If you have a folder in Lightroom such as your Pictures folder, but you are not sure that all of the photos in that folder and its subfolders have been imported in Lightroom, you can have Lightroom check for you! Right-click on the folder, and choose Synchronize Folder.
The dialog below will show you how many new photos it found, if any, and give you the option to import them. I recommend checking Show import dialog before importing, so that you can be sure that you really do want to import them.
In the Import dialog, uncheck any photos you don’t want to import, choose Add in the top center to add to the catalog without copying or moving, and then click Import in the bottom right.
Lightroom will also look for missing photos (with question marks) in your catalog. I don’t recommend checking the box to remove missing photos using this process — it is much better to go through them in the Library Module and decide if you want to remove them or find them.
Scan for metadata updates is independent of the new photos process. This looks for any changes to your files that other programs, like Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw, have made. You can check it if you work with other programs and want to see if your files are up to date.
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Hi Laura
Thanks for a great website. I’ve started using this function LR4 & have run into a snag.
After importing photos, I’ll rate & sort them & export the edited ones to a sub folder of the same folder I originally imported to on my hard drive.
When I “sync folder”, although it does add the sub folder to the catalogue (which is what I want), it also duplicates these photos in the original parent folder, therefore adding to the total number of photos.
I have seen this same action done on video tutorials & this didn’t seem to result in duplicates or the overall number of files in the parent folder increasing.
Do you know a setting or action that can avoid these duplications?
I hope this makes sense?
Thanking you in advance
Cheers
Andrew
Hi Andrew, if I understand correctly: if you are exporting jpegs and then adding them to the catalog, this is going to increase the number of photos. Because the count showing for the parent folder is the sum of what is in the parent folder and its subfolders, that count is going to increase by the number in the new subfolder. Also, when you select the parent folder, it by default shows you photos in the parent and subfolders, so it looks like there are duplicates, because you are seeing the original and edited ones. If you don’t like this behavior, in the menu bar you can go to Library>Show Photos in Subfolders to turn it off.
By the way, you can avoid the Synchronize step by checking the box “Add to Catalog” in the Export dialog (top section) … this will automatically add them.
The last thing I wonder is why you are exporting and then reimporting edited versions — keep in mind that you only need to export when you need to share edited photos with someone else (which you very well may be doing, but I thought I would mention it.)
Thanks for your advice and quick response Laura
On reflection,this probably is an unnecessary step.
What I’ve been doing is exporting hi res jpgs and web res jpgs back into the parent folder as sub folders. I guess my thought process has been that I use the parent folder to keep all the photos, but if I want to show someone my edited photos in Lightroom, I have them available and sorted ready to view.
I’m new to lightroom so I’m still trying to work out a workflow that’s good for me.
Cheers
This is perfect timing as I’ve been creating files to print out of Photoshop (using advanced techniques not available in LR) and may want to add them to my LR catalog! Thanks, Laura!
Great to hear, Kathy!
Hi Laura,
I just purchased LIGHTROOM v.6 (perpetual license) for the MAC (Sierra, OS 10.12.4) and I have really been finding your tip sheets very helpful!
My problem is I can’t find all my pictures. My pictures are currently managed by the new PHOTOS app for the MAC, consequently they no longer show up in Finder.
When I try to import them into LIGHTROOM only about half of the albums in PHOTOS show up in the list of files available for import. Can you suggest where I can look for the other half? Do I have to do something in PHOTO in order for them to show up?
My wife still prefers to use PHOTO; can we access the same photos one using LIGHTROOM and the other using PHOTOS without causing a conflict? (I realize none of the LIGHTROOM edits will be visible in PHOTO unless I export the photo from LIGHTROOM first.)
Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Dave C
I’m afraid it’s been a long time since I have looked at Photos, Dave. If you have my Lightroom CC/6 and 5: The Fundamentals & Beyond video series there is a video in there on importing from Photos. I believe Photos works with a database – I can’t say for sure that it wouldn’t work to share photos with Lightroom, but it doesn’t sound to me like a good idea.