There has to be a way to not lose images in the filmstrip within “Projects”! What a real pain to have to go back and “fix the image path”. Especially when nothing has changed within my catalog, SSD, etc. No name change, no rating, etc. Good grief!
I have seen other posts about this but having to delete folders, etc. is just plain abysmal!
…and if nothing helped, it’s probably best to create a ticket on support.dxo.com.
@jss455 Summary:-
Typically “lost” images occur when you undertake any movement of images that have been added to a ‘Project’ outside PL.
Sadly, PL still do not provide the ability to move directories within PL, images - yes, directories - NO!
There is one other classic situation that can cause grief, with respect to SSDs, is it the same SSD you used when you created the images added to the ‘Projects’’ and I don’t mean “has it got the same Drive Letter”?
PL identifies drives by their drive id and not by their drive letter. Present all the same directories with all the same images and the same drive letter and you will have lost all the ‘Project’ contents that related to the original drive, if the drive identifier does not tally with the one in the PL database.
Otherwise follow @platypus’s advice. @platypus is a Mac user and I am a Windows user but I am unclear about which platform you use!?
Thanks. I have screenshot and screen-video’d this issue for the DxO supports team. Not sure what they will come up with on this as there isn’t any real hiccup to the opening and functioning of the program. Only lost images within the “Projects” folders.
HI, Thanks for this. I haven’t changes any of my directories. So weird. The past two updates blew this issue up - both times! Ugh. I was able to spend the time to recreate the Projects the first time but there were so many missing the 2nd go around that I found the whole situation untenable! I do have a ticket # on this issue and DxO has been working to look to resolve the issue. Thanks again.
Geezum! Back at it again! If I remove my external drive from my Mac for travel, this issue with the “?'s” happened again! Worse this time! I alway eject the drive and then reconnect - before - opening up DxO. This is seriously crazy making. The PhotoLab techs provided no assisting with this situation! It makes me want to trash the entire program and go with something else. Oh, and trash DxO PhotoLab as I walk out the door! Good grief!
Projects containing images that reside on a removable medium will definitely show the “?” previews, when the medium is removed. The original files are absent, removed, hence, PL cannot find the image data to work with.
It’s best to close/quit PL before disconnecting the drive. This should help to prevent situations that other apps can handle, but PL was not made for such a scenario.
I think you are correct on that front. Rebuilding the “Projects” is going to be a real pain! Thank you for your assistance and advice on this quirk!
Might I suggest that you look at using Apple’s Finder Tags to mark all files that belong to a given project? These tags stay with the files, even when disconnecting and reconnecting external drives, or even sending them via mail.
When you have tagged all relevant files, from their original locations, you can then execute a search from the root of the drive and save that search as a “Smart Folder”, which you can add to the Finder Sidebar (or other location). Then you can access that Smart Folder to see all the marked images in one place
So, now you have the equivalent of a “Project” that contains references to a collection of images. And, even if you move the image files, the Smart Folder will track them and add any newly tagged files automatically.
This is what so many people forget about macOS. It is not just for running apps, it also contains some very powerful apps, built in, including a constantly updated indexing and DAM system - for free!!!
e.g. find all images with an aperture larger than f/2…
Using Finder tags seems like a good idea, but how do you find the original files if they are from several folders of the full archive? Of course, we can use PL to show the files in Finder and tag them there, one by one or bunch by bunch.
Selecting all images in PL and then showing them in Finder (I used the context menu to test) opens several Finder windows (one for each folder containing respective files) with one selected file per window - but my project contains 3 images per folder in 3 folders.
As of now, PL is not transparent in a way to allow e.g. to press option-command-I for a selection and show the Finder info window where I could add the Finder tags.
How about renaming? Add a prefix and remove it later - if necessary.
Thank you for this.
I will certainly give it a try!
Frankly, some of the smart folder techniques are a bit outside my realm of Mac Finder knowledge. But I will give it a try!
Again, thank you very much!
My basic idea is to have nothing to do with PL until you have sifted through everything in Finder, applying tags as appropriate.
Don’t forget that the tags travel with the files.
Fully agree with this principle.
From the OP, the topic is to be understood from a PL Project point of view imo. And if PL were transparent to Finder/Explorer, the principle could easily be applied in a PL project scenario. But alas, no do, so far, and I fear the DxO has other priorities.
