Loosing collections when exporting catalogues

[tommm]

I keep extensive collections which include collection sets nested inside collection sets (like a folder hierarchy). When exporting a catalogue I lose any collections and collection sets that where inside a collection set (which include at least one nested collection set - hope this makes sense).

Anybody else found the same and is there a way round it?

Thanks,

Tom

[john beardsworth]

http://regex.info/blog/2010-07-30/1581

Also, try Publish.

[tommm]

Thanks but not quite what I'm after. Maybe I should rephrase it. Would like to be able to export a catalogue which when I import back in to a different lightroom catalogue has kept all the collections that were in the initial catalogue. Currently any collection sets inside other collection sets loose all their collections! Anyone else find the same and any solutions??

Tom

[john beardsworth]

Then it sounds like you need to investigate File > Export as Catalog and its reverse File > Import from Catalog.

[tommm]

Yes, thanks, that's what I've been doing and it fails to carry over any collections which are inside collection sets that are themselves inside collection sets. Collections just in one collection set carry over fine but the vast majority of my collections are inside collection sets nested inside other collection sets. Is lightroom unable to export this complexity in collections? If it is it severely limits the usability of collections.

Thanks,

Tom

[john beardsworth]

I thought it did. It may depend on whether one of the exported images is in one of those sets, but I'd have to test it.

[Nat Coalson]

From what you've described, this sound like a bug to me... when you export a catalog, all the collections containing any affected photos should carry over, including sets.

Keep in mind that collections and sets will only be exported if the images being exported are in those collections/sets. IN other words, if the photos you're exporting as a catalog aren't contained in certain collections, those will not be exported to the new catalog.

But if sets are being lost, I suspect something's wrong internally, and there's probably nothing you can do about it. That said, you'll need to do some test exports using controlled factors. I'd recommend making a set of sets ;-) just for this purpose.

See if the level of nesting is making all the difference, or consider other factors too: smart collections vs. regular collections, collection names, how many photos in the collections/sets, and whether the photos exist in multiple collections/sets.

I'll be very interested to hear what you can consistently reproduce, and if it's a bug, this is a big one that should be reported to Adobe.

[jborrows]

I think it might be a bug too. I exported a catalog and it won't include web gallery collections or print collections.
See my post over in the Lightroom Forums:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/692631?tstart=90

Thanks,
JB

From what you've described, this sound like a bug to me... when you export a catalog, all the collections containing any affected photos should carry over, including sets.

Keep in mind that collections and sets will only be exported if the images being exported are in those collections/sets. IN other words, if the photos you're exporting as a catalog aren't contained in certain collections, those will not be exported to the new catalog.

But if sets are being lost, I suspect something's wrong internally, and there's probably nothing you can do about it. That said, you'll need to do some test exports using controlled factors. I'd recommend making a set of sets ;-) just for this purpose.

See if the level of nesting is making all the difference, or consider other factors too: smart collections vs. regular collections, collection names, how many photos in the collections/sets, and whether the photos exist in multiple collections/sets.

I'll be very interested to hear what you can consistently reproduce, and if it's a bug, this is a big one that should be reported to Adobe.

[tommm]

It would seem to be a bug. Nat - I was exporting my entire catalogue in order to follow Mr Schewe's recommendation for a clean up of the catalogue.

I'm not sure what the criteria are that cause the collections to be lost, as an attempted workaround I de-nested all my collection sets to only be one level deep - that is one collection set with only collections in it (no collection sets nested inside collection sets) and even having done this some collection sets are then empty when the catalogue is re-imported.

Afraid I haven't really go time to try and narrow down what's causing it, just going to rebuild the missing collections but certainly seems to be a bug. How does one report it to the lightroom engineers?

Thanks for all the input.

Tom

[tommm]

Update - opening the exported catalogue rather than importing it into another catalogue results in all collections being intact so it is obviously the importing stage which looses the collections. For me this solves the problem as I was exporting the catalogue merely as a clean up procedure and I only operate from one catalogue but for some users I should imagine this is going to be a royal pain in the ass.

Tom