Participating Frequently

Answered

Editing on 2 computers

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
August 29, 2016
7 replies
12016 views

Hi all,

Sorry to ask this question, but I cannot seem to find an answer no matter how much I search. I am a long time Lightroom user, and currently have Lightroom 6 installed on my desktop. I have bought a new laptop, and I want to be able to edit my photos on both PCs. I cannot seem to find information on the best way to do this. I thought Creative Cloud would be the answer, and it may be, but I cannot find anything that specifically tells me how to do this. So let me be very specific about my ask.

I currently have my catalog on my desktop. If I load pictures to my desktop, they will be cataloged in my desktop catalog. Now, how do I get to edit these photos on my laptop, and keep my catalog in sync? I really thought that was the point of CC, but if I only get 20 Gb storage, I cant keep all my photos in that. And even if I could, the catalog would still be on my desktop.

Can anyone help? Is CC right for me? Any help appreciated. Thanks

Colinm85

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Abambo

Thanks Jim, but I'm still a little confused. If I move my catalog to Box, that's not the same thing as moving my photos. So my photos would stay on my desktop. Reading your second paragraph, it seems like I have accomplished nothing by moving my catalog to box if I cannot do any editing to the photos on my desktop. So what would the point be of moving my catalog to box?

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding

The catalog is a database, containing your edits, previews of the pictures, pointers to the pictures and some other data. As the current pictures are not stored with the catalog, you should not change their location or name behind the back of LR. but this allows for a compact catalog and allows for offline editing, without having to have the pictures on-line.

Moving the catalog to dropbox will allow access from 2 or more computers to the same catalog, without having to physically attach a disk to that computer. It works, but is not supported because LR does not support concurrent catalog access. If you are sure not to connect with 2 computers at the same time, there is no drawback as long as dropbox can synchrinize your data before dropping the connection.

The drpbox workaround works because a dropbox folder appears as a standard folder to your applications. If LR could detect this as a networked directory, it would refuse using it.

D

dd-b

Known Participant

Adobe needs to get rid of the prohibition against the catalog being on a network drive! It's easy enough to *tell* if somebody else is connected, and refuse the simultaneous connection (or, you know, use something modern like sqlite that actually *supports* simultaneous users).

As it is, I can't use my laptop to edit files on the NAS since they're cataloged in the catalog on the desktop.

In many corporate environments there is little or no local disk, making lightroom flat-out unusable (so they have to go to the competition) .

Maybe somebody should write a driver for windows that makes a network disk appear local....

For that matter, integrating catalog and editing is *wrong*; it's a classic lock-in strategy, make people give you control of their content to use your tool. Integrated tools are nearly always second (or third or fifth!) best in most of the categories they cover.

R

rolliefingers

Participant

This is Mac specific, but thought I would ask in case someone here is also a Mac user. Based on this article (Use target disk mode to share files between two Mac computers - Apple Support ) does it seem like this should work? It does to me but I know I might be missing something.

Just Shoot Me

Legend

The catalog file has to be on a hard drive physically connected to the computer you are using LR on. It can not be a networked drive.

Target disk mode should work in this case as it disables the OS on one Mac and makes the hard drive in that one Mac appear as just a hard drive to the other Mac connected by the firewire/USB/Thunderbolt/USB-C ports on both computers.

R

rolliefingers

Participant

So, I tried this and was successfully able to access my Catalog on my laptop using my desktop in Target Disk Mode. However, once, the computers were disconnected, my laptop couldn't locate the Smart Previews I had built.

Isn't this the entire point of using Smart Previews, to develop images when not connected to the Catalog? Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks!

robertw25933794

Participant

You could always go the smart preview route. This would

allow you more editing than just standard previews.

All edits stored in the catalog and always with you.

C

colinm85Author

Participating Frequently

So now I've done a little research, and I think I have it. Can someone confirm that this is right, or tell me what's wrong with it. I want to be able to process pictures on both my desktop and laptop.

1. Today I have Lightroom, my pictures and my catalog on my desktop, and nothing on my laptop.

2. I should get a box or dropbox subscription, and copy my catalog to it, meaning that any changes I make to the catalog on my desktop will be synched to the cloud solution (let's call it box).

