File missing or offline in Lightroom 3

Typically I just import photos from my cameras SD card into Lightroom which automatically places them into a folder on my HD by date. I eject the SD card after I'm finished.

We had a friend take some photos who then gave us a CD of the originals she took, I imported them into Lightroom from the CD, but when I eject the CD, Lightroom gives me a "file is missing or offline" message. Is there something I need to do differently when importing from a CD as opposed to an SD card?

You can't just import from a CD; you have to also copy/move the files from the CD to your hard drive or Lightroom will tell you the file is missing or offline when the CD is ejected.

The reason is that Lightroom sees a CD as a storage medium while it regards a camera as a temporary input source.

Just to add: you will need the CD, and put it in to get things "up and running". One approach: if you haven't done any "serious" editing to the images, when you put in the CD, in the Library module you can Delete the images from the library. Then, you can open the Import module (Ctl-Shift-I). Then, at the left make sure you have the CD selected as the source. At the top you will have the choice to Add (which was done earlier) or Copy, which you want to do, so select it. Then, at the right you will have the "normal" choiced for Destination like you would if inserting a camera memory card.


will need to copy the images into a folder on your hard drive.

Thanks, I appreciate the help. That makes sense.

tonylong wrote in post #13332594
Just to add: you will need the CD, and put it in to get things "up and running". One approach: if you haven't done any "serious" editing to the images, when you put in the CD, in the Library module you can Delete the images from the library. Then, you can open the Import module (Ctl-Shift-I). Then, at the left make sure you have the CD selected as the source. At the top you will have the choice to Add (which was done earlier) or Copy, which you want to do, so select it. Then, at the right you will have the "normal" choiced for Destination like you would if inserting a camera memory card.


will need to copy the images into a folder on your hard drive.

I haven't done any editing on them, and don't really plan to. Was mainly importing them into LR so they're easily findable later on if we want them. So, I'll likely take your approach and just remove them all from the library and re-import them properly. Thanks.