globetrekker Loc: Bend, OR

Greetings, Hogs. In the next month or so, I plan to buy a new computer and upgrade from Lightroom 5 to Lightroom Classic. I want to make sure my LR migration goes as smoothly as possible. I think I have a good handle on the process from reviewing this Julieanne Kost video. But I’m anxious and want to make sure I can execute this correctly. I would appreciate feedback on my questions, and please feel free to mention things I may not have thought of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwNrOU0gvho

I currently have a SSD as my C drive, and a SATA drive as D. All my photos are in a folder called “My Lightroom Photos” on my D drive. I plan to have the same configuration on my new PC.

QUESTIONS

1. Will I need my LR serial number or anything else like to upgrade from 5 to Classic?

2. I believe I should copy these files/folders onto a thumb drive as a backup. But with the exception of the presets, I don’t expect to have to copy them from the thumb drive to the new PC because I will copy D/Pictures/Lightroom from my old PC to my new PC. Right? Am I missing any files or folders?

• Lightroom 5 Catalog
• Backups folder
• Lightroom 5 Catalog Prevews.lrdata folder
• Presets

3. To keep the presets I created in LR5, I believe I must copy them and paste them into the same location on the new PC after I install LR Classic, right? Edit/Preferences and clicking the Show Lightroom Presets button on my old PC gives me this: C:\Users\claug\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom. So I would need to copy the Lightroom folder from the thumb drive to the corresponding Adobe folder on the C drive (SSD) my new PC after I install Classic?

4. I assume there is no need to reinstall LR5 on the new PC. Just download trial version of LR Classic, right? Download from here?

Download a free trial or buy Adobe products | Adobe Free Trials and Downloads

5. Summary:
a. Copy the catalog, backups folder, previews folder, and presets onto a thumb drive.
b. Ensure that when my data is copied from my old PC to my new PC, D/Pictures/Lightroom is copied to the corresponding location on my new PC.
c. Download and install LR Classic.
d. Copy the presets from the thumb drive Adobe/Lightroom folder on the new C drive (SSD).
e. Launch LR Classic and see if my photos load correctly, i.e. if Classic knows where they are.


6. Is there anything else I’m not thinking of, or advice you’d like to offer?

Thank you!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The format of presets is different in the subscription classic software. The files located at the "roaming" folder are text files. You can open and edit them in any text-editor. This is no longer true in the newest software. You might search google for people discussing specifically how to migrate / update existing presets. Or, open a support request with Adobe on this specific subject. Definitely make copies for transition, I just don't know myself "how" to transition. It might be automatic like the LRCAT, but I haven't yet had reason to make that transition.

Regarding the LRCAT and previews, just do a few simple things:

a, Make sure you have a current LR-created backup of the LRCAT, including the compression and tuning maintenance LR performs in the 'back up' processing.
b, Retain only the current date-stamp LRCAT back-up. If you have lots of LRCAT back-ups, the v5 software is uncompressed, so you're wasting both time and diskspace copying multiple back-up files, instead of deleting everything except the newest created in step (a).
b, Copy everything under the \Lightroom folder that includes your active LRCAT file. That is, don't try to cherry-pick what to bring from this folder. Just copy it all, include the single, current LRCAT backup.

Your 5b step says 'data'. Relative to LR, this should mean your original image files. You need the underlying subfolders to be consistent, but you can change drive assignments, if needed, onto the target computer. Inside the new LR, you'd just need to update the highest-level drive letter to immediately cascade that update through all the subfolders.

Assuming your LR5 is properly licensed, the s/n will be available in your purchase history software profile on Adobe.com. It should not be relevant to entering the subscription model and migrated the data into the newest LRCAT of the subscription classic software.

When you open the new subscription LR classic software, it likely will not detect anything about the LR5 LRCAT as the LR5 software is not installed on the new computer. The new LRCAT will be empty. All you need to do is 'import' the contents of the LR5 catalog. Use the command File / Import from another catalog. Just navigate to the old (copied) LRCAT v5 file and let the process run.

Once you've confirmed the successful import and updated any folder locations, if needed, address the migration of the user presets.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

When you subscribe using the photographer's plan, you're going to get Photoshop as a part of your subscription, so you might want to add that to your to-do list.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Good point!

globetrekker Loc: Bend, OR

Thank you for your usual timely and info-rich reply.

Did a quick google of how to move presets to Classic. According to lightroompresets.com, “While you can sync presets from Lightroom to Lightroom Mobile, you CAN NOT sync presets from Lightroom to Lightroom Classic. If you want to move presets to Lightroom Classic (from any other Lightroom version), you will need to install those presets again in Lightroom Classic.” But they don’t say how to “install.” Any idea what they might mean by this?

On the other hand, I only have a few presets. (I’m not exactly a LR power user, lol.) Wouldn’t be the end of the world to just create them anew from scratch in Classic. But I’m not sure how to see, for each preset, all the settings I’ll need to know to recreate the presets. Is there an easy way to do that?