3. I should install Lightroom on my laptop, and copy the catalog from box to my laptop, and use the catalog on my laptop as the location for any edits I make on my laptop, meaning that any changes that are made from my desktop will be synched to my laptop thru box, and any changes I make on my laptop will be synched to my desktop thru box.

NOTE: at this point, I am never using the box catalog for anything except as an intermediary for changes made on either computer. This also means I don't have to be online to do any edits, and that I do not ever need access to my photographs once they are loaded on my desktop and imported into the desktop catalog and synched to box and the laptop - let's say I will always do that. I get that I will always have to make sure that any changes I make on either computer, online or offline, will have to be synched to box, and to the other computer before I can use the other computer.

Is that right, or should I put my catalog on box and point both computers at it, meaning that I need to be online to be able to use Lightroom?

John Waller

Community Expert

The steps you've described are required to make this workflow work.

Regarding your last point: that's right. You cannot point LR to the catalog in Box in the Cloud. It must be local. The whole point is not to have to be online to be able to use Lightroom.

Don't start editing on the second computer until you know that Box has finished syncing the Catalog file (containing edits from the previous session) from the Cloud.

The key is to ensure that when you're done editing, you close Lightroom every single time so there are no lock files to prevent Box syncing the catalog to the Cloud. Otherwise you'll get stuck in the nightmare of sorting out non-synced Catalogs and - potentially - conflicted copies. That discipline is the key to making this workflow successful.

C

colinm85Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks. So exactly as I outlined before asking the question that you answered, although I may not have the specifics about how box works right. Again, thanks for the help

Abambo

Community Expert

May be it helps to show you my work environment:

A NAS for my backups with RAID disks and a lot of space
A desktop workstation when I'm at my HO with a 6Tb photo disk, the catalog is on an SSD.
A Laptop for my travels and out of office edits with a 2Tb external disk (catalog and pictures on the same disk).

My exchanges are done (mostly) one way: laptop->desktop->back-up, rarely I need older files from my desktop to be edited on my laptop.

This configuration decides my work pattern: When I go shooting, I import the pictures to my external disk from my Laptop. At my HO, I import the catalog (File->import from an other catalog) to my desktop. Then I do a back-up. After that only I reformat my cards. I have currently still plenty of room on my external disk, but when arriving at it's limits, I will probably delete the older files from the catalog. But it may be also that by then, that I can afford and buy additional external space (my external disk is a SSD).

Additional security would be to add a second external disk. I think currently, that I do not need that. But I would definitively need a mirror for my NAS at a remote location.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

JP Hess

Inspiring

The easiest and most reliable way to work on the same images on two different computers is to have the catalog and the images on an external hard drive that can be switched between computers. The catalog must be on a hard drive that is local to the computer running Lightroom. The cloud is not the solution for what you are trying to do. The cloud enables you to create collections that can be shared. Then you can use Lightroom Mobile on your mobile devices to modify those images. Those changes will be applied to the master images residing on your main computer.

C

colinm85Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks Jim but while I get that, it's not ideal for me. I travel, and putting my catalog on an external hard drive leaves me vulnerable to losing the drive, having issues with it etc. mYbd I need to look at putting my pictures and catalog on something like box is the answer. Comments?

John Waller

Community Expert

Lightroom needs to see (or be fooled into seeing) the catalog as a local file.

This works using

internal and external hard drives or
something like Dropbox which stores a virtual copy of its files on your local hard drive then syncs them remotely to dropbox.com. I believe Box has a similar feature. It's that sync'ed copy of the Dropbox/Box files on your local hard drive which makes "sharing" the LR catalog it work. It's not really shared. It's automatically synced by Dropbox to multiple connected computers sharing the same Dropbox account.

The downside of this approach is the risk of data duplication due to conflicted copies. If Dropbox cannot access the LR catalog due to it being is use or the timestamp is off, Dropbox either skips or duplicates the files.

If you're disciplined enough to close your LR catalog after every editing session, then Dropbox will cleanly and safely sync the LR catalog to the other computer's Dropbox and you can edit the updated LR catalog on the other computer. If you fail to close LR correctly even once, you'll have to sort out multiple conflicted copies of your LR catalog before you can continue editing.

See

http://www.hdrphotographyblog.com/tutorials/sync-lightroom-catalog-with-dropbox/

http://petapixel.com/2014/06/03/5-tips-for-keeping-your-lightroom-catalogs-organized-and-efficient/

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded