This can confuse Lightroom, requiring you to relink missing files on a regular basis. (When using external drives, Lightroom doesn’t change the drive letters, but Windows often does. If the drive letter/name has changed, you can change it back using Computer Management (Windows) or Finder (Mac), or you can move on to step 3 and reconnect the individual folders. If the drive is disconnected, plug it back in or reconnect to the network storage. If the answer’s yes, why is the drive offline? Is it disconnected? If you’re on Windows, has the drive letter changed? If you’re on a Mac, has the drive name changed?

Is the whole drive offline, shown by dark gray text and a gray rectangle on the left? If you get stuck, try using Windows Search or macOS Spotlight to search for one of the filenames. Once you’ve found them on your hard drive using Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac), you can move on to step 2. Lightroom can’t tell you where you’ve put the files if you’ve moved/renamed/deleted them using other software, so you first need to locate the missing files.

First, you must find the files on your hard drive.

If you start relinking missing photos before you relink missing folders and drives, you can create a bigger job. The quickest way to fix the missing files is to follow these instructions in order. Then fix it as soon as you can, using the instructions below, as problems tend to snowball if you ignore them. First, stop and work out the extent of the problem, and if you can, why it’s happened. If Lightroom tells you that files are missing, don’t panic.

If you do so, you may lose the work you’ve done in Lightroom. If you have missing photos or folders, don’t be tempted to synchronize the folder or re-import the photos until you’ve explored every other possibility.

Lightroom 6