Lightroom - Migration from PC to Mac

[Ducamantova]

Hi,

I'm considering converting to Mac (probably a MacBook Pro) from my current PC based setup (Sony Vaio laptop, Windows 7, LR5 on Creative Cloud). Some questions, if I may  :

(1) Will I be able to 'Migrate' (convert ?) my existing LR5 Catalogues from PC to Mac, or are they simply incompatible ?

(2) Will I be able to load PC generated PSDs / TIFFs into a Mac, or is there a conversion process ?  I know that when you save TIFFs it gives you a PC / Mac option.

(3) Will a Mac be able to 'read' my external hard drives..  I have a 1TB drive that I plug into the Vaio, and then back it up via Wi-Fi to a Netgear Stora with 2x1TB 'mirrored' drives.

(4) Are there any good resources (Articles, Blogs) based on users experience on this matter that I can look at ?  I have the (excellent) Lu-la LR training videos, but they don't address this.

Regards,

Mungo

[PeterAit]

You must be a masochist.

[Mac Mahon]

Hi,

I'm considering converting to Mac (probably a MacBook Pro) from my current PC based setup (Sony Vaio laptop, Windows 7, LR5 on Creative Cloud). Some questions, if I may  :

(1) Will I be able to 'Migrate' (convert ?) my existing LR5 Catalogues from PC to Mac, or are they simply incompatible ?

(2) Will I be able to load PC generated PSDs / TIFFs into a Mac, or is there a conversion process ?  I know that when you save TIFFs it gives you a PC / Mac option.

(3) Will a Mac be able to 'read' my external hard drives..  I have a 1TB drive that I plug into the Vaio, and then back it up via Wi-Fi to a Netgear Stora with 2x1TB 'mirrored' drives.

(4) Are there any good resources (Articles, Blogs) based on users experience on this matter that I can look at ?  I have the (excellent) Lu-la LR training videos, but they don't address this.

Regards,

Mungo

1   Yes.  Copy your current catalog to the new computer (or an accessible disk). I believe you will simply be able to open your current catalog in LR.  At worst you should have to do no more than create a new blank catalog and import from your existing catalog. 
2   Yes.  No conversion required
3   Yes - assuming the external drives were MSDos FAT formatted normally.  When you're setting up new drives you'd want to consider reformatting in Mac OS Extended format.
4   Have you tried the Lightroom Forums?



Tim

[john beardsworth]

I think the original poster deserves a better answer than that, Peter.

Hi,

I'm considering converting to Mac (probably a MacBook Pro) from my current PC based setup (Sony Vaio laptop, Windows 7, LR5 on Creative Cloud). Some questions, if I may   :

(1) Will I be able to 'Migrate' (convert ?) my existing LR5 Catalogues from PC to Mac, or are they simply incompatible ?

They are 100% compatible.

(2) Will I be able to load PC generated PSDs / TIFFs into a Mac, or is there a conversion process ?  I know that when you save TIFFs it gives you a PC / Mac option.

Again, no problem.

(3) Will a Mac be able to 'read' my external hard drives..  I have a 1TB drive that I plug into the Vaio, and then back it up via Wi-Fi to a Netgear Stora with 2x1TB 'mirrored' drives.

This is more difficult. Mac should be able to read these drives, assuming they are NTFS or FAT32 formatted. Writing to them is more variable - if they are FAT32, OK, but if they are NTFS you'll need a utility such as Tuxera or Paragon.

(4) Are there any good resources (Articles, Blogs) based on users experience on this matter that I can look at ?  I have the (excellent) Lu-la LR training videos, but they don't address this.

Consider what you would do if you moved between two PCs. It's not that different or much more difficult.

Two key steps:

• Backup everything, so there's no harm if it all goes wrong.
• Move the folder structure exactly as it is on the PC. If they're staying on the EHD's, that can be taken for granted. But don't be tempted to do any reorganisation - do that once you've moved.

Now, importantly, do you know what your catalogue is? ie do you know where your catalogue's lrcat file is located in your PC's folders? If not, stop now and ask. If you do know what I mean, then you can move on and prepare the catalogue before copying it from the PC.

