Using external hard drives to store photos and videos is incredibly useful and common. So now that you understand what the root cause is and how to avoid the problem, let’s look at how to fix things just in case this should ever happen to you. Unfortunately, that is not very intuitive to new Lightroom users, hence the number of questions I get on this topic. However, if you use Lightroom to move, rename, or delete photos and folders, then that task is performed by Lightroom, and the information is updated inside the catalog as part of the process. It is like when you leave the TV remote on the coffee table and your significant other comes along when you are not there and puts it somewhere else, and then you have no idea where it went, but perhaps I digress. The place where people often run into trouble is when they revert to using other software (usually out of old habit) to move, rename, or delete their imported photos outside of Lightroom, which then results in the location path stored in the catalog becoming out of sync with the actual state of those photos. The same is true on Windows except that it starts with the drive letter. On a Mac, that goes from the volume name to the file name, and includes every folder in between. That location information is stored inside the Lightroom catalog as an absolute path. One of the core purposes of the import process is to inform the Lightroom catalog where your imported photos (and videos) are stored on your drive (remember, your photos are never actually inside of Lightroom). Once you understand this relationship, these problems are easily avoided. The bread and butter of answering questions on the Lightroom Help Desk for KelbyOne is helping people solve problems that stem from misunderstanding the relationship between the photos managed by Lightroom and the Lightroom catalog file. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC (2015 release) / Lightroom 6 Learn by Video
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