How do I move Lightroom photo folders to another drive without losing links?

Question

My Lightroom catalog is on a Mac Pro, and the main photo drive is getting full. I’ve added a second internal drive to use as an archive and want to move older shoots (for example, completed wedding folders) off the main drive.

What’s the best way to move those folders so Lightroom keeps track of them and doesn’t show the files as missing? If needed, I’m fine with copying first and relinking, then deleting the originals after confirming everything works.

user13555 · Accepted Answer

Step 1 - Move the files to the new location. It's important to a) Ensure they no longer exist at the original location, and be preserve their organization (ie. folder structure) on the destination.

Step 2 - Start Lightroom. Be sure you are in Library view.

If you've moved entire folders...

Step 3 - At the left, under Folders, navigate to the top-level folder which has moved

Step 4 - Right-click the folder

Step 5 - Select Find missing folder...

Step 6 - In the dialog that pops up, navigate to the folder's new location

Step 7 - Click "Choose"

OR

If you've moved individual, arbitrary images...

Step 3 - Navigate to the top-level folder which contains moved photos. Moved photos within that folder will be branded with "The file named "filename" is offline or missing." in Library 1-up view, or with a "?" in Library thumbnail view.

Step 4 - In Library thumbnail view, click the "?" of any one missing photo. LR should respond with a dialog indicating "filename could not be found... Would you like to locate it?"

Step 5 - Select "Locate". LR will respond with a file system dialog.

Step 6 - Select the new location of the image files.

Step 7 - Ensure "Find nearby missing photos" on this dialog is also checked.

Step 8 - Click "Select".

Now all your moved photos will be referenced from the new location.