ronWA Loc: Western Washington

I recently had to upgrade to a new Mac 14 laptop and am having problems moving my pictures catalog in Lightroom. I followed the "Davethehiker" series about a month ago but my problem is a bit different. It appears that I have my catalog in the wrong place or in two places. I copied my photo files (about 100,000) from a backup disk called "Photofiles 1" to the new Mac. Now, I see on the left side of my screen, "From Macintosh HD" and a right-pointing arrow. On the right side of my screen I see "To Macintosh HD" and a right-pointing arrow.

If I go to rongarton/pictures on the left side of the screen I see the entire set of pictures in the proper folders down below. If I go to Macintosh HD on the right side of the screen and go down to "users/rongarton/pictures/lightroom" I get the entire set of pictures again. At the top of the screen it says "Copy as DNG, Copy, Move and Add, with Copy chosen". So, it appears that I have the entire library on the left side of the screen and the same thing on the right side of the screen. If I go to "window" on top of the screen it shows modules with "Library" chosen. I cannot get out of this window to edit or do anything else.

Now, when I enter the photos program it says to "Click the import button to begin" and I go back to the same screen with the entire catalog on the left and also on the right and no other options to get out of it. If I click "import" it grinds on forever with the whirling ball and seems to copy the entire set again.

It seems that I have all my photos, now with many duplicates, on the left side and the right side on the Mac drive and on the original Photofile 1 plugin drive. On the old Mac, I had the Lightroom program on the Mac and the photos on the plugin drive but I cannot seem to get back to that.

Any ideas on how to fix this and get back to having the photos on the plugin drive and the program on the Mac?

Thanks for taking the time on this.

Ron

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

Hi Ron

I recently upgraded to a new MacBook Pro 14 as well and all my photos are on an external Synology diskstation. The Lightroom catalog was on an iMac 27. The iMac is going to my daughter's and was to be erased.

I made a directory of folders on my new 14 inch computer that was the same as my iMac 27. then I just copied the adobe folder that had the catalog on it from the old computer to the new one.

Then I downloaded creative cloud and installed Lightroom and photoshop onto the new computer.

once downloaded opened Lightroom and selected open catalog and selected the copied one. It worked with no problems and pointed to all the photos on the Synology diskstation.

If you did not change anything about where your photos are stored and you name everything the same it should work fine. (famous last words).

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

You would benefit from reading the online Adobe Help Manual on LrC. Read any section on the Library Module. The program simply mirrors your hard drive, so it will show a lot of stuff. On the left side, in the program, is where you move and use folders. In the Import window you will choose the object you are importing from on the left side and then on the right side you will choose where you want the items to go. The Import window simply mirrors your hard drives on both sides. Read the Manual then take some time to study your setup and figure out what is going on.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Not a direct answer to your issue but I believe you don’t have duplicate photos. You have duplicate libraries. The Catalogue sees your one set of photos in two different places.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Honestly, the quick reply here is to visit The Lightroom Queen website. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/ The site is an outstanding source of simple, accurate and nonjudgmental advice.

Several experienced folks on this site can help with your issues but, speaking for myself, not nearly as well written and understandable as her free “books”. You might eventually purchase one of the FAQ books which runs from an introductory guide to the most detailed nerdy reference guide. I suppose that is her source of income.

BTW She and Paul are based in the UK but they must have USA version and a Kings English version. Two countries divided by a common language.

DanCulleton

I got a new MacBook 2021 in January. Had no problem setting it up using Time Machine. No problems with Lightroom. My catalog is on my startup drive with smart previews where I feel they should be and the original photo files on an external file.
My only warning is that my usual color calibration tools now just make a mess. Beware color calibrating a new M1 Mac.

ronWA Loc: Western Washington

Thank you all for your replies. I am going to have to check on it some more. I do have a few comments right now.
I have read some of Adobe online but have not found it helpful so far. I have also read the Lightroom Queen book but have not yet exhausted the web site.

I also agreed that I may have just one set of pictures but two libraries. I now question that. My old MacBook had about 25 GB available on a 500 GB internal disk. The new one now has only 155 available on a 994 GB disk. This makes me think I have copied the photos that I used to keep on a separate disk called PhotoFile 1 and have put them onto the laptop and I believe I have done this more than once as I tried to sort this out. If so, it seems that I have to get those photos off the laptop hard drive and set up Lightroom to just reference these photos from the attached drive.

I have to study this some more and thank you for all your advice.

Ron

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

LrC can only open one Library at a time. You can have multiple libraries but they will not show up on the side panels. If you want to check other Libraries hold down the Option key as you click on the icon to open the program. A box will pop up showing your different Libraries. Choose the one you want. It's good practice to delete all old Libraries after an update, doing this only after you have copied your most current Library to a safe site. Also, you can rename a Library in such a way that you know it is the most current one. I agree that the Help Manual is sometimes not helpful, it used to be a hard copy manual and was very good, but it is still helpful in understanding how the software works, which is essential in order to be ultimately successful in using the software. A book on the software can also be very helpful. If you were to perhaps include an image of the specific Module you were having difficulty with that might help us help you. There are seven modules and then the Import and Export functions so it can be difficult to determine exactly where the problem is that the user is having without a graphic.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Adobe video that might be helpful...half the battle with Adobe is finding the thing!

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/how-to/understanding-modules.html?playlist=/services/playlist.helpx/products:SG_LIGHTROOM_1_1~classic/learn-path:get-started/set-header:ccx-designer/playlist:ccl-get-started-1/en_us.json&x-product=CCHome&x-product-location=Apps&guid=82074e32-69fc-44dd-bece-7813b5f76848&context_guid=49e0c10f-a4b4-4acb-8162-150c273c6413&promoid=QGMZPG6T&mv=other. Hope the link works.

phot0n0ob

for Lightroom Queen. I have moved LR several times between computer running either the same of different operating systems. Never had any issues thanks to LR Queen's excellent - and free! - ebook on the topic (free account signup required)

ronWA Loc: Western Washington

I have finally solved my problem with the Lightroom catalog. I normally keep the picture files on a separate drive and they are referenced by Lightroom when I use the program. In moving to a new computer, I mistakenly copied those photo files into the Lightroom program on the Mac and I could not figure out how to fix the problem. I finally have them back on the separate drive and the Lightroom program references them as it did on the old Mac.

I just want to thank those of you who provided advice while I was having the problem.