Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

I am having issues exporting or moving photos in Lightroom that reside on an external drive. Everything is slow and sometimes does not complete. I notice the external (Transcend) drive continually flashes even when not in use and it appears it may be 'getting old'. I would like to move my photos to a new external drive sooner rather than later. I use Lightroom desktop on a Macbook Pro. I am considering ...

1. be sure backups are in place - time machine/time capsule and Backblaze
2. connect both drives and simply move All Photos from one ext drive to another within Lightroom
3. be sure catalog is also copied
4. disconnect the old drive and 'assign' the new drive (help please)
5. done

Thanks, Bob

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Couple of things....

Depending on the drive connection things may be very slow because of the connection...usb 2.x is way slower than usb 3.x...way slower...

Backups - always a great idea...make sure your backup is current and you can restore from it if needed.

Catalog - when Lightroom is finished moving files, the catalog is updated, it works from wherever it resides.

FWIW I keep my catalog on my boot disk, an SSD so it has fast access, images files are on external drives and An external SSD. Depending on where your catalog is located depends on needing to copy/move it to another location. Note - remember to update your backup to be sure it backs up your new storage locations for images & catalog.

Connect both drives & move files...yes, that will get it done, but assuming they are both usb, all the data runs thru the same bus, so it may take a long while to complete. Moving files with Lightroom makes sure that the catalog is updated with the new location as the files are moved - easiest and simplest way for sure.

Assign new drive...not sure what you mean. Your catalog will know about the new drive so Lightroom will automatically “assign” it...on a Mac, drives are “assigned” by volume name, in Windows they get an assigned drive letter...as long as you move photos by using Lightroom you should have no “assignment” issues.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Bob,

(Edit: Don types faster than I do. He knows Lightroom well.)

There are three ways to move files to a new drive.

1- From within Lightroom. You select and paste from one drive to another. It can be slow and (maybe) best done in batches.
2- Using Finder/Explorer you make a complete copy with the exact same file structure then rename the drive letter.
3- Using Finder/Explorer you copy files and then use Lightroom to find the new location.

Tutorials and instructions for all three are widely available.

Bogin Bob Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Thank you, Dngallagher

jtwind

I use a program called chronosync to back up my drives. Works great and consistently. Presently about 17,000 images in my lightroom catalog and first time backing up to a new drive does take 2-3 hours. After that backing up every week it takes 4-5 minutes.

fotogk Loc: Tuftonboro, NH

I agree with using Chronosync easy setup for all your backup needs

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I'm one of those that doesn't think LR is the answer to everything. The only times I've tried to move things within LR, I encountered difficulties. It's much easier and faster to copy (don't ever MOVE!) files through Windows, then simply tell LR where the new file is. That's three clicks and about 5 minutes of wait time and has never failed. I know that those who think LR is the only way to go will disagree.

neillaubenthal

As noted...there are multiple ways of doing this...all well documented on the web. Here’s what I did.

1. Made a full copy of the catalog and the drive containing the photos, unplugged it and set aside.
2. Copied photos from the original drive to a same named folder on a 3rd drive, then removed and set the original aside.
3. Renamed the drive that was the destination in 2 above to the same name as the original drive...and then since the folder structure was the same...LR just recognized all my originals.
4. Moved the folders one at a time from within LR from the renamed to the original drive to my new OWC RAID which was the final destination.

It just works.

You could actually skip step 1 and just clone the original drive, unplug it, and proceed with step 3.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

FWIW - IF you understand Lightroom and how the catalog works then by all means using a file manager to move files might be fast and easy, HOWEVER.... many have not put in the time to learn how it works or don’t even know for sure where their images are, and get into trouble when using a file manager to move things and re-syncing folder & image path changes, for those, moving things within Lightroom is straight forward, easy and ends up with no lost images or hassles after files are moved, of course it might be slightly slower as it is updating the database (catalog) with each move.

The wait time depends on how much you are moving and the path they take of course, copy or move 2 TB of images across a USB 2.1 buss and that 5 minutes becomes all day long!

Defiantly agree about copy not move! :)

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

I MOVE files in LR every time I import something new. All imports go to a single receiving folder on the image drive, in the course of which they are renamed to my standard format. There they are examined, the losers are deleted and key words added as appropriate. THEN those images are moved to whatever their permanent folder or subfolder is going to be.

Never had a problem, and I've been using LR exclusively for at least 10 years.