One small step is to run Find Missing Photos - if any are reported missing, tell LR where they are. But the main step is to right click folders so that your Folders panel shows only a few top level folders. This is because when you open the catalogue to Mac, your folders will initially appear to be missing because the Mac records the folder paths differently. With a few top level folders, you can then right click them and point them to the Mac's folder path. Once that's done (and you confirm evrything is OK with Find Missing Photos) you're good to go.

Clearer?

John

[Ducamantova]

Guys,

Wow !! Thank you so much for your help - and for being so fast, too.  I shall read through them carefully in the morning.  And confirm which format my Hard Drives are in !

Thanks again,

Regards,

Mungo

[Schewe]

One slight additional issue when moving from computer to computer (and it's not a Mac/PC issue) is that your templates and presets are stored pretty deep in the system.

If you have the option to Store Presets with this catalog" option in the general preferences, presets will move with the catalog (they are stored in the catalog folder) but not your templates.

Saved and imported presets and templates have filenames ending in .lrtemplate and are located in C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\. After moving LR over to the Mac, place those same subfolders to //Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/ folder. Presets and templates are cross platform compatible...

Of course, you'll need to rebuild (or update) any print based templates in the Print module because you'll be using completely different print drivers.

[Ducamantova]

Thank you so so much - that is exactly the sort of 'gotcha' that isn't mentioned anywhere...   

Cheers,

Mungo

[Ducamantova]

Hi again !

# Deep Breath# I've now ordered my 15 inch MacBook pro with 64 Bit OSX.  I shall be eating beans for a while...

I have Lightroom 5 (Creative Cloud) and currently use a Windows 7 32 bit Laptop and a 1TB external HDD (connected via USB2, designated as my 'G' Drive) that stores my LR Catalogues and the Library of Photos that LR has created. I'm concerned that all my current LR catalogues point to this external G drive.  I plan to connect my MacBook pro to a (new) external RAID drive via Thunderbolt, which will contain my 'Master' LR5 Catalogues and photo Libraries once they are transferred.  My Questions are :

(1) Will I need to designate this drive to be a 'G' Drive - does Mac work that way ?  How will my transferred Catalogues 'find' the photos ? I don't want to have to go through the (prolonged) pain of finding all the photos manually...

(2) How do I ensure that the Windows Hierarchy (on the PC formatted HDD) is 'replicated' on the new Mac formatted RAID drive when it is transferred ?  I gather that Macs don't naturally store folders and files in this way.  Is there a particular App that facilitates this ?

Thanks for your help,

Regards,

Mungo

[Manoli]

(1) Will I need to designate this drive to be a 'G' Drive - does Mac work that way ?  How will my transferred Catalogues 'find' the photos ? I don't want to have to go through the (prolonged) pain of finding all the photos manually...

You don't designate drive letters in Mac OS X. Instead of G drive, you'll name it, for example 'duca_drive' (or any name you wish within reason).

1 - follow Jeff Schewe and John B's advice above.
1a perform a backup - again
2 - if you need to move or sync any files before copying them to the Mac, make sure you do it within Lightroom
3 - make sure you know where your .lrcat catalog file is.

(2) How do I ensure that the Windows Hierarchy (on the PC formatted HDD) is 'replicated' on the new Mac formatted RAID drive when it is transferred ?  I gather that Macs don't naturally store folders and files in this way.  Is there a particular App that facilitates this ?

4 - you don't need no app !
5 - all you need to do is copy your main (parent/top) image directory from one drive to another complete with all its contained subfolders and everything in them
6 - after the move/copy, start up Lightroom on your Mac - you will see a bunch of question marks.
7 - to fix them, right click on the top level folder you moved and select "Find Missing Folder." Navigate to the new parent folder and click on "OK." So long as everything you moved retains its original relationship to this main folder, fixing it fixes them. All the question marks will go away as Lightroom refreshes its display.

-

nb ! you'll also copy your .lrcat file to the new computer - make sure you set the new location in Lr preferences

[Ducamantova]

Manoli,

Thank you so much for this ! Forgive me, but I wasn't even sure that  the Mac  would be able to 'see' anything when I connect my PC format (NTFS, I think) external HDD.  I half expected to just get a 'cannot read' error message - followed by the dreaded 'reformat' request...

Regards,

Mungo

[allegretto]

Manoli,

Thank you so much for this ! Forgive me, but I wasn't even sure that  the Mac  would be able to 'see' anything when I connect my PC format (NTFS, I think) external HDD.  I half expected to just get a 'cannot read' error message - followed by the dreaded 'reformat' request...

