LR5 Can't find files that are there!! Help

I have LR5 Installed on a mac. I have the weirdest issue. It all started when I got a new external hard drive.

I moved my entire photo collection from my mac drive to the external hard drive. I did this within LR5 by dragging folder to new drive. I gave it many hours to move everything. Everything copied fine except for my last folder. The files copied, I could go in finder and see it was all there, LR would not recognize them. I finally got that figured out, but the edits won't show up. It is not reading the .xmp files.

hmm, to better explain. I can see the files. I can see the edits (highlights and all the exposure edits I did) But i get the ! in the upper corner of picture saying it can't locate file.

When I go to locate missing file, I go to folder where file is. Click on it, and LR says file is already associated with another file?????????? Almost like it sees the file. but cannot read the .xmp??

I have tried synchronizing folder.... nothing. How do I force Lightroom to read this file?

Update. i can see the files in the library. It is when I go to my collections is where the issue is happening.

The work around I found was to simply copy the files from the folder to the collection again, and once i have verified that the files are identicle, I delete the file in the collection that LR5 can't find.

Is there a way for me to avoid this in the future?

bphillips330 wrote in post #16221182
Update. i can see the files in the library. It is when I go to my collections is where the issue is happening.

The work around I found was to simply copy the files from the folder to the collection again, and once i have verified that the files are identicle, I delete the file in the collection that LR5 can't find.

Is there a way for me to avoid this in the future?

Well, from what you describe it should have worked, the collection should be intact when moving the files/folders. As to why it "misbehaved" with the one folder, well, who knows? Sometimes s**t happens, you know!