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lukea13
Participating Frequently
February 20, 2018
Answered

Moving pictures and Lightroom to new computer

  • February 20, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 20396 views

I recently purchased an iMac and copied images that were on my pc onto an external hard drive then put them into a pictures folder on my new iMac. I installed the Lightroom app onto my iMac. My Lightroom work from my pc did not cross over to my new computer. I am wondering what I need to do at this point to get my previous work over to my new computer? Did I go about moving my images wrong as to make it difficult to get my previous Lightroom work over? I still want to keep my pictures and Lightroom installed on my pc.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer dj_paige

    Full instructions, step-by-step:

     

    https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

     

    3 replies

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    Longball Willie
    Participating Frequently
    November 26, 2018

    IMHO a better explanation than Lightroom Queen.

    How To Move Lightroom From one Computer to Another - YouTube

    How to Migrate Lightroom to a New Computer - YouTube

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2018

    If you want to keep the pictures and Lightroom on the PC as well, then the best option is to move the catalog and the pictures to an external hard drive, and use that drive with both computers. To do this successfully, you have to take care of two things. First of all, the hard disk needs to be formatted in a way that both computers can use. That means you cannot format it in NTFS, because MacOS X cannot write to such disks. Format it in exFAT.

    The second thing is that Lightroom uses a path to the images, and a disk on MacOS X is referred to by its name, while the PC uses a drive letter. That means you would constantly get 'missing folders' when you switch between the computers. The way to solve this is to keep the images inside (a folder in) the catalog folder. In that case Lightroom will use a 'relative path' to the images, which does not contain the disk name or drive letter.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
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      lukea13Author
      Participating Frequently
      February 20, 2018

      Thank you that was helpful. I am not sure about the catalog folder is this something I would find located stored within a file folder on my pc from previous Lightroom install. Or are you talking the catalog folder that you see when you are in the Lightroom Library?

      JohanElzenga
      Community Expert
      JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 20, 2018

      Your catalog folder is normally stored in your Pictures folder. It contains the catalog (extension .lrcat), the previews (extension .lrdata) and possibly the smart previews (same extension). You need to move the entire folder.

      -- Johan W. Elzenga
        dj_paige
        dj_paigeCorrect answer
        Legend
        February 20, 2018

        Full instructions, step-by-step:

         

        https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

         

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