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Feb 12, 2019 15:11:14   #
Jaxfish
 
I have a new MacBook Pro laptop that I want to use when I travel to download photos and do some editing. At home I have my LR Catalog on my Imac and most of my photos on an external hard drive. When back home I want to get travel Catalog to my IMac and the photos to my external hardrive. I have been looking at you tube videos for advice and find them very confusing. Please help.

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Feb 12, 2019 15:26:34   #
CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City
 
You can do a catalog import pointing the import process from your main LR catalog to the travel LRCAT file. Be sure to pay attention to where the image files reside and move, as necessary, so the files are properly merged into your main library structure.

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Feb 12, 2019 15:36:15   #
Jaxfish
 
CHG_CANON wrote:
You can do a catalog import pointing the import process from your main LR catalog to the travel LRCAT file. Be sure to pay attention to where the image files reside and move, as necessary, so the files are properly merged into your main library structure.


I guess I should transfer my iMac LR catalog to my external Hard drive first ? Thanks so much for the rapid response

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Feb 12, 2019 15:40:50   #
Jaxfish
 
CHG CANON ,how to I connect the laptop to the iMac?

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Feb 12, 2019 15:55:30   #
CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City
 
Jaxfish wrote:
CHG CANON ,how to I connect the laptop to the iMac?
Use your external drive as the transfer media if you can connect the two computers directly.

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Feb 12, 2019 16:50:34   #
bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA
 
I think I'm repeating Paul's advice.....

You use the "Import from another catalog" in the files menu.

I've only done this once because I broke the little travel computer. I put a very small, high capacity USB flash memory in the travel computer where I put the new travel files and a brand new catalog called "Travel". When I got home I put the USB flash memory in my "big" computer and imported the travel catalog.

I made a mistake on the location during import, but it was easy to put the folders where I wanted within Lightroom.


(Download)

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Feb 12, 2019 21:13:23   #
rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA
 
Jaxfish wrote:
I guess I should transfer my iMac LR catalog to my external Hard drive first ? Thanks so much for the rapid response


No, you import the travel catalog within Lightroom onto your HD.

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Feb 13, 2019 06:39:27   #
cactuspic Loc: Dallas, TX
 
I keep my Lightroom catolog on an external SSD, which gets backed up nearly every day.In this way I can seamlessly use Lightroom on my laptop (when travelling) and my iMac (when home).

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Feb 13, 2019 09:30:18   #
bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA
 
cactuspic wrote:
I keep my Lightroom catolog on an external SSD, which gets backed up nearly every day.In this way I can seamlessly use Lightroom on my laptop (when travelling) and my iMac (when home).
That works, but, generally, is known to slow down Lightroom. More common is to keep your catalog on the faster internal drive, have Lightroom write it's backup to the external and then back that up in the normal routine.

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Feb 13, 2019 11:55:21   #
via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP
 
Jaxfish wrote:
I have a new MacBook Pro laptop that I want to use when I travel to download photos and do some editing. At home I have my LR Catalog on my Imac and most of my photos on an external hard drive. When back home I want to get travel Catalog to my IMac and the photos to my external hardrive. I have been looking at you tube videos for advice and find them very confusing. Please help.


Here is how I use the program when I am faced with what you describe. I use my laptop for travel. I download all images onto my laptop external hard drive and load into an LR catalog. I've used this program for 10 years with thousands of shots, teach it at a local college and am Adobe Certified in LR.

If I make no changes to any of the images I simply use my cards, once home, to download onto my desktop. In this scenario I am using the laptop for a safety backup only. I would then trash the laptop catalog along with all of the images to have a clean slate for next trip since loading from my cards would be quicker for me than loading the backups.

In some cases I have time and the need to edit images on the laptop. If I like the edits and want to keep them then I use the export/import as catalog function. This function will allow you to export the metadata from the laptop to the desktop and then match the metadata up with images that may be already imported, assuming you used a card to import them. You can also choose to import images along with the metadata. I normally import all images onto the desktop, then do the export as/import as only for the metadata.

Let's say you edited 10 images out of the 100 on the laptop. You can mark the 10 images, go to export as catalog, export the metadata for the group of images in that catalog to a drive that is or will be connected to your desktop. Then go into the desktop LR catalog and click on import as catalog. Find the catalog you want to import. There will be a few questions to answer, i.e., include or not include images. Make your choices and say ok. Somewhat magically the metadata will be imported into your desktop catalog and will match up with your images. The caveat here is that converted images, say you made a tiff, may not export as that tiff is an original that will not be on your camera card. In that case, you will simply need to export the tiff file as usual and then put it into the desktop catalog. Also, do not change the names of any files as they will not then match up. The program uses file names.

It helps if you understand what a catalog is and how it operates. It helps to read the Adobe Help Manual online regarding this subject. At times, it can be confusing. In the event you end up with duplicates, which can happen, you'll simply need to delete and trash one copy. Practice this first on an LR test catalog set up just for this, that way you will not confuse the catalog you normally use.

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Feb 13, 2019 12:17:02   #
mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma
 
I did a 6 week NP tour with my MacBook Pro and an external hard drive. Before we left, I set up a folder for each park/stop on the external. Then, on the trip I plugged in both the external and the SD card into my MacBook each night. I opened the external in one Finder window and then opened another finder window for the SDcard. Then I did a drag and drop of all the images for that day to the appropriate external hard drive folder. Then I ejected the hard drive and the card. I put the card back in the camera and reformatted. It worked like a charm. I would check to make sure the images moved, but I promised my husband I wouldn’t work on or do any culling any of the photos until we got home. Hope this helps!

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Feb 13, 2019 14:09:48   #
Jaxfish
 
Thank you all for your replies. This site is so incredible. I’m having a problem with Quote reply so I couldn’t thank you all individually but a really appreciate your help.

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Feb 13, 2019 14:38:00   #
DanCulleton
 
Keep your catalog in Dropbox on the startup disc on your iMac and it will be then available in Dropbox on your MacBook.

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Feb 13, 2019 15:36:03   #
cactuspic Loc: Dallas, TX
 
S
bsprague wrote:
That works, but, generally, is known to slow down Lightroom. More common is to keep your catalog on the faster internal drive, have Lightroom write it's backup to the external and then back that up in the normal routine.


I have a question. The external drive I keep my catalog on is a fast solid state drive. The internal hard drive is a slower older type revolving drive. In that case, would keeping the catalog on the faster external drive slow down Lightroom?

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Feb 13, 2019 15:44:19   #
bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA
 
cactuspic wrote:
S

I have a question. The external drive I keep my catalog on is a fast solid state drive. The internal hard drive is a slower older type revolving drive. In that case, would keeping the catalog on the faster external drive slow down Lightroom?
It would depend on the speed of the connection. It may not make a difference where it is. I think the catalog loads into memory from either source so, again, it may not matter.

The traditional approach with HDDs was to keep the catalog on the internal. But with SDDs getting cheaper and larger, some of the rules are changing.

If performance (speed) is to your liking, maybe don't mess with it.

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