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Author Topic: Catalog import quandry  (Read 1383 times)

spotmeter

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Catalog import quandry
« on: June 19, 2010, 01:30:46 pm »

The prior assistant who set up Lightroom for me made a mistake in the import function and I now find I have 54 Lightroom catalogs!

I have just upgraded to Lightroom 3 and would like to combine all the catalogs into one.

There are some possible problems.

During the past seven years, I have used three different cameras--Canon 10D, 5D and 5D2. I am concerned that some of the images may have the same file number and so may be seen as duplicates by Lightroom.  All of my cameras have been set up to record file numbers consecutively.

The changes made to a photograph in one Lightroom catalogue could be different than changes made in a prior catalogue. Is there some way to find the dates on the catalogues so that we import the latest first?  In this way, I hope to get the lastest changes on each image.

Finally, how should we set up the import function in Lightroom to make sure this does not happen again?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
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wolfnowl

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Catalog import quandry
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2010, 03:16:06 pm »

Hi There:

I'm not sure how you ended up with 54 catalogs, but I thought I'd muddy the waters for you a little bit.  I tried importing my LR2 catalog into my existing LR3 catalog and Lightroom wouldn't do it.  I tried converting the LR 2 catalog to LR 3 and then importing it, and I tried converting it on import, telling Lightroom to throw away the conversion after import.  Neither one worked, so I dutifully submitted a report to Tom Hogarty's Bug Report form.  I received an e-mail back saying that they discovered the bug after LR3 shipped, but Lightroom won't import a catalog if the catalog to be imported has the same folder(s) as the catalog into which you're trying to import it.  As I mentioned, I tried converting the LR 2 catalog to a separate LR 3 catalog and importing that, and ran into the same challenge.  I'm on Windows 7; I don't know if the Mac version has the same problems.

Now, you can tell Lightroom not to import suspected duplicates, so that may help you with your duplicate file names issue.  Otherwise I believe it will label them as filename-2, filename-3 rather than overwriting an image that's already in that folder in the catalog.  As far as developed images, unless I'm mistaken LR will use the most recent develop settings for an image based on the date in the metadata.

As far as not doing this again, you can decide on import how to import files (copy as DNG, copy, move or add), and you can also tell Lightroom where to copy or move the files if you choose that option.  You can also add metadata and/or develop presets on import, and you can save those as import presets.  The Import feature is really quite powerful.

Sounds like your assistant has some work to do.

Mike.
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neil snape

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Catalog import quandry
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2010, 02:41:12 am »

Quote from: wolfnowl
Hi There:

I'm not sure how you ended up with 54 catalogs, but I thought I'd muddy the waters for you a little bit.  I tried importing my LR2 catalog into my existing LR3 catalog and Lightroom wouldn't do it.  I tried converting the LR 2 catalog to LR 3 and then importing it, and I tried converting it on import, telling Lightroom to throw away the conversion after import.  Neither one worked, so I dutifully submitted a report to Tom Hogarty's Bug Report form.  I received an e-mail back saying that they discovered the bug after LR3 shipped, but Lightroom won't import a catalog if the catalog to be imported has the same folder(s) as the catalog into which you're trying to import it.  As I mentioned, I tried converting the LR 2 catalog to a separate LR 3 catalog and importing that, and ran into the same challenge.  I'm on Windows 7; I don't know if the Mac version has the same problems.

Now, you can tell Lightroom not to import suspected duplicates, so that may help you with your duplicate file names issue.  Otherwise I believe it will label them as filename-2, filename-3 rather than overwriting an image that's already in that folder in the catalog.  As far as developed images, unless I'm mistaken LR will use the most recent develop settings for an image based on the date in the metadata.

As far as not doing this again, you can decide on import how to import files (copy as DNG, copy, move or add), and you can also tell Lightroom where to copy or move the files if you choose that option.  You can also add metadata and/or develop presets on import, and you can save those as import presets.  The Import feature is really quite powerful.

Sounds like your assistant has some work to do.

Mike.


On the Mac , if there are duplicate images ( not sure about folders) you'll get an unknown error returned and cannot import. Yet on start up you can choose your LR 2 catalogue or LR3 from the beta and that works fine.
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Rendezvous

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Catalog import quandry
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2010, 03:04:16 am »

Quote from: neil snape
On the Mac , if there are duplicate images ( not sure about folders) you'll get an unknown error returned and cannot import. Yet on start up you can choose your LR 2 catalogue or LR3 from the beta and that works fine.


Are you sure it won't recognise them as separate images? Sure the file names may be the same (possibly different extension as they're front different models), but the capture time and dates are bound to be different.
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