markstjohn

I use a laptop when I am on a trip. I take a portable hard drive to store pictures on ... Then I return home. And I want to use my desktop and my home separate hard drive to keep all my pictures long term. Is it possible to work on photos in the field using my laptop, and then transfer them somehow to my hard drive at home and keep the editing I did on my laptop in the lightroom catalogue which is on my hard drive? In other words, what is the best way to use lightroom on two different machines? Many thanks as always.

jliane Loc: Washington state

I’ve been wondering the same thing.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

You can work on your photos on your laptop. Use a new catalog. When you get home, transfer the image files and the catalog file to your desktop. You can then merge your new catalog with your desktop working catalog. Just be sure when you transfer the image files that they have the same folder structure so LR can find them.

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

If you have "write metadata changes to xmp" turned on - your images and their changes are completely portable.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

When I go on a trip I download my images to a catalog on my laptop as a backup. Sometimes I do work on images. When I do work on images and want to retain that work I export as a catalog from the laptop computer LR catalog and then import that exported file to my desktop LR catalog by importing as a catalog. This can be a confusing process so best to read up on it first. This is the best way, and perhaps the only way, to get all catalog edits into one main LR catalog on the primary hard drive. The laptop catalog would still be on your laptop and if you reconnected that same external drive to the laptop and opened the laptop catalog where the images had been linked they would still be there as would the processing data. When I get home I usually just download all of my images to my desktop from the cards and only export-import the images I have worked on and everything matches up. Read the LR help manual on Adobe to get the basics of the process and experiment from there before you try it with important images. If you do save catalog processing date to the file, as specified in the Preferences section of LR, you can open that file in most editing programs and the processing data will be there and show up. You can do this photo-by-photo using the normal Save command or click the appropriate box in the General tab (I think, I did not look) to make this happen to all images automatically. Sorry if this confuses you but learning can be confusing!

markstjohn

Many thanks all... I will put my head into all this and see if I can make it work...

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Functionality exists that allows you to merge catalogs. Google will help you find the process.