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bcdavis1975
Known Participant
May 1, 2011
Open for Voting

P: Allow Catalog to be stored on a networked drive.

  • May 1, 2011
  • 559 replies
  • 13787 views

I'd love to make LR more multi-computer friendly. I have no doubt that there's probably database architecture issues and a host of other barriers... But I have to believe that the need for either multi-user or at at lease multi-computer use is widely desired. And yes, I know you can do the catalog import export thing but I find this less than ideal.

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    jsowers897
    Participant
    January 30, 2017


    Please update Lightbox to allow for catalogs to work on Dropbox and other cloud type storage. Unplugging and plugging in a hard drive is not only asinine but completely outdated. Hard drives are not reliable and are on their way out the door. Carrying a hard drive around with you where ever you go is just asking for disaster. I honestly can't even believe it's not already available, I find it hard to believe my iOS apps & games are more advanced than Lightbox.
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    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    January 9, 2017
    I have a photographic studio with 3 positions for the postproduction. I have two subscriptions to the plane Photography Creative Cloud for several years and I find it absurd that I can not work with Lightroom catalogs on the net with my nas. I honestly imagined the Lightroom software as a professional solution for managing the many photo shoots but the limit of having to use only one computer discourages me from using it. Why until now I have been using alternative solutions for my workflow with my Mac. I hope that Adobe added the ability to work with catalogs in the local network as soon as possible.
    arends72187588
    arends72187588
    Participant
    August 11, 2016


    Would be great to get on your second catalog (on my macbook in my case) a collection named Mobile Sync where i can find all my synced files like on my iPad. There are certain things i would like to change that are not possible on the web app.
    D
    DerekBez001
    Participant
    August 4, 2016
    Just want to add - please do not consider the shared catalog concept over the internet, cloud sync, or anything like that.  It must be LAN local area network.

    The internet might be ok if you're working at home or in your office, and you live/work in an area where there is reliable, fast broadband.  

    When travelling - in hotels or guest houses or cruise ship - it's just not feasible to even remotely assume that a suitably fast and reliable internet connection will be available.  And don't forget there is the rest of the world might not have the coverage of broadband we're used to in our homes. 
    G
    GeoffVane
    Inspiring
    April 15, 2016
    Adobe could strike hard with a Newsroom system: think of it, video editing, subtitling, photography, archiving with metadata and keywords and realtime graphics. Amazing that they haven't conquered that terrain yet.
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    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    April 14, 2016

    I have just hired someone to man my picture desk and bumping into the problem having  more than one person working with a catalogue at a time... cant quit believe that this has not been resolved.  What are Adobe doing ?  All photographers cat all be one man bands, can they??

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    GeoffVane
    Inspiring
    April 1, 2016
    Adobe should create a newsroom system. Network LightRoom should be part of it. We desperately need net work LR. Now we constantly have to synchronize catalogs manually.
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    GeoffVane
    Inspiring
    March 24, 2016


    The Lightroom Catalog is used as a newsroom photo system here. You need to make it a network catalog a.s.a.p. ! This has been asked 5 years ago and is long overdue!
    (Adobe should create a newsroom system and realtime graphics machine. Hurry, there is much money to make and many graphists to please)
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Legend
    March 9, 2016

    "how to store a catalog on a network drive on Windows (I'm using Windows 10)" 

     

    For others who might read this, here's a summary of the last five years of discussion in this thread:

     

    Beware that there is a large amount of uncertainty about the reliability of Windows and Mac workarounds for placing catalogs on network drives. An Adobe engineer did cursory testing more than six years ago and found, at least in one configuration, that catalogs could get corrupted.  Since then, no one has reported any kind of extensive testing that would provide assurance about network catalogs.

     

    The underlying database technology used by LR, SQLite, was not designed to run with database files located on network drives, and the SQLite developers have explained why many network-storage services are not suitable for SQLite.  However, some network-storage services are likely suitable, but no one has reported the testing needed to establish any confidence. 

     

    The testing required to establish reasonable confidence is more than a few people running with network catalogs for a while in a few configurations. The technical problems would be expected to arise only in unusual circumstances on only some kinds of storage servers, e.g. when the network connection to the network storage fails, the server is very overloaded, etc., and even then, the failures could be infrequent.

     

    So if you decide to use one of the Mac or Windows workarounds, make sure you have reliable (tested) backups!

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    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    March 9, 2016
    I FINALLY figured out how to store a catalog on a network drive on Windows (I'm using Windows 10)!
    You need the following software: http://www.ntwind.com/software/utilities/visual-subst.html

    Here are the steps:
    1. Create a drive letter mapping to the network share. This is necessary to make the share visible to the Visual Subst software.
    2. Download and extract Visual-Subst (http://www.ntwind.com/software/utilities/visual-subst.html)
    3. Run Visual Subst and click on the magnifying glass on the bottom right. Browse to the network mapped folder (or a folder above it) that you want to store your catalog in.
    4. Select a drive letter to associate with the folder and click the "PLUS" button. 
    5. The drive will show up in Visual Subst and is now accessible as a catalog storage location in Lightroom. In Lightroom you simply select a folder on the drive that is mapped using Visual Subst. 
    ENJOY!
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