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Question

Using catalogue on Windows 10 PC & Mac Book Pro

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
November 17, 2018
2 replies
2914 views

I use since a longer time Lightroom Classic CC on my Windows PC and my Catalogue is stored on a external SSD (several backups available). Due to the fact, that I have a high performance NAS on which all my data is stored, I would like to use the NAS also for my catalogue (RAW's and JPEGS). Which steps have I to make for transfering my pictures to the NAS and using in the future this catalogue together on my PC and my Mac Book Pro? I guess that only my pictures must be moved to the NAS, the catalogue files must be kept locally on my PC. Correct ? Which folders must be kept local within the current local stored catalogue? Is the catalogue file (lrcat file), created on my Windows PC fully compatible on my Mac Book Pro and can I just copy over to my Mac? Also the previews?

A detailed workflow would be very helpful for me to make the correct changes for using Lightroom Classic CC on both platforms and for using my NAS as central storage of my existing picture archive. Is anything else to consider ?

Your support and helpful information is highly aprreciated.

I'm looking forward hearing from you and thank you very much.

kind regards

This topic has been closed for replies.

ManiacJoe

Inspiring

Putting the images on the network drive works well for both OS.

The catalog is compatible between both Mac and Windows.

The problem is that the drives are not referenced the same way in Mac (by names) and in Windows (by letter). This means that every time you switch between the two computers, you will need to do a "find missing folder" in the Folders panel to map all the root directories to their "new" drive names.

thydney1970Author

Known Participant

Just for correct understanding. If I still use my under windows created catalogue on my PC, store the raws and pictures of this catalogue on my NAS, it will work if I create a new catalogue on my Mac Book Pro for accessing the same folders/pictures on my NAS for working from both systems? Must the Mac catalogue have the same name or a different one?

In a first step, I will move my raws today to my NAS. This means I will transfer only the folder with all the pictures to my NAS and will keep the catalog file (.lrcat) and *previews.lrdata on my current local folder on my PC. Afterwards I will create a new catalogue on my Mac Book Pro with reference to the same folder on my NAS?

Another question I have regarding new catalogues. When creating a complete new catalogue is it possible to import/export the keyword list from my old catalogue? If so how?

Many thanks for your support and I'm looking forward hearing again from you.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

Lightroom stores edits and metadata in the catalog, it does not touch the images. That means that if you create a new catalog on the Mac, this new catalog will not contain any edits, keywords or anything else you did. The only way you can use Lightroom Classic on two computer is by using the same catalog (via an external hard drive) on both.

Like others have said, there is an additional problem because Windows uses drive letters while Macs use a drive name. Because the Lightroom catalog contains paths to the images, the path on a PC will be something like D://Foldername/Imagename while the path to the same image on a Mac would be NASname/Foldername/Imagename. As long as you have one single top image folder, that isn’t a big deal however. The only thing you need to do when you switch between computer is right-click on the now ‘missing’ top folder and choose ‘Find Missing Folder’. In the dialog that comes up you select the top folder on the NAS and the images are ‘reconnected’ again. Until you switch computers again...

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Just Shoot Me

Legend

Biggest problem is the way each OS addresses hard drives, whether internal, external or across a network.

I recently got an older iMac and have been fooling around with using the same catalog on both systems. Not working for me.

About the only, Easy, way it to store both catalog file, preview and ALL the images on an External drive and move that drive from one system to the other. But that isn't without problem either because of how OS X and Windows sees and access the hard drives connected to their systems.

Personally I gave up. Started a New catalog on the Mac and import my images using the ADD option and leaving the image files on my Win PC, accessing them across my LAN.

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