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learningful
learningful
Known Participant
August 13, 2023
Question

Importing file information from a backup catalogue

  • August 13, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 381 views

Hello all. I'm in need of some advice. I'm setting up LRC on a new mac mini, and I'm concerned that I may have gone about the process incorrectly.

I've installed LRC on the new computer and imported the image files (30,000+) which reside on an external HD. However I'm now realizing that the imported files do not have the associated key words I had assigned. My question is this: If I copy the lastLRC backup catalogue from the old computer into the Lightroom folder in Pictures and import it from LRC will it restore the key words to my images? Thanks in advance.

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    1 reply

    R
    Community Expert
    richardplondonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 13, 2023

    It's not just keywords - there will be a lot of other previous work missing. Effectively you have just started again from scratch, the way you have proceeded. If you try to import these photos again from your old catalog, either LrC will refuse to do so - depending on its settings - or you will then have two conflcting versions of each photo - one that is connected to the file but does not have your previous work, and another that is not connected but does have your previous work. Even more of a mess, really.  

     

    Your better course IMO would be to set aside this new Catalog, and copy into the new computer the whole old catalog (this already has got all your previous images imported, keyworded, organised in Collections etc). Opening that will allow you to continue seamlessly from where you left off on the other computer.

     

    The only difficulty here, will be when the addressing of the photos as the new computer sees them, differs from their addressing as the old computer saw them. Typically the entire set of folders and photos will be copied across as it is; that is definitely how this should be done. No reorganising or renaming. As copied across, they will probably not show the identical storage drive name and full folder paths as previously - so they can be expected to initially show offline (not found). That's fine, the fix for that is to READDRESS the top containing folder for all these image folders, to point to the right corresponding folder in the new computer, using a single point of management for updating the location of everything in one go.

     

    If this single top containing folder is not visible you can context-click on a top level folder that is showing and select Show Parent Folder. Then context-click on this containing folder and choose Find Missing Folder.

      learningful
      learningfulAuthor
      Known Participant
      August 13, 2023
      Thanks for this Richard; it's exactly the information I was looking for.
      So, just to clarify: In your suggestion to copy the old catalogue into the new computer (which I've done already -- I just haven't opened it in LR), would I then delete the new catalogue before I open LR? Would LR then prompt me to select a catalogue? (BTW, all the image files are in exactly the same physical location they were with the old computer -- on an external HD, which is identified with the same name in Finder on the new Mac.)
      Thanks again.
      Rod
      There is no limit to what can be achieved when you don't care who gets the credit!
      R
      Community Expert
      richardplondonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 14, 2023

      You don't have to delete the new catalog but I would question the usefulness of keeping that. Copying the old catalog file across, I suggest you include the same-named resources that sit alongside that.

       

      If you have the new Catalog open you can simply tell LrC to open a different one instead.

       

      IIRC when LRc can't open a previously opened catalog, if any, at startup: it may prompt you to create a new one from scratch. But there will also be an option to browse to an already existing catalog. That will then become the last-opened catalog which will automatically open in future.

       

      Storing the image files on the external drive certainly does simplify things! MacOs is fairly straightforward AFAIK in that it goes by the drive naming. Windows is a little more involved, since a drive letter and not the drive naming is definitive - and an automatically assigned drive letter can vary accidentally. But a constant drive letter can be"booked in" for a given drive, to avoid that assignment possibly varying in the future.

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