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Nick261829238bjf
Inspiring
March 4, 2023
Answered

Transferring Lightroom Classic from PC to Mac

  • March 4, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 1369 views

Hi All,

In trying to be clear, I've written a longish post - apologies in advance for that.

 

A lifelong PC user, I have at long last decided to enter the Mac environment. One of the first things I've tried to do is transfer all my Lightroom operations from my desktop PC to my new Mac Mini. N.B. I am not attempting to work on two computers: I want to work exclusively on the Mac. Apologies in advance for the obvious mess I've made of this transfer so far!

 

On the PC, I keep all my photos, and my Lightroom catalogue, in my DropBox folder, not in the default location selected by Lightroom. I would like to reproduce that structure on the Mac. Here's what I have done so far:

 

  1. I have synced my photos to the Mac using DropBox.
  2. DropBox has also synced the Lightroom catalogue and its associated files.
  3. I've installed Lightroom Classic on the Mac.

 

Having done all this, I've opened Lightroom and tried to select the catalogue.

 

Result: At first I saw my photos, but without any of the edits I'd performed on them. That was yesterday. Today on opening Lightroom on the Mac, and no photos at all are visible.

 

I've no idea what I've done, and I don't know how to fix this!

 

I would be enormously grateful for any assistance, and apologise for the depth of my ignorance!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Nick261829238bjf

Hi dj - Thank you very much. You may be able to see my reply to Per - I've started again from scratch, and am following your advice about following Lightroom to the letter. I appreciate your warnings about not deviating from her assiduously organised steps! All the best to you.

2 replies

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
March 4, 2023

If the second link from @Per Berntsen doesn't work (it probably will, but if it doesn't) then I would recommend that @Nick261829238bjf start over, and follow the first link given by @Per Berntsen

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

 

Follow each step exactly as written. Do not make up your own steps. Do not skip steps.

 

Repeating because this is vitally important:

Follow each step exactly as written. Do not make up your own steps. Do not skip steps.  Do not make up your own steps. Do not skip steps.

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Nick261829238bjfAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
March 6, 2023

Hi dj - Thank you very much. You may be able to see my reply to Per - I've started again from scratch, and am following your advice about following Lightroom to the letter. I appreciate your warnings about not deviating from her assiduously organised steps! All the best to you.

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Nick261829238bjfAuthor
Inspiring
March 6, 2023

"Lightroomqueen", I meant. Apols for the typo.

Per Berntsen
Community Expert
Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 4, 2023

Your images are probably missing, with question marks on the folders and exclamation marks on the thumbnails.

If, for example, the path to your images was D:\Dropbox\Photos on the PC, the Mac won't be able to find them, because Macs use a different disk naming system; there are no drive letters like on Windows.

 

If you have a top level folder that contains all the other folders, right click it in LrC, and choose Find missing folder. Navigate to that folder in the dialog that appears.

This should reconnect LrC with all the folders in the Folders panel.

If you don't have a top level folder, you may have to reconnect the folders one by one.

 

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

and https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

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Nick261829238bjfAuthor
Inspiring
March 6, 2023

Dear Per - much obliged for your kind help. Thank you! In the end I've gone back to the drawing board, uninstalling Lightroom and starting again from scratch, following Lightroomqueen's detailed instructions. Fingers crossed that all goes well from here. I'm very grateful for your assistance

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