LR3 Previously Edited File Gone

Why has my file/files disappeared from the LR3 listing that I've worked on in the past. I.E. had some baseball pics that I edited in LR3 and exported them for printing. A few months later I want to go back and make some minor changes. The file is missing, not missing in windows explorer but only in LR3. I haven't renamed the file, moved it, or changed it in any way. I don't want to have to import them again because I don't want to lose the editeds that I've made.
1. What is happening to this file and some others?
2. How can I get them back into LR3

Individual files are missing or the entire folder?

tzalman wrote in post #12827300
Individual files are missing or the entire folder?

The entire folder. It's where it is suppose to be in windows explorer, but just not showing up under the folders section in LR3

Well, that's an interesting quandary you have yourself in. I've never seen Lightroom do anything like that on its own. But I've seen people accidentally or inadvertently do something that had unintended consequences in LR.

My best advice at this point would be to carefully retrace your steps going back to where you Exported the images. Of course there's a few possibilities, but I don't know how easy it will be to figure it out. Sometimes things do jump out at us and then we feel silly about how easy it was. You can hope!

Do you backup your catalog regularly? (I hope so.) Backups do not overwrite each other, each one is in a separate dated folder. I am a bit lax about deleting old ones and often get a dozen or so of them accumulated before I do the housekeeping and trash all but the last three. So, with LR closed navigate in Explorer to the backups and double click on the oldest one with a date after you originally imported that missing folder . If the folder is there, in the File menu select your regular working catalog from Open Catalog or Open Recent. LR will close and reopen with the current catalog. Now do Import From Catalog and import that backup catalog.

tzalman wrote in post #12829954
Do you backup your catalog regularly? (I hope so.) Backups do not overwrite each other, each one is in a separate dated folder. I am a bit lax about deleting old ones and often get a dozen or so of them accumulated before I do the housekeeping and trash all but the last three. So, with LR closed navigate in Explorer to the backups and double click on the oldest one with a date after you originally imported that missing folder . If the folder is there, in the File menu select your regular working catalog from Open Catalog or Open Recent. LR will close and reopen with the current catalog. Now do Import From Catalog and import that backup catalog.

That did it. Thank you so much for the help. All the old "missing folders" came back. Thank you again! I was about to loose it.