My files are definitely still on my mac, but they're not visible

Question

My files are definitely still on my mac, but they're not visible

Hey!

I'm a photographer and I use my Macbook Pro for storing (until I can get them over to an external hard-drive).

Recently I was going to move all my files over to my external hard-drive when I noticed that some of my folders appeared empty (but I knew it wasn't supposed to be). My Adobe Lightroom app also says that the photos are still located on my Mac (I wouldn't be able to edit the pictures unless Lightroom were able to locate them somehow).

When inside Lightroom I can right-click an image and choose "locate in finder". This locates the exact photo (in the empty folder), but it's greyed out.

Does anyone have an explanation for this? Anyone had this problem before?

After I decided to buy the Macbook Pro **** like this keeps happening. There's always a problem.

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Nov 24, 2024 12:40 PM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

84,077 points

Nov 24, 2024 1:51 PM in response to tobias_norway

command-shift-period shows invisible files.

If you see files that appear grayed out in the Finder, they are intended to be invisible to avoid being deleted by accident which could cause problem for the software reading the file.

You could boot the Mac into safe mode (hold shift key at startup) so Lightroom doesn't use any resources trying to access the files while you try to copy them elsewhere.

I'd also enquire on Adobe Support, as this relates to Lightroom itself.

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Answer 2

Nov 24, 2024 2:21 PM in response to a brody

This was actually very helpful. At least now I can see them (and move them). Haven't quite found out how to un-hide them in any way that I understand. I've found quite a lot of guides on different forums, but none that seems easy.

And I can't quite understand how this happened in the first place. After pressing command-shirt-period there were actually quite a few folders and files that appeared on different places. So this seems quite random.

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Answer 3

Nov 24, 2024 3:20 PM in response to tobias_norway

it may be that Lightroom keeps those files in a Library, and makes them invisible so that your will not try to move them around and mess up the Library.

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