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Author Topic: Best way to transfer images edited on my laptop back into LR when I get home?  (Read 3260 times)

uintaangler

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Yes, I know this has been asked before and I apologize.
Please understand that those of us with very limited computer skills require incredibly literal directions or we are certain to fail  :'(
I keep my entire LR Catalog and Library on an external hard drive that stays at home
When I travel I take a smaller portable drive that I use with my laptop to download images and do editing in my downtime on the trip
When I get home, I download the images from the CF and SD cards ( again ) to my main LR setup
If I really like what I got while editing on the trip, I plug in the travel drive and download the specific finished Tiff files to get them into my main LR catalog ( I think they are getting into the catalog? )
Here's what I would prefer doing…..
Set up a new catalog on a clean travel drive.
Download images into folders like I do when at home
Edit, Process
Move those folders into my main LR catalog when I get home with all edits and processing and previews intact
Can anybody give me a step by step for the correct way to make this work?
Thanks,
Bob
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john beardsworth

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Do as you propose, with a new catalogue on a clean drive.

When you get home, attach the travel drive to your main computer, open LR, and use File > Import from Another Catalog. Point to the catalogue on the travel drive, and import it.

John
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uintaangler

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John,
Thanks for your response.
What confuses me is this….. the new, temporary catalog is a different catalog from my main LR Catalog - so does that give me a catalog inside a catalog?
Bob
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john beardsworth

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No, Bob, it records in your main catalogue all the work (adjustments and metadata) that was recorded in the temporary catalogue, and brings over the locations of the pictures too.

Initially the pictures can remain on the travel drive, or you can copy them to your main computer as part of the Import from Catalogue process.

I'd recommend you test this procedure with a few pictures. It's quite elegant, and brings over all your work (methods based on xmp files don't do this).

John
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Simon Garrett

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As John says, "Import from Another Catalog" doesn't import the catalog, just files (or folders of files) from another catalog.  You don't end up with a catalog within a catalog!

This is what I do, too.  I have a catalog on my laptop, and create new folders in that for stuff I process away from home.  When I get home, I connect the laptop to my home network, so my main computer can see the laptop, then use Import from another catalog on my main computer.  Make sure you check the option to copy images.  If you don't have a network, easiest is to "export as catalog" from the laptop to an external drive, move the drive to the main computer, and "import from another catalog". 

Try it.  You might find things end up in the wrong place till you've worked out the idiosyncracies, but it's easy to move stuff around in Lightroom. 
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wolfnowl

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Think of it this way. LR is essentially a database program, and the catalogue is the database. What the catalogue does is create dynamic links to where each image is stored, and add information based on that first record.  Now, forgetting about LR, let's talk about backing up a hard drive.  Let's say you have an internal drive, and an external drive. You want to back up image on the internal drive to the external drive. Any new files on the internal drive are automatically added to the external drive. If you have exactly the same file on both drives, it doesn't do anything. If you have an existing file on the external drive but the same file on the internal drive has more recent edits, then it copies the file information over to the external drive and updates it.

LR's doing the same thing. When you import another catalogue it adds information for new files and looks at the last-edited dates for existing files, keeping the 'newer' version of the information from either catalogue. 

Mike.

P.S. We talk about images as if they're complete units, like a print, but they aren't. They're just 1s and 0s, coded as little electrical signals on magnetic media and the like.

Mike.
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uintaangler

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I'm still missing something  ???
I opened up my laptop and plugged in a brand new Seagate Portable 1.5 TB Portable External Drive - which I intend to use as my "temporary, travel drive " for Lightroom
When I opened up Lightroom 5, which is installed on my MacBook Pro, I opened the Dialog Box for creating a new Lightroom Catalog - as was recommended in the previous responses to my query
I named it Lightroom_Catalog but when I tried to use the external drive as the location for this new catalog - I got a message saying that you cannot use an external volume as the location for a Lightroom Catalog
I am stumped - please help!
Thanks.
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wolfnowl

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Not a Mac person, so I trust someone else will chime in here... you can't store a LR catalogue on a Network drive; if your computer trying to connect to this drive as part of a network?

Mike.
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john beardsworth

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I named it Lightroom_Catalog but when I tried to use the external drive as the location for this new catalog - I got a message saying that you cannot use an external volume as the location for a Lightroom Catalog

That's odd. Usually the restriction is on network locations and I just tested creating a new catalogue on an external drive without a problem. It could be a Mac "feature" that I'm unaware of, but I'd look at aspects of the drive. Look at it in Finder and try Get Info - have you write permissions? How is it formatted? It'll be something along those lines.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2014, 04:41:00 am by john beardsworth »
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Tony Jay

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That's odd. Usually the restriction is on network locations and I just tested creating a new catalogue on an external drive without a problem. It could be a Mac "feature" that I'm unaware of, but I'd look at aspects of the drive. Look at at it Finder and try Get Info - have you write permissions? How is it formatted? It'll be something along those lines.
There aren't any restrictions on a Mac per se.
I agree with your suggestions to check the characteristics of the drive in question.

Tony Jay
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ario

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Is the HD formatted in a way which allows a Mac to write on it? If it is NFTS, Mac OS X has read only support for this format. It has no capabilities to write to an NTFS drive.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2014, 04:21:24 am by ario »
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john beardsworth

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If it is NFTS, Mac OS X has read only support for this format. It has no capabilities to write to an NTFS drive.

Paragon or Tuxera would allow you to do so, but unlikely here.
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matoqui

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This is what I do.
1) work on the pictures on my laptop
2) when I get back home, select all the pictures I want to transfer, and go to "File/Export as Catalog..."
3) I create a folder on the portable drive for the new catalog, usually select "Export selected photos only", "Export negative files" and "Include available previews" on the pop-up window, and give the new catalog a name. Them press on "Export".
4) Exit Lightroom after it is done exporting, eject and unplug the portable drive from the laptop
5) Plug the portable drive on the desktop, run Lightroom, go to "File/Import from another catalog" and import the file created by the laptop

bns

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I might suggest you also view the free George Jardin tutorials on exporting and importing catalogues: http://mulita.com/training/thanks-cat-management/

Cheers, Boudewijn Swanenburg
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