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F5Duke
Participant
November 19, 2012
Answered

Moving LR catalog to external hard drive

  • November 19, 2012
  • 4 replies
  • 202780 views

I am new and in the process of learning LR.  Currently all my photos are stored and developed in my laptop, however it is getting too much for its hard drive.  I am thinkinng of moving the entire LR catalog to an external harddrive.  Would someone please give me some advice how to do this safely and also how to point the LR to its new location when I open it from the icon.

Thanks much.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer F5Duke

    I am happy to report that the project was completed successfully. Thanks to everyone's advice. This is what I have done:

    Imported some new photos, directing them to be stored in a subfolder created in the new external hard drive G:. This folder, namely "My LR Photos", is intended to store all my photos in LR from now on. I figured this will force the G: drive to appear on the folder panel of my LR. It did.

    Next, within the LR on the folder panel, I moved each photo subfolder from C: drive to the new folder in G:. All photos moved smoothly with their previously established data intact. None has to be reconnected to its original.

    I relaunch LR several times to make sure it works and got no problem at all. It even seems to work faster now too.

    I'd like to thank all three of you for taking the interest in sharing your knowledge and helping me to do this so painlessly.  Best regards.

    Special note to JimHess:  I really appreciate your conversation with dj_paige helping air cake2 with his/her problem on another thread. I had an almost the same problem with my LR and worked it out nicely based on yours and dj's information to air cake2.

    4 replies

    jayhawksean
    jayhawksean
    Participant
    January 14, 2016

    It's 2016 and the solution proposed here is silly and convoluted. Why is this step necessary:


    Imported some new photos, directing them to be stored in a subfolder created in the new external hard drive G:. This folder, namely "My LR Photos", is intended to store all my photos in LR from now on. I figured this will force the G: drive to appear on the folder panel of my LR. It did.

    LR should just be able to see the newly formatted and blank HD and list it as an option. I can see it on my desktop so it is visible to the system.

    seeotter71
    seeotter71
    Participant
    August 16, 2015

    Hello

    I got a similar problem.

    I have LR CC installed on 2 PC (Desktop & Laptop) and would like to work from the same catalog - currently located on the laptop. How can I do it? I have a WD My Cloud driver in the network. Would it work if I relocate the catalog there ?

    Best Regards

    Patrik

    PS: I am also beginning in the adobe world :-)

    S
    SteveF1948
    Known Participant
    November 19, 2012

    Keep the Lightroom catalog on the fastest drive you have. This may be obvious, but moving it to a slow, external drive, will slow Lightroom right down, whereas putiing it on a different drive to your photos will speed things up.

    F
    F5DukeAuthorCorrect answer
    Participant
    November 20, 2012

    I am happy to report that the project was completed successfully. Thanks to everyone's advice. This is what I have done:

    Imported some new photos, directing them to be stored in a subfolder created in the new external hard drive G:. This folder, namely "My LR Photos", is intended to store all my photos in LR from now on. I figured this will force the G: drive to appear on the folder panel of my LR. It did.

    Next, within the LR on the folder panel, I moved each photo subfolder from C: drive to the new folder in G:. All photos moved smoothly with their previously established data intact. None has to be reconnected to its original.

    I relaunch LR several times to make sure it works and got no problem at all. It even seems to work faster now too.

    I'd like to thank all three of you for taking the interest in sharing your knowledge and helping me to do this so painlessly.  Best regards.

    Special note to JimHess:  I really appreciate your conversation with dj_paige helping air cake2 with his/her problem on another thread. I had an almost the same problem with my LR and worked it out nicely based on yours and dj's information to air cake2.

    F
    fotonatur13
    Participating Frequently
    January 11, 2013

    I have copied alle my images (one folder with all its subfolders) from my Imac-internal hd to an external drive.

    Now i want to use the external hd in Lightroom, and delete the internal folder.

    But i cant find the external hd in LRs Folder and therefore move the images.

    Now i am very unsure what to do. Can somebody help? Have i done something wrong in this operation?

    web-weaver
    web-weaver
    Inspiring
    November 19, 2012

    Please note:

    When we talk of the "catalog" in Lightroom, it means the database where Lr stores everything. It does not mean your photos.

    The catalog (i.e. the database, i.e. the file with the ending <  .lrcat>) does not have to be on the same drive where the photos(the image files)  are.

    So you can move your photos to an external hard drive and leave the catalog where it is now. Where is it? Go >Edit >Catalog Settings ? General tab. It tells you the name and location of the catalog.

    Before you do any moving of your photos, please note: Lr stores - among the many other things - in its catalog also the location of each one of your image files. This has the consequence that if you move the image files in Win Explorer / Mac Finder Lr does not find the photos in the location stored in the catalog and sends you the much feared "?". How to solve this, see here: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS3BC0B0A1-D48C-4271-891D-DA04EF388E29.html

    So, there are two ways to move your photos to an external drive:

    a) do it within Lr and Lr will keep on top of the moved files;

    b) If you want to move the image files in Win Explorer / Mac Finder it is best you create one (1) parent folder that contains - in various sub-folders - all of your images. Do this in Lr.

    Then - in Win Explorer / Mac Finder - you move the parent folder with all its sub-folders to the external drive. When you open Lr again it will show - in the folders panel - a question mark besides each folder. You then have to do the <Find missing folder> routine:

    Locate missing folders

    If a folder is moved in the operating system instead of in Lightroom, the link between the catalog and the folder breaks, and a question-mark icon appears on the folder in the Folders panel.

    1. To restore the link, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) on the folder and choose Find Missing Folder from the context menu.
    2. Navigate to the file path of the moved folder and click Choose.
      F
      F5DukeAuthor
      Participant
      November 19, 2012

      Thank you for your quick reply.  I intend to move the photo folders within LR from C: drive to a new external drive, namely G:. I think this is the safest way to move the photos.   What do I have to do to show G: in the folders section of the left panel of LR?

      web-weaver
      web-weaver
      Inspiring
      November 19, 2012

      If your G:\ drive does not show in the folders panel check first if it shows on the left side in the <Import Dialog>.

      If it does show there then do this:

      In Win Explorer / Mac Finder create a copy of one of your image files and rename it; then move it to a folder on your G drive.

      Then import this photo into Lr with the Import Dialog by using the feature <Add> in the top center of teh Import Dialog.

      The renaming of the photo in Win Explorer / Mac Finder makes it a "new" photo for Lr - or else it would refuse to import it - unless you uncheck <Don't import suspected duplicates>.

      Alternatively you could use a photo that previously had notbeen  imported into Lr.

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