Lightroom - Handling Folder Structures

Anybody else notice how Lightroom has changed how it handles folders?

I don't mean simply that it has changed the name from Shoots to Folders, but I'm sure that the Beta version allowed you to simply drag & drop one "shoot" on top of another, for the "dropped" shoot to then become a "child" of the other.... and to create a new "parent" was simply a matter of clicking the "+" symbol to add a new entry in the list (by typing in the text label)

Any dragging & dropping done in Version 1.0 will physically try to move the files to their new locaiton on your hard-drive.

Now, it appears, if you "import" two folders (that currently reside inside another) they are simply listed as two separate entries in the "Folders" section. OK, fine.

If you then wish to make these two folders a sub-folder of their current "parent" (as they would show in Windows Explorer, for instance), you can't. Well, you can, but nowhere near as easily as before.

The only way that I have found to do it is to click the "+" icon, choose the PARENT folder (of the two that are already in your database) - this will show a warning and list all the files that it thinks are ALREADY imported.

If at this point you click CANCEL, it will create the parent folder (anyway) and move the current two imported folders, as sub-folders below it. (BEWARE, that if you have renamed these "sub-folders" labels within Lightroom, it re-names them back to what they are currently on your hard-drive)

I hope you're following this

Anyone got an easier method of "re-assigning" folders to a parent?

TJ

It sounds like you don't have the correct folder selected for the location to be imported. When I import I usually always have more than one folder (I import by dates). I choose to have the files imported to a folder titled "To be Sorted". The imported files always become children (2007, April 5) of the parent folder (To be Sorted). I can then either move entire folders or individual files to their "real" destination folder. I don't know if any of that really helps you but I thought I would share it anyway.

Mike, if I click the "Import" button, select "from current location", navigate to the required folder (not its parent), [Ctrl]+"A" to selct all (or whatever), then import....

It puts them in a separate "folder name" (within the folders list) in Lightroom, with whatever name the original folder has.

If I did that with every folder I have on my drive I would end up with a list a mile or so long! It's the grouping of these folders "after the event" (so to speak) that proves to be a little tricky - as, unless the parent is selected at the time of the import, and the sub-folders ticked or not at that time, it doesn't make any reference in it's list (after the import) to the "parent" folder.

This seems to be getting more difficult to describe that I first thought

TJ

Did you try importing the folder, rather than all the files in the folder?

Not at first - although that is what I ended up doing (as per my first post)

Originally I wasn't going to group my folders (as they were on my HD) but then changed my mind. The only way I could find of doing it "after the event" was to select the "parent", then click "cancel" - which added it anyway, but renamed all the folder labels (that I had change) back to what they are on my hard drive.

Hope that makes sense!

TJ

TeeJay wrote in post #3074518
...
Hope that makes sense!

TJ

Nope! Clear as mud. Maybe someone else has some insight.

Corey, where are you? Oh, resident LR god!

Don't worry Mike - I sorted it in the end. (all I wanted was an easier way to add a "parent" folder AFTER I had already imported the child folders)