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Author Topic: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer  (Read 3588 times)

Javier S.

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Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« on: December 03, 2016, 06:30:39 am »

Hi:

I´ve got a new computer in wich I´ve installed 2 of the old HD, one with LR and the other with all the files (around 120.000).

Afterwards I´copied the files to a new HD (6 Tb) and want to tell LR to use the files and folders of the new HD (wich are just mirrored from the old one).

To get the new HD recognized, I did an import of the whole catalog (powerfull computer with 128 RAM) and many of the folders  and files are not in the catalog now.

I can get sincronizing folder by folder, but is a pain, as I have to be checking as well the number of files on each one to be sure everything is in there.

By the way I have LR installed on an different HD tan the one with the files are

Got a couple of books about LR and found no explanation about it.

Wich would it be the best way to achive this?

I´m not sure to have internet conexión in the next 8 days, so probably I won´t be able to answer regularly any answer.

Most probably this have a very easy answer but I havn´t been able to find it.

Yhank you for your patience

Javier
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john beardsworth

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2016, 06:39:27 am »

To get the new HD recognized, I did an import of the whole catalog (powerfull computer with 128 RAM) and many of the folders  and files are not in the catalog now.

Here is your big mistake. You should have copied the Lightroom catalogue from the old computer and opened it on the new one - no importing.

If any folders are missing, you do not synchronize - you right click the folders and update the folder location.

So go back to this step. Find the catalogue on the old computer or from your backup, and get it open on the new computer.

John

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Mark D Segal

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2016, 07:36:55 am »

Here is your big mistake. You should have ................

John

John, I think the REALLY big mistake isn't all of that. The big mistake is not doing one's homework before acting. I don't want to sound like a scold here, my purpose in responding this way is to help people more fully appreciate that the way in which this application was developed for its Library Module is not so intuitive; seemingly logical things one may think should work simply don't necessarily and repairing mistakes can be tedious. Javier is far from the only one having experienced difficulty in this area. The concept of the LR catalog and the concepts of say Adobe Bridge or the usual computer document file structures are deceptively similar but actually quite different. And from the start to this day, Lightroom has not been particularly user-friendly in respect of moving things and synchronizing between hosts. There is development work remaining to be done in this area. It's all doable of course, but reading first and doing after is HIGHLY recommended in this case, and I'm not exempting myself from this advice. I've been using this application since version 1, but I still went back to Martin Evening's book and Victoria Bamptom's LR FAQ a couple of weeks ago before undertaking some catalog moves between my MacBook Pro and my MacPro, which as a result of that homework I managed successfully. I might also add that from what I've seen of Capture One Pro - it's file management design concepts make it much easier to move stuff around between various hosts quite easily without things falling apart.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Javier S.

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2016, 07:57:29 am »

Thank you very much. I´ll read those recommended and check it in a week time.

By the way, I opened the catalog as you suggested but the new disk was not found. Then, after the imported action, this could be done, but LR still address to the old HD for the files and didn´t find a way to tell it I wanted to read the files from the new HD.

And Mark, You´re right. Homework should be made always before, but I was in a hurry and did all I could after research but I needed to download a travel to Uganda before departing again.

I´m thinking in starting all over again.

BTW, the Scott Kelby´s book didn´t help much. I´ll check Martin Evening´s for this.

Again, thank you
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2016, 08:07:50 am »

You are welcome - I also recommend Victoria Bamptom's LR FAQ - she covers this topic somewhat differently from Martin Evening, such that between the two of them you have a well-rounded explanation of how all this works and what to do in various situations.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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JoachimStrobel

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2016, 03:00:08 am »

I am not sure if you have your answer already. By now you probably realized that you should have copied the files from within LR. A quick fix is, to give the new drive the same letter as the old one, so LR would be fooled to assume that disks never changed
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Osprey

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2016, 09:01:23 pm »

With iTunes and Lightroom I've learned one thing about migrations: just replicating the original environment with the same drive letters and paths is by far the most pain free way of migrating data to new drives. Just use whatever means you have of cloning the old drive and then call the new drive by the same drive letter where your Lightroom catalog expects it to be found.  Then you just move the catalog over and use it as if nothing changed. 
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2016, 09:15:33 pm »

With iTunes and Lightroom I've learned one thing about migrations: just replicating the original environment with the same drive letters and paths is by far the most pain free way of migrating data to new drives. Just use whatever means you have of cloning the old drive and then call the new drive by the same drive letter where your Lightroom catalog expects it to be found.  Then you just move the catalog over and use it as if nothing changed.

Makes sense - being careful to note that by "data" one must also include for the migration of the image files themselves if they are to be moved as well, such that the LR catalog knows where to find them. Always important to remember that the catalog does not store the photos - it contains pointers to the photos; a successful outcome is not only that the catalog is moved, but that it works as previously, finding the image content you call up from it.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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mbaginy

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2016, 02:03:50 am »

That’s one of the topics discussed and explained in Michael's and Seth's video tutorial, „Digital Asset Management, Where the Heck are my Pictures?”.  Two hours and forty minutes well worth watching!
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Javier S.

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #9 on: December 05, 2016, 04:44:30 pm »

Tks
I'll be checking that as soon as I'm back home.
I'll change the disk names, but first I'll watch that video and read what Mark suggested so I'm not falling on the same stone again.
BTW the disk have been copied in full in the new ones exactly from the original masters before I started what I supposed was to take a few minutes...

This bussines is not for the braves but for the prepared ones, I learned

Thank you all
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JoachimStrobel

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Re: Migration of Adobe Lightroom catalog to a new computer
« Reply #10 on: December 06, 2016, 12:01:57 am »

External disks may see their drive letter being changed if moved to other systems and back, at least in Windows. It seems that the system rembers a forced letter assignment and honours it in the future. I rename the disk to reflect its drive letter so I remember it always should I need to force it. So I call my photo drive "drive L". 
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