Steps Needed to Re-join Missing Photos from an Old Master Catalog Backup

Question

Somehow I lost many old photos from a migration process from my iMac to my Mac Studio and/or a Lightroom photos update process about a year ago, and I'm just now getting around to trying to resolve this major issue.

Can anyone tell me a step-by-step method to rejoin my missing photos I have from old Master Catalogs that I restored from a 2022 backup? Can Lightroom Classic (latest version) intelligently match the missing photos in my current catalog and without duplication? And finally, what choices should I make before I attempt to import the missing photos from my older catalog to my current catalog?

Thank you very much!

dj_paige · Accepted Answer

1. Open the backup catalog in Lightroom Classic.

2. Select the desired photos.

3. File->Export as Catalog, give the exported catalog a name and click on SAVE

4. Close backup catalog.

5. Open current catalog in LrC

6. File->Import From Another Catalog and select the catalog created in step 3

Can Lightroom Classic (latest version) intelligently match the missing photos in my current catalog and without duplication?

Not sure what you mean. If the photos are still on your computer in the same folder with the same file name, yes they will be matched.

And finally, what choices should I make before I attempt to import the missing photos from my older catalog to my current catalog?

See this, scroll down to the section entitled "Import photos from a different Lightroom Classic catalog" and read up on your choices.

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