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davidd254320
Participant
November 28, 2016
Question

1 Catalogue across a Desktop and a Laptop - Is it possible?

  • November 28, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 403 views

Hi

I have lightroom 6 on a laptop and on a desktop. What is the best way to use one catalogue across the 2 devices?

Regards

David

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 28, 2016

    It is possible to keep two machines fully synchronized on internal disks, and with a single Lightroom catalog.

    You still need an external that holds everything (including the catalog) as transport medium, and then you use file synchronization software to copy new and modified files both ways. There are several on the market, but Microsoft's free SyncToy is in fact excellent and will do everything you need.

    The main advantage of this is that it doubles as a very secure backup regime - three copies of every file, one always off-site.

    The Lightroom catalog is treated as a single file and will be copied in its entirety every time. For this reason you should also run the standard catalog backups.

      D
      davidd254320Author
      Participant
      November 28, 2016

      Please explain how to use sync toy most effectively

      Thank you

      David

      D Fosse
      Community Expert
      D FosseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 28, 2016

      Well, there isn't much to it. You set up "folder pairs" to be synchronized (one way or both ways, with or without delete). You can have a lot of these pairs, so you'll be able to define precisely what you need to copy and what to leave alone.

      Once set up, it's really just a single click, and whatever you worked on that day gets copied over. The external is just an intermediate station to be further copied to the destination machine. But everything needs to be there as placeholder (and backup).

      You do need to have identical folder structures across all three disks. Every file needs to move into an identical folder tree. But drive letters can be whatever you like - the software will see them as separate units anyway.

        dj_paige
        dj_paige
        Legend
        November 28, 2016

        Put the catalog file and all photos on an external HD, move the EHD back and forth between desktop and laptop. If you have a Windows computer, make sure that the drive letter on both desktop and laptop is the same.

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