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J
jeffrey_7732
Participant
May 24, 2026
Question

Migrating Catalog and images not working

  • May 24, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 6 views

Thanks in advance but I am flustered.  I have a Macbook for travel and a desktop PC for home.  Recently cam home with about 950 images edited on the road with LR Classic.  Tried to import this a few times into the catalog into my desktop.  Each time, after hours of seeming to imp rt (scrollbar SLOWLY moves), get an error message and task is not successful.  So then, I tried to export the laptop catalog to the external HDD without “negatives” and previews.  The catalog moved to my external HDD.  But, when I open it, all the images are greyed out.  If I open an item under the develop module, it appears (complete with metadata and edits), but the disappears if another image is then opened.  I don’t deem sable to get this catalog in a working state to the external HDD so I can move it to the desktop PC. 

Pertinent information…...folder exported to external HDD contains folder with images and .xmp files, {XXX Helper.lrdata}, {XXX.lrcat}, {XXX.lrcat-data}, {XXX Previews.lrdata}, and 3 files I don’t understand (XXX.lrct-shm, XXX.lrcat-wal and XXX.lrcat-lock).  

 

I tried to remove the XXX Previews.lrdata file and repeat the process but nothing changes.

 

Found nothing on any RECENT question addressing this.  I fell like this is something that should be obvious but I don’t get it.  Can anyone give me some insight?

 

Thanks.

 

J

    1 reply

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 24, 2026

    Try export as catalog with the negatives and previews. The ‘negatives’ are the original images. When you import from this catalog, you want those to be present because that is essentially what you import. Previews are needed to view the images, so again you want those to be available when you import from this catalog.

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
    J
    jeffrey_7732Author
    Participant
    May 24, 2026

    Appreciate this reply.  When I tried exporting with negatives and previews, it took hours and near the end (based on the number of items), got error messages.

     

    After some more struggling, I think I found a solution:

     

    -First, I export catalog to external HDD without previews or negatives.

    -Then, I copy and paste images (with .xmp because they have already been edited) in a folder to that same directory on the external HDD

    -Finally, I import the catalog using the “Import from another catalog” pull down.

     

    Then, I log out of LR, restart, and let it do what it does.  This worked once.  Will try again.

     

    J

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