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bryanl3
bryanl3
Participant
April 22, 2017
Answered

New Computer and Missing Catalog

  • April 22, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 349 views

I have a new computer with 2 drives, a hard drive (D:) and a SSD (C:).  I've downloaded the Lightroom application on the C: drive and loaded my images on the D:drive, and can see all the folders in Lightroom.  So far, so good.

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​I've tried to load my saved catalog from my old computer and none of my old edits of photos show up, and my collection files all have zero photos in them.  On my old computer the catalog pointed to the images on the c: drive, now they are on the d: drive, not sure if this is the problem or not.  How do I load and configure my catalog so it works with my image files on the new computer?

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​Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer dj_paige

    I loaded LR on my new computer  on the c drive (SSD)

    Added photos to folder by hitting +,  then pulling up the files in Explorer and loading them to my d drive (hard drive) where all the photos reside

    Imported all those photos in and they are all visible

    this is a mistake, the re-importing of photos into Lightroom causes Lightroom to consider these to be totally new photos it has never seen before, and thus the photos have no edits and no user-supplied metadata.

    You need to use the catalog from the old computer, copy it to an empty folder on your new computer, open it by double-clicking on the catalog file, and then DO NOT IMPORT!!!!!

    Instead, you need to re-connect the photos to their new location on the D: drive, by following these instructions: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders particularly Figure 4 and related text

    1 reply

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    April 22, 2017
    I've tried to load my saved catalog from my old computer

    Exactly and in great detail, explain the steps you followed to do this. If you imported the photos into this catalog on the new computer, please state that clearly.

    bryanl3
    bryanl3Author
    Participant
    April 22, 2017

    Hi,

    I loaded LR on my new computer on the c drive (SSD)

    Added photos to folder by hitting +, then pulling up the files in Explorer and loading them to my d drive (hard drive) where all the photos reside

    Imported all those photos in and they are all visible

    I think I exited and may have saved that as a new catalog called Lightroom 5 catalog, but I’m not sure

    I open the application again and the folder images are there, but there are no collections and no edits of images

    Tried to create new catalog from an old saved catalog that is on the d drive (this catalog was originally created on my old computer and had all the edits and collections, and was on the c drive there). Pulled up the old catalog file, and it pointed to the c drive for all the photos, but none are there.

    So right now I have a catalog that shows the photos in the folder, but no edits are there and there are no collections.

    I don’t mind starting all over again (delete all the photos in the catalog) and starting new, if that would be easier. Just give me detailed instructions as to how to do that.

    I appreciate your help.

    Thanks,

    Bryan

    dj_paige
    dj_paigeCorrect answer
    Legend
    April 22, 2017

    I loaded LR on my new computer  on the c drive (SSD)

    Added photos to folder by hitting +,  then pulling up the files in Explorer and loading them to my d drive (hard drive) where all the photos reside

    Imported all those photos in and they are all visible

    this is a mistake, the re-importing of photos into Lightroom causes Lightroom to consider these to be totally new photos it has never seen before, and thus the photos have no edits and no user-supplied metadata.

    You need to use the catalog from the old computer, copy it to an empty folder on your new computer, open it by double-clicking on the catalog file, and then DO NOT IMPORT!!!!!

    Instead, you need to re-connect the photos to their new location on the D: drive, by following these instructions: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders particularly Figure 4 and related text

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