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nanciej
Inspiring
June 20, 2019
Question

Catalogue Images not showing up on second computer

  • June 20, 2019
  • 6 replies
  • 1333 views

I have read many posts about using a second computer with Lightroom but cannot figure out what I have done wrong here...

Lightroom and two catalogues live on my iMac internal drive in a folder called Lightroom Catalogues inside Pictures. There is another folder called Images where all the images are organzied for both catalgoues in seprate folder hiarchies. So...three folders inside LRCatlogue folder. Catalogue A. Catalogue B and Images.

I moved this entire folder, via the finder, to a external drive. The ONLY thing on this drive is this Lightroom Catalogue folder. When I open it, everything is where it should be. 3 folders.

When I attach the drive to a Macbook and double click catalogue B, Lightroom opens, the drive shows up in the panel. The hiearchy shows Lightroom Catalogues, Images- and then the folders of images associated with that catalogue B. All good.

When I open Catalogue A, The drive shows up, the LightroomCatalogue folder shows up, and the Catalogue A folder(where the .cat files are kept) shows. Not the Image folder. So basically, no images. They are all on the drive, organized in folders.

If I attach the drive to the imac and open the external libraries, the same as above happens.

Why would one catalgoue open perfectly, and the other not? If I go back to the iMac internal, both catalogue opens fine and the images are there...

I have been going around in circles with this all day.... any iinsights appreciated.

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.

6 replies

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
June 21, 2019

Do you have a working backup of the misbehaving catalog? Possible corrupt catalog.

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
June 21, 2019

By the way, fairly sure answer to this is yes, but

In the bad catalog, in the “All Pictures” collection, nothing?

Lightroom Classic: Folders invisible in library folder list | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Oh, and in some postings, up in the menus, select to show folders in sub folders.

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
June 21, 2019

In the misbehaving catalog, in the Folders panel, any ? mark(s) showing up?

And how about a screenshot

Tony_See
Tony_See
Inspiring
June 21, 2019

Try this:

Here you'll find infos about the using of a catalog file on multiple computers:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-to-lightroom-catalog-multiple-computers/​

N
nanciejAuthor
Inspiring
June 21, 2019

Yes, Thanks Tony. No solution there though. :-)

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
June 20, 2019

I will reconstruct this as a active way to understand.

On your iMAC you have a folder named “Pictures”.

In the folder named Pictures you had a folder named “Lightroom Catalogues”.

In the folder Lightroom Catalogues you have three folders, “Catalogue A”, “Catalogue B”, and “Images”.

You moved  the folder named “Lightroom Catalogues”, and the three folders within it. to an external hard drive.

You attach that hard drive to your other computer, a MacBook, and launch lightroom, opening Catalogue B. All works fine.

If you try to open Catalogue A, The folder named “Images” is missing.

If you exit Lightroom Classic, and reattach that external drive to your iMac, you get the same bad result for Catalogue A.

___________________________

Some questions

1. Are you attempting to open both catalogues at the same time, or do you close Lightroom Classic, and the open the other catalogue separately?

2. Are you running Lightroom Classic at the same time? I think not, and I think an error would pop up. This question just to clear up a possible bad assumption.

3. Does the Images folder contain just the originals? Or does it also contain exports?

4. And if the folder Images contains exports, how well did that behave before moving from internal to external? One catalogue would normally not know about exports from another catalogue. You keep them separated some way? A bit odd.

_____________________

In the catalogue misbehaving, in the Folders panel, (aggg not on a computer, bad memory in following) right click and see if you are offered to find missing folder, or relocate folder. Or you might need to press that + symbol, add a folder, then sync folder.

not on a computer, might have some of that wrong.

N
nanciejAuthor
Inspiring
June 21, 2019

David-you summed it up correctly. :-)

1. No, not attempting to open at the same time. I close the application and then relaunch from the .lrcat file.

2. I am only running Lightroom classic? So not sure what you mean...

3 The image folder contains originals and also any images that were opened directly in PS from Lightroom and saved back to LR. So, yes, some tiffs. I do not directly export to that folder. As I mentioned, on the iMac there has never been an issue. And actually, on my previous laptop I never had an issue. I am actually going to try another drive today but it does not seem to be a drive issue as then I would imagine neither would work. I don't really understand the last part of what you are saying about one catalogue not knowing about eports from another?

Unfortunately no find missing folder. Tried that. :-)

Thanks

NJ

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