Today’s Question: I have a file system based on years and then months and I’ll be continuing this approach with my new computer. However, when I imported photos into the catalog where I want one folder for each month, I’m ending up with subfolders for each day as well. How can I get rid of the subfolders so that all my February photos are in folder for the month instead of by folders for each date?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can consolidate photos into monthly folders by selecting the images within each “day” folder, then dragging and dropping them into the appropriate “month” folder, all within Lightroom Classic. You can disable the creation of additional subfolders by day by selecting one of the Date Format options in the Import dialog that only includes a month option, rather than also including a day option.
More Detail: One of the challenges of using a date-based folder structure in Lightroom Classic is that it can be very easy to have the folder structure get a bit chaotic and disorganized.
To clean up a date-based folder mess after import, you can consolidate images from multiple folders. For example, with today’s question the solution would be to select the photos within a “day” folder and then drag those selected photos to the appropriate “month” folder. Once all photos have been removed from a folder, you can right-click on that folder and choose the “Remove” option.
To ensure the unwanted day-based folders are no longer created upon import, you’ll want to be sure to select an option from the Date Format popup in the Destination section of the right panel in the Import dialog. Note that this popup is only available after you have selected the “By date” option from the Organize popup.
When using the “By date” option from the Organize popup, it is also critically important that you have set the correct “master” destination folder as the folder to which you want to copy photos during import. For example, you could set the destination at the top-right of the Import dialog to an external hard drive you’re using to store all of your photos, or to a “Photos” folder on a particular drive. That way the date-based folders created based on your settings in the Destination section will result in a consistent set of date-based folders within the master storage location, rather than having a potentially chaotic folder structure.
To learn more about tidying up folders and photos in Lightroom Classic, and to get a discount on the course applied automatically, use this link to visit the GreyLearning website: