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A
Adam0309
Participant
April 25, 2025
Answered

How to Sync my newly moved catalog from my desktop to macbook?

  • April 25, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 226 views

Hey guys, so recently I entirely exported my catalog from my Macbook air to my desktop so I can take advantage of the larger local storage there. I completed the export and its now on my desktop, and I've deleted the catalog from my macbook.

 

Previously, I was syncing my catalog from my macbook to my desktop, now I want to achieve the opposite to get the smart previews on my macbook. 

 

After this I also deleted all of my sync data so I could start fresh (which maybe in hindsight was a bad idea?)

 

However, when I try to sync on my laptop it just dosen't sync anything, it says everything is synced and backed up but theres nothing there. When I try to turn on sync on my desktop I get "Sync this catalog instead" popup.

 

The popup says im currently syncing "Lightroom Catalog.lrcrat" which is the default catalog I had to make on my macbook after I deleted the old catalog after the move. Then it says "Would you like to sync Mac to Pc.lcrat instead?" (which is the new name I gave the catalog when I moved it). Im not sure what will happen if I pick yes.

 

What should I do from here? Can I force lightroom on my macbook to sync with the "Mac to Pc" catalog on my desktop? I'm surley doing something wrong and over simplifying the cloud sync process, any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

 

 

 

 

Correct answer JohanElzenga

As I explained, Lightroom Classic can only sync one single catalog. So when you said 'yes' to syncing the catalog on the desktop, that automatically meant 'no' to continue sync on the laptop. Your laptop catalog is no longer synced. A Lightroom Classic catalog does not sync in its entirety. Only those collections are synced for which you specifically enable sync.

 

1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 26, 2025

Lightroom Classic can only sync one single catalog, and it syncs it to the cloud. You cannot sync between two computers. So if you want to sync the catalog on the desktop, then you should indeed enable sync and answer 'Yes' to the question that you'll get about syncing this catalog instead of the current one. Read this for more info: https://www.danhartfordphoto.com/blog/2025/1/lr026-fixing-sync-problems-caused-by-switching-the-sync-catalog

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
    A
    Adam0309Author
    Participant
    April 26, 2025

    Thank you for your reply! So I said yes to the popup and now my desktop lightroom says local activity is synced. However, when I go to lightroom on my laptop or the web version, nothing is syncing into them. Is there another step I have to do?

     

    A
    Adam0309Author
    Participant
    April 26, 2025

    Okay so I was able to sync my collections, but thats only half of my catalog, how do I sync the entire catalog?

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