I am not sure what you mean by “current date-stamp LRCAT back-up”. When I look in my Lightroom folder on D, I see one Lightroom 5 Catalog file, dated yesterday (my most recent backup). It’s 517 mb. I do not see other versions of these file with earlier date stamps, so I’m not sure how to avoid inefficient copying of versions I don’t need. Are there older versions lingering in the background that I can’t see, and if so, how do I avoid copying them?

Re my step 5b, I was referring generically to all data on my current PC, including Excel/Word files etc. But yes, for LR, I mean the images. I plan to keep both the subfolders and the drive assignments exactly the same on my new PC.

I migrated LR 5 from an old PC to a new one in 2017. I kept a record of my serial number, so I have that if I need it. I just verified that I can log in to adobe.com. So I should log in before downloading the trial version of Classic, right?

Re “Use the command File / Import from another catalog. Just navigate to the old (copied) LRCAT v5 file and let the process run”, thanks for the tip. I would have panicked if I wasn't aware of this crucial step and then couldn't see my images! That sounds simple.

Thanks again, Paul. I’m sure I’ll have questions when I actually implement this. As always, I appreciate your excellent advice.

globetrekker Loc: Bend, OR

Thank you. Hmm, now I'm confused about which plan to get. I am not real interested in PS at this point, though I suppose it wouldn't be bad to have for the future if I decide to get into it. But now when I look at the Adobe plans, I don't understand the difference between the two $10/mo plans. If I want to be able to edit on my hard drive and not the cloud, does that mean I need to choose the "Photography" plan? If that is the case, why is "20GB" cited in the plan description? Why cite a cloud storage limit if I'm not going to be editing images in the cloud and storing them there?

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

If you're not going to store files in Adobe's cloud (I don't), then I'd recommend getting the LR/PS offer. Sooner or later, you're going to want to learn to do some advanced edits beyond what LR can achieve.

globetrekker Loc: Bend, OR

That makes sense. But setting aside PS for the moment and focusing only on LR, will I be editing and storing on my hard drive with this option? Actually it seems that the other option doesn't even include Classic. So if I want Classic and want to be able to edit and store on my hard drive, I need the Photography pkg, right? I guess I don't understand where the cloud comes in with this option.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

If you plan to store photos in your own space, the Photography Plan is the way I'd recommend. You do get a little cloud space (as I recall, only 10 GB). To be useful if, for example, you plan to use both LR & LRC, you'd have to rent more Adobe space. I think most people just store locally.

globetrekker Loc: Bend, OR

Says 20GB at the URL I cited. So LR means storing/editing in the cloud from any device, and Classic means editing on my PC hard drive, right? I'm only interested in the latter.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

The photography plan is what most of us use. It includes LR Classic (the one that lives on your computer, along with the photos you download to your computer/drives). It also includes the cloud based Lightroom (which most of us do not use), Photoshop (which many of us use as an adjunct to LR Classic), Bridge, ACR, and mobile versions of Photoshop and LR in case you want them on your phone or ipad. It also has some cloud storage but certainly not enough to handle your whole photo catalog. It is a fantastic bargain for $10 a month. You don't have to install all the goodies, but be open to eventually learning what they do and how they can help you.

bhapke

I see a little confusion in the advice so far. Adobe doesn't sell any software anymore (at least to my knowledge). They "rent" it via the "Creative Cloud" program. The full Creative Cloud includes access to everything Adobe has, and is $50 per month (with a recent announcement of a price increase adding to that soon). The Photography Plan is a reduced price plan costing $10 per month, and giving access to several programs including Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop (and Camera Raw, Bridge and UXP Developer Tools). Lightroom is the version that stores all your photos on the Adobe servers, and you will probably need to pay for extra storage to make that work. Lightroom Classic is the version that works with files locally stored on your computer (or on an external drive or NAS or storage array or whatever, but local). You get Photoshop whether you want it or not, but you don't have to install any apps included in the plan unless you wish to. You could install and use both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic but I don't see why you would want to.

I would suggest buying an external hard drive as large as or larger than your "D-drive" and copying everything to that as a backup. You could then connect this drive to the new computer to migrate your files, and this will be easier than trying to get them from the internal drive. This will also be handy in the future for backup purposes.

Best of luck.

globetrekker Loc: Bend, OR

Ahhh, very helpful, thank you. So if I don't install Bridge, ACR, and mobile versions, I could install them later if I choose to?

globetrekker Loc: Bend, OR

Very helpful, thanks. I do have an external drive and will continue to use it. I'll pay a local company to copy my data from my old PC to new. I just want to make sure it's done right. The cost will be modest.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Yes. There is a little program called Creative Cloud Desktop that you'll be prompted to install. It gives you easy access to install any or all the programs you are entitled to, and updates as they are released (you'll be surprised how often new versions are offered, and how many new toys you get with a subscription), plus a lot of other information, plus any free beta programs you might want to try, and past versions if you ever find that a new upgrade doesn't play well with your other programs.

If you're still at version 5, your new Lightroom will keep you entertained a good while. The masking features alone are worth the investment.