dmr

I have been using a 5 year old Mac Book pro with Lightroom 3 A few hundred photos are on the computer but most are on an external drive. I just purchased a new Mack book pro and I have Lightroom 6 disk I purchased a few months ago that I cold not place on my old computer (with lion os). Which is the best way to set up the new computer. Backup the old version onto the new computer and use my disk as an upgrade if that is possible. Or install the new disk on the new laptop and transfer the data without confusing the location so Lightroom can find it. Also. Can I download the Lightroom software with any updates and use the serial number in the box ?please help!
DMR

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

Have you already started using the new MacBook? If not just use the migration assistant app to transfer all the files from the old to the new computer. If you have started using the new computer you are in for a real long session of transferring.

blackest Loc: Ireland

It's entirely up to you how you wish to proceed a fresh install or an upgraded install, I prefer fresh because you will be inclined not to reinstall a few applications. You may have applications you want to carry over. Are you entirely sure you want to run sierra? You probably can get hold of an installer for yosemite and over versions if you look :) Maybe from a friend who has them downloaded on their account. If your using iPhoto you probably won't be able to in sierra for example.

Lightroom 6.8 will upgrade a lightroom 3 catalog so I'd be tempted to log on to your old macbook from your new macbook pro and copy your pictures folder over. Then install Lightroom 6 point it at your Lightroom catalog from your old mac and it should upgrade it successfully and you shouldn't lose any edits. Lightroom 6 should tell you there are updates available and prompt you to download them.

lightroom 6.8 requires osx 10.10 upwards Adobe says
Lightroom CC 2015.1/Lightroom 6.1 and earlier versions are supported on Mac OS X 10.8 and Lightroom CC 2015.6.1/Lightroom 6.6.1 and earlier are supported on Mac OS X 10.9.

Have fun with it, incidentally if you put your old hdd in a usb dock or case and hold down alt/option then you will be able to boot up from your old hdd on your new Mac or just transfer files from it. With a USB3 Dock or Case this may save many hours.

dmr

Thank you all for your quick responses. I have not started the installation yet. I will attempt it next week. Why did you suggest not using Sierra??
DMR

blackest Loc: Ireland

There are a few programs that are unsupported on sierra. Paragon have a read write driver (version 12) for ntfs file system on yosemite it is free Later versions cost for each machine. I don't think you can use iPhoto on Sierra plus you may find some applications have not been updated for sierra and will crash. For me I use lightroom 5 and that is supposed to have problems on sierra.

https://roaringapps.com/

This might help you decide if there is anything you want to run that isn't compatible.

https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/what-to-do-if-your-mac-cant-run-macos-sierra/
This also gives a run down of what versions of osx are supported on which machines.
Currently around 20% run yosemite 33% El Capitan and 33% Sierra. Apple has stopped supporting Mavericks and older.

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomb=&qpcustomd=0&qpsp=71&qpnp=1&qptimeframe=Q

this is an interesting page showing market share nearly half of all computers in use are running Windows 7.

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

I'm running Sierra and have no problems. Older versions of LR had tethering problems with Nikon cameras - actually all software that used Nikons tethering interface broke, it wasn't just LR.

You may want to do what Jethro suggested and migrate from your old mac to the new. It's really slick and leaves your old machine intact in case you have a problem.

dmr

Thank you all again. I did some reading on migration assistant ..might be easiest approach. Does anyone have experience or knowledge about using the activation code for my LR6 disk that was never activated for the downloaded updated version 6.x and using it as an upgrade after I move the old LR3 to my new computer? Assuming it Sierra will run LR3??

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

The fastest thing to do is move all the pictures from the old computer to the external drive using the old LR3. Copy the Catalog to the external drive. Plug the external drive into your new computer and install the new version of LR on it and as it's installing it should detect the catalog from LR3. If not, after LR6 has finished installing, simply click on Import from another Catalog under File> It should recreate a catalog for LR6 keeping all your key words, stars, color coding, etc.

When you open an image from then new catalog, and click on Develop, you will notice that the process version will probably be 2010. You will also notice that there's a triangle thing on the image. This tells you that the process version is different. All that really means is that the old version of LR had different sliders that did different things and by clicking on the triangle, it will (should) convert the image so that all the newer sliders from LR6 are ready to use.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Congratulations on your new computer!

Depending on how computer savey you are you can choose from two options for building up the new system.

The Apple migration tool is the fastest and easiest way and it does a good job. Expect that you may have a software bug or two to work through on the new computer but you have the old one to compare to and to work from should that be a problem. And you have a backup of the old one correct? And a method to back up the new one, correct?

Rather than using the migration tool, you can start fresh with the new system and reinstall all the software manually. This what the PC people usually do. PCs get slow and sluggish over time and the fresh install helps correct this. It is much more time consuming and it's not needed on a Mac, but it has the advantages of eliminating softwares that you no longer need or want, and you get a cleaner Applicaton folder and cleaner Library folder, the end result is a leaner meaner system. Slightly. You might consider this route since you have the other Mac to use while you are rebuilding the new one.

kenabr Loc: S.E.Wisconsin

I have a similar question. I have A PC running Vista and Lightroom 4.4. I want to upgrade to a new computer running windows 10. I will download the newest version of Lightroom and wonder how to transfer the Lightroom catalog. I'd really hate to have to re-develop all my images.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

See Jeep_Daddy's answer above.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