marks. My main photo EHDwas grayed out. I located the missing folder and then all seemed okay except for the several misisng folders that started this thread. Thanks for the instructions on adding photos. I'm aware of that but I was hoping I wouldn't have to search all of the folders to make sure nothing was missing.

Why would one version on LR have the folders and the other miss them. As a note it seems that these were folders of photos taken in 2018, and yes I always backup my catalog.

Thanks for any guidance.

1)  Any catalog you open from any LR 8.x version will be an LR 8 catalog.  If you try to open an older catalog it will ask you if you want to upgrade it.  Your only choice is yes or don't open it.  But, if you still have an older LR installed, say LR6, you can open LR 6.x catalogs in that version.  But, let's say you had an old LR6 catalog and you upgraded LR to LR 8 and did not let it convert your LR6 catalog, then :LR would create a new and empty LR8 catalog.  

2)  If, when you opened LR 8.1 you can see folders in the folders panel, then they got there by either you importing them or from it converting one of your older catalogs.  If the path to folders (such as drive letter)  had changed then you'll get question marks.  You can use the "Find all Missing Photos" item in the "Library" menu to create a collection of all the still missing images.  When you say "Missing Folders"  I'm not sure if you mean the folder name is not present in the folders panel or is present but has a "?" mark.  In the later case, use Window file Manager or Mac Finder (outside of LR) to search for the folder name which will tell you that a) it still exists or not, and b) where it is.  Then go back to LR, right click on the folder name and select the "find missing folder" option.

If still in trouble.  Please articulate exact steps taken from when everything was OK to now.  For example,  1) Everything OK in LR6.  2) installed LR 8.1  3) let it convert LR 6 catalog to LR 8, Etc.

Dan

Thanks. Great details. So here's what happened. I've been using LR6. I updated the program so that I have both 8.1 and 6 on the computer. After  8.1 updated (actually it put a second shortcut on my desktop) I just clicked on open and it opened fine.  But the EHD with the majority of my photos had a question mark. So I told LR where it was and then it populated the folders without question marks.  But there were several folders that were missing. They were not listed but they werein Explorer.  I'm not sure why LR8.1 did not ask if I wanted to convert the old catalog.

So how do I go back and convert the catalog?

If I convert it can LR6 still be used in case LR 8.1 doesn't work properly. 

Your LR6 catalog should still be as you left it, but can only be used when running the LR6 Software. 

1) in LR8, Make sure the you have nothing typed in the "Filter Folders" box (first line under "Folders" panel title bar)

2) Close LR 8 and Open LR6. 

3) In LR6 see if those folders are present in the folders panel and if so are marked as misisng ("?"). If present with no "?", send screen shot of Folder's panel from showing the folders and the drive header above the folders

3)  Close LR6 and Open LR8.  You say those same folders are not present (with or without a "?") in the folders panel.  Send screenshot of same section of folders panel.

4)  If they are indeed missing, you can try to "Import from another catalog" (that other catalog being your old LR6 catalog).  Or, if you have not done much in LR8 since converting, we can just "Open" the LR6 catalog using LR8 and it will make a new copy of it which is compatible with LR8

Dan

1. Nothing is typed in the Filter Folders box.

See two screen shots. LR6 lists several folders such Chautaqua 2018 and FK-SK-30th Anniversary but they are not in the folder listingof LR 8.1


To upload the old LR6 catalog where do I look for it.  Not the backup folder I assume. 

Just Launch LR6 after closing LR8.  It should pick up the most recently used LR6 catalog.  If not, the default location for LR catalogs is in your Pictures -> Lightroom folder.  Catalogs end with ".lrcat".  You can select one and tell our computer to "Open with" and select the LR6 program.   Of course your catalogs may not be in their default locations. 

If the old one is not there, then go to the backups.  Unfortunatly, if the LR version name is not part of the catalog name (which is not the default) you'll have to deduce which back up catalog to use based on date and time.