Need help with Lightroom migration
Feb 24, 2023 11:21:28 #
jayluber
Loc: Phoenix, AZ
Background: Hard drive on 27 iMac crashed. Bad drive was partitioned and all photos and LR cat files on separate partition of about 1 TB. Installed new hard drive. Installed new NVMe PCIe external drive. Installed Ventura and Adobe on external. Transferred all photo and cat files to new drive from backup. (External drive is 4 -5 times faster than desktop Mac) plus it saves me room on internal HD. When I first started with LR I was not using sidecar files, but switched to that several years ago. It just occurred to me that Adobe was installed on the partition not containing the photos. So I may not have the latest cat file on the photo partition.
Question: What do I need to do to get LR to use the last cat file I had on the old computer and to recognize the new file locations. And I don't want to lose any edits on the pre-sidecar photos. Or do I just simply add the new file locations to LR as an add?
Should be fairly simple and straight forward.
Thank you
Question: What do I need to do to get LR to use the last cat file I had on the old computer and to recognize the new file locations. And I don't want to lose any edits on the pre-sidecar photos. Or do I just simply add the new file locations to LR as an add?
Should be fairly simple and straight forward.
Thank you
Feb 24, 2023 12:08:36 #
First, you put the catalog files where you want them. The primary file is the .lrcat file. The others in the same folder are important, but less so.
Second, you open that catalog file in LR Classic. It will indicate that the links to the image files are broken. You fix that by showing Lightroom where you put them. If the folder structure is the same, re linking to the top folder should do the job.
Second, you open that catalog file in LR Classic. It will indicate that the links to the image files are broken. You fix that by showing Lightroom where you put them. If the folder structure is the same, re linking to the top folder should do the job.
Feb 24, 2023 12:22:37 #
bsprague wrote:
First, you put the catalog files where you want them. The primary file is the .lrcat file. The others in the same folder are important, but less so.
Second, you open that catalog file in LR Classic. It will indicate that the links to the image files are broken. You fix that by showing Lightroom where you put them. If the folder structure is the same, re linking to the top folder should do the job.
Second, you open that catalog file in LR Classic. It will indicate that the links to the image files are broken. You fix that by showing Lightroom where you put them. If the folder structure is the same, re linking to the top folder should do the job.
Expanding on Bill's comments, you can update the folder locations inside LR, and that update will cascade through all the sub-folders and images impacted.
So, if the old Mac drive was //my-pictures-old/ and now the new drive is //my-pics-recovered/
You would go into the folder view inside LR and find that 'highest level' folder of the tree and right-click and update the "old" folder location, navigating and selecting the new folder name. LR will update everything that can be updated by that change. Repeat, as needed, if you have other "highest-level" locations that are different and also need updating.
Feb 24, 2023 12:37:29 #
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