Regards,

Mungo

No, this is the "easy" migration… the migration back, Mac>PC is far more involved. macs are quite "smart" and look for things. PC is happy to be "dumb" and just sit there

Watch what happens when you hook up your Mac. It finds things naturally. No it won't migrate for you, as noted it needs to be told where to look… but once it "knows" where to look, things will happen fast. It will find your EHD and open it in a heartbeat.

You will be pleased once it's over and it's really even simpler than it seems from the instructions. Just do it

[Ducamantova]

Hi,

The migration from my NTFS formatted HDD to the MacBook Pro's SSD has been straightforward (and fast), just as you guys said - thank you !  The hierarchy of Photograph folders created by Lightroom (I use the default date naming convention) was copied across just fine !  I also copied across my LR5 Catalog and opened it up with LR5 on the Mac - but when I look at the Folders on the Left Hand 'panel', it doesn't show my top level 'Master' Folder, but a breakdown of the lower level ones - of which there are zillions (this goes back to 2009....). So, when I right click to 'find folder', I can't find / select the top level 'Master' folder and am faced with finding literally dozens of folders instead.... .

Help !!  Any suggestions of how I can get to see and hence find the Master Folder ?

Regards,

Mungo

[john beardsworth]

Not sure exactly what you're asking, but I think you want to right click and choose Show Parent Folder.

John

[Ducamantova]

John,

Thank you - I'd just found / done that and after several 'cycles' of 'find parent folder', the Master Folder appeared - and LR5 has now found all my Photos  .

I guess I'm too used to things randomly going wrong on my PC  .... The Mac is so much better in so many ways - and I've barely started to use it !!

I'll now finish importing some of my other, smaller catalogues / folders of photos....

Thanks again !

Regards,

Mungo

[Simon Garrett]

You must be a masochist.

Should that be macochist?

[john beardsworth]

Thank you - I'd just found / done that and after several 'cycles' of 'find parent folder', the Master Folder appeared - and LR5 has now found all my Photos  .

Mungo

To be certain, I recommend you run the menu Library > Find All Missing Photos.

John

[Ducamantova]

John,

Thanks for that tip - will do.   

Simon and Peter - I don't want to tempt fate, but the migration has been very slick so far.  Any glitches have been due to my mistakes.  Hopefully, I won't need 'macochistic' tendencies to soldier on....

All - thank you so much for taking the time to help me.  You've been very kind.

Regards,

Mungo

[Ducamantova]

I just thought I'd give you 6 month update - to show I haven't been 'Macotistic' in transferring from my Vaio Laptop to MacBook Pro.  Aside from the obvious pleasures of the build quality and the Retina screen, there are other factors.  The whole transition went very smoothly - and this is from a guy who can find the rarest of bugs and glitches !  It was helped by the fact that I had an iPhone 5s already, as all my personal stuff transferred automatically.  The performance is amazing - both the hardware and software 'just work' extremely fast with no crashes or random slowing down.  Hardware and Software in perfect harmony.

When people discuss / argue about the merits of Mac vs PC, they keep looking for 'knockout blows' - things that make a big difference by themselves.  The reality is that PCs have many, many 'frictions' (that Mac doesn't) - each one is no big deal (at least initially), but they do add up.  The most obvious one is the Virus Scanner, which over time can degrade performance and become a 'stopper'.  In the last 16 years that I've had a PC at home, I found I had to change Virus Scanner every three years or so, as suddenly a new version would appear that just 'killed' my performance.

So, I'd like to say a heartfelt 'THANK YOU' for your help and advice.  I've burned through more work in the last 6 months on my Mac than in the previous few YEARS on my Laptop (particularly in Lightroom). As someone with a full-time job, I often only get a half an hour 'window' to work in most weekdays.  I am far, far more productive on the MBP.  Happy Days !!  Cheers everyone.

[digitaldog]

Hopefully, I won't need 'macochistic' tendencies to soldier on....

Probably not, the comment was OT and unnecessary, don't buy into FUD.
Getting back OT, I've found that by placing all the LR associated files (catalog, presets, previews) and all images, it's easy to move that drive from machine to machine, Mac or Windows which has the same version of LR, double click on the catalog and you're all set to work. No cross platform issues I've seen.