LR6 -- PC and Macpro coordination: What is the easiest way to coordinate these two computers using LightRoom 6 and one catalog?

jacotla

What is the easiest way to coordinate these two computers using LightRoom 6 and one catalog?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The catalog is single user. It cannot be shared. You can use a shared volume so you have just one set of files but you'd have to manually copy the LR catalog files from one computer to the other.

jacotla

Thank you – I would be the only user. I was thinking of parking the catalog in dropbox or similar cloud storage

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

jacotla wrote:

Thank you – I would be the only user. I was thinking of parking the catalog in dropbox or similar cloud storage

That may not work, particularly if you lose your connection.

FYI, Capture One has the option to use Sessions rather than catalogs. They can be moved intact between computers including working with the Cloud.

jacotla

Thank you

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

jacotla wrote:

Thank you – I would be the only user. I was thinking of parking the catalog in dropbox or similar cloud storage

By single user I meant that the catalog cannot be open in two machines simultaneously.

I suppose you can put the catalog files in Dropbox to make it available to both computers. Would you share a volume on one computer to the other, or would you use a NAS appliance? You'd have to make sure that the catalog points to the correct folder containing your images in both cases. But you cannot open a catalog that is located on an external networked "shared" drive, like a NAS connected by Ethernet cabling.

stadtmkw Loc: Burlington, MA

Gene51 wrote:

By single user I meant that the catalog cannot be ... (show quote)

Actually you can open a catalog stored on a network drive. Coincidentally, I just did this yesterday as I wanted to share a catalog stored on my NAS server between my desktop and tablet computer without copying the catalog from one to another.. If you establish an Iscsi connection to the device storing the catalog, the connection will appear as a local connection on a Windows system. I cannot speak to how to accomplish this on a MAC. However, I would not attempt to access the catalog simultaneously from more than one machine.

cactuspic Loc: Dallas, TX

I keep my LR catalog on an external Samsung SSD. It is small, reliable and fast. I just transfer the drive from one machine to the other.

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

As neither is a laptop, either a networking share or an external hard drive will work. It seems the key is to keep both the images and catalog in sync between the computers. An external hard drive would be accessed by only one of the computers at a time so the catalog on the external would be edited by each computer in turn. On a network volume you might be only able to use it on only one of the two computers at a time (as each would need to be able to edit the catalog while running - and even if you "could" do it it might cause unexpected results).
A link to Adobe's forum on this question: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2051971
Another link with suggested solutions when a laptop is involved: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-use-lightroom-on-2-computers-and-keep-the-catalogue-synchronised/

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

stadtmkw wrote:

Actually you can open a catalog stored on a networ... (show quote)

Interesting. Adobe's position is that it can't be done:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html#main_Can_I_store_my_catalog_on_a_network_

In all honesty, I haven't tried iSCSI - though there is no reason why it wouldn't work, now that you mention it. I learn something new every day. This is my Today learning moment. And the day is still not over.

Thanks for that one!

blackest Loc: Ireland

Gene51 wrote:

Interesting. Adobe's position is that it can't be done:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html#main_Can_I_store_my_catalog_on_a_network_

In all honesty, I haven't tried iSCSI - though there is no reason why it wouldn't work, now that you mention it. I learn something new every day. This is my Today learning moment. And the day is still not over.

Thanks for that one!

I think you can fool lightroom into using a catalog on a network drive on windows, I couldn't get it to work on OSX. It is not a good idea since everything you do in lightroom is written to the catalog all the time and a glitch in network connections could corrupt it. (adobes reasoning)

There is a way where the catalog is local to the machine but sync'd to a service like dropbox so opening it on one machine the changes are written to the local copy which updates the dropbox copy which updates the local copy on the pc when it is opened.

I haven't tried this but there are posts about it that you can find if you google it. You can set a backup location on a shared drive and perhaps open that backup on the other machine.

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

We use Adobe CS on iMacs at work on a Windows (SMB) network and there is "something different" about a read/write to a locally attached drive (even via a slow connection like USB) as opposed to a network (usually ethernet) connection to a shared drive. We found random crashing of the Creative Suite apps due to the users home directory being on a shared volume. When we moved their home directories to the local drive on the iMacs the crashes disappeared.

One of Lightroom's main task's is its cataloging and it is not built to be concurrently shared - each occurrence of Lightroom needs sole access to the file. It may work on a network shared volume, but not with the same catalog opened in more than one copy. And "blackest"'s point that a network hiccup could corrupt the catalog is a very good one.

stadtmkw Loc: Burlington, MA

Gene51 wrote:

Interesting. Adobe's position is that it can't be done:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html#main_Can_I_store_my_catalog_on_a_network_

In all honesty, I haven't tried iSCSI - though there is no reason why it wouldn't work, now that you mention it. I learn something new every day. This is my Today learning moment. And the day is still not over.

Thanks for that one!

My pleasure. I've learned quite a few things from you on this forum and hope to continue to do so. Glad I was able to give a little back.

Ken

jacotla

Very much appreciate everyones thoughtful responses.