Export full Catalogue inclusive collections

[SM-art]

I use a very old Lightroom catalogue (classic) from the first day´s and with the today´s  latest version 11.2  under Win11 right now. My catalogue (optimized) is making problems like stopping in middle of processes without explainable reason.

Here my question: Is it possible to export the complete database (catalogue) inclusive the collections into a virgin catalogue (with the hope of getting rid of the problems) and how to do that?

Thanks for help
Gerhard

[dj_paige]

Please describe the problem(s) in more detail. What "processes" stop? What other problems?

[Ian Lyons]

Yes, exporting your existing catalog as a new catalog will retain your colllections, smart collections, etc. However, 'unassigned' keywords in your keywords list will not export to the new catalog. Fortunately, you can export the keywords from your old catalog, then import them into the new catalog.

[JohanElzenga]

Rather than exporting a catalog (which may export the problem too), you might try the opposite. Create a brand new catalog and use 'Import from another catalog' to import your current catalog. Do not move images in the process, just import them all. That will also import all collections and smart collections, except for empty ones.

[SM-art]

Thank you fpr the tip, but I do not understand what you mean with "Do not move images in the process, just import them all.".  Do you mean import catalogue AND Images to a new position?

[richardplondon]

Each image thumbnail in a Catalog refers to a given source file on disk - be that a camera Raw, a camera JPG, a Photoshop PSD or whatever. You have had two suggestions, Export as Catalog or Import from Catalog, and I would recommend the latter of these here (assuming the third approach, reverting to a recent Catalog backup, is not an option).

When you carry out "Export as Catalog" a new Catalog is created cleanly with copies of all these image thumbnails and their edits, Collection membership, keywords etc. The structure of the Catalog will then be properly built. If any information was corrupted to the point of being unusable, I would think those images or those Collections or whatever, would simply get omitted. Depending on the options you had set, either the image thumbnails in this new Catalog refer to the same files on disk (sharing the use of those, with the first Catalog) - or else separate copies of those source files are made and each image thumbnail in the new Catalog refers to one of those instead - not required for this purpose, there is nothing wrong with the current location of the image source files I presume.

When you carry out "Import from Another Catalog", for example into a fresh empty one, there is no option to copy or change the locations of the source files. Thumbnails are shown with all edits, keywords, Collection membership etc copied in, and these refer to the same files on disk (sharing the use of those) as are referred to in that first Catalog that you have imported from.

So, in either case, you can then simply delete the unwanted Catalog and its related folders, to clean up (keeping a backup copy for safety, of course) and proceed with the new one only. One thing to watch for: if you had opted to "Store Presets with the Catalog", those would need to be retrieved and transferred - but the default is for presets to be stored centrally in which case that will not be an issue.

What you would not want to do is to externally change the locations of the image source files, nor go into the unwanted Catalog and delete from disk any image source files. Not a good idea when those files are now being shared between these two Catalogs.

[JohanElzenga]

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@richardplondon wrote:

When you carry out "Import from Another Catalog", for example into a fresh empty one, there is no option to copy or change the locations of the source files.

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Sorry, but that is not true. When you use 'import from another catalog', you do get the option to copy all newly imported images to another location. The exception is when the imported catalog has 'missing' images. In that case you can still import them, but obviously not relocate them because Lightroom doesn't know where they are.

[richardplondon]

Thanks for the correction - I forgot to add my usual "as far as I recall" caveat there! Several years since I have had to do this action, and I wasn't aware of that option then.

I suggest: when the aim is to re-build a properly indexed library structure, one will probably want the photos (and photo metadata) to otherwise remain just as they were.

[JohanElzenga]

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@richardplondon wrote:

Thanks for the correction - I forgot to add my usual "as far as I recall" caveat there! Several years since I have had to do this action, and I wasn't aware of that option then.

I suggest: when the aim is to re-build a properly indexed library structure, one will probably want the photos (and photo metadata) to otherwise remain just as they were.

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Yes, that was what I suggested. Do not move the photos, just import them.

[SM-art]

Thanks for all the tips.
Finally I imported the complete catalogue (while the photos stayed on their place) It took ~28 hours, while 

neither the CPU nor the HD was busy. 
I have a better feeling now, only the Dia Show is still not working. The rest seems to be o.k.
I was positively surprised, that even all internet links worked and the presets I haved checked so far also.
As a summary: An import of a catalogue with more than 200 000 Photos (partly on an Server as a xternal storage) with many collections an internet links worked without problems. Thanks for all the help and if somebody has an idea on the Diashow...

wkrgds Gerhard

[SM-art]

Addendum:

After the reimport into a new catalogue Lightroom is drativally faster than before....