Today’s Question: I’m going to get started with Lightroom Classic, and have organized my photos (about 60,000 in total) into folders on an external hard drive. When I import these photos, should I do so in small groups of folders or is it possible to import all the photos at once?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can absolutely import all the photos with a single import step, using the “Add” option in conjunction with any other settings you prefer.
More Detail: When importing photos for the first time into Lightroom Classic, there’s really no need to import the photos in batches. You can simply import the full folder structure in a single import.
After clicking the Import button at the bottom of the left panel in the Library module, you can select the source for your import from the left panel in the Import dialog. For example, you can select the external hard drive that contains all your photos, or the top-level folder for your photo storage.
At the top-center of the Import dialog select the Add option, which is for adding photos to the catalog but leaving them where they are currently stored. You can then configure the other settings on the right panel before clicking the Import button to initiate the import.
I recommend selecting the Standard option for building previews. This can take considerable time depending on how many images and the resolution of those images, among other factors. With 60,000 images I would expect the process of importing the photos to take around 15 to 30 minutes, while building previews will likely require several hours.
