Growing Pains Switching from Lightroom 6 to Lightroom

[Jeff24832360eklg]

I am finally trying out Lightroom CC for real and, after major hurdles, was able to bring my Library over from Lightroom 6.  However, my History is missing and instead shows Transfer date only.  I seem to have lost my Flags as well so need to reassess my "curated" images.  Any feedback?  Thank you.

[dj_paige]

Are you talking about Lightroom (Lr icon) or Lightroom Classic (LrC icon)? What version NUMBER?

How did you "bring my library over"? Please explain the steps, leaving nothing out.

[Jeff24832360eklg]

So it is actually LrC version 13.0.1.  A Lightroom customer service rep did the transfer, with my assistance.  I believe we set up a new Folder and then moved (copied) all 21,700 files from my external harddrive to the new Folder so that Lightroom learned from where to pull the images.  Prior, every sub-folder showed 0 files, presumably because I had previously copied all files from an aging external drive to the new drive.  He first asked me to confirm that all files had been edited, the question which is still do not understand.

[dj_paige]

So same computer that ran Lr 6 now running LrC 13.0.1, but photos transferred to different external drive. There are still some things I don't understand.

However, my History is missing and instead shows Transfer date only.

Did you import the photos into the LrC 13 catalog? Do you mean history shows the IMPORT date only?

[Jeff24832360eklg]

No, it is a new computer, a Macmini, that is running now.  I migrated everything from an iMac (circa 2015) a couple of months ago.   Yes, I believe we imported the photos into the LrC catalog.  And yes, the History now only shows the Import date.

[Conrad_C]

Yes, I believe we imported the photos into the LrC catalog.  And yes, the History now only shows the Import date.

By @Jeff24832360eklg

That might be working as expected…and that might be because the steps that were used might not have been the recommended procedure for an upgrade.

There are three ways to move images from an older installation to a newer one, or between catalogs, but one of these three methods will not preserve old information:

A. Open old catalog in the current version of Lightroom Classic, so that the old catalog gets upgraded. Open the current version (Lightroom Classic 13), choose File > Open Catalog, and open the old catalog (created by Lightroom 6). This will create a new catalog, in the current Lightroom Classic 13 format, converting and transferring all image-level edits, and also all catalog-level data such as History, Virtual Copies, collection membership, flags, etc. Everything should transfer.

B. Import old catalog into a catalog created by the current version of Lightroom Classic. Open or create a catalog, choose File > Import From Another Catalog, and select the other catalog. The result should be similar to method A: All image and catalog data should be transferred. This is not the best way to do an upgrade, because there are extra steps in creating the new catalog that you import the old catalog into.

C. Import images, not a catalog. (Not recommended) Open or create a catalog, and use the Import button or the File > Import Photos and Video command, and import individual images (not a catalog). Because individual images are being imported, and not a catalog, what’s imported are just the images, as if they are new, without any previous edits: No edits, no metadata, no History, no virtual copies, no other information stored by the catalog database because the old catalog was not imported. If there were XMP metadata files next to the images, then they might import with their last edits, but still without any History steps or other information stored only in the catalog. With this method, History should show only an Import step. If you want to preserve catalog data, this is not the recommended way to upgrade from an older version or to transfer between computers.

My suspicion is that maybe you and the Adobe rep have been using method C, importing individual images only, as if they were new and unedited, and so none of the work in the old catalog is ever being transferred, such as History steps and flags.

The preferred way to upgrade an older catalog version to the current version is method A: Open the old catalog (not importing any images), and let Lightroom Classic convert the old catalog database to the current format. Method A should bring over every edit and every metadata setting applied to every image in the old catalog.

If using method A or B results in Lightroom Classic indicating that images are “missing,” that’s a separate problem probably caused by the images not being in the exact same place in the folder hierarchy as on the old Mac. If that happens, post here because chances are, re-establishing those file path links should be relatively easy to resolve.

[dj_paige]

The proper steps are in the link below.

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

Clearly, you did not follow the proper steps. Importing photos is not necessary and is in fact wrong, which causes the problems you have described.

[Jeff24832360eklg]

Thank you for such amazingly concrete information and proper steps required to get my old catelog upgraded.  Sounds as if (and seemed to me at the time) that the Rep did not know his way around Lightroom as well as he should have.  If I have difficulty (or lack confidence) in performing this myself, do you have a link to Live Chat at Lightroom or, better yet, a Customer Service phone number you could provide me?

[ian_z]

I'm having a somewhat different issue. I upgraded to LR Classic 13.0.1 on an new computer.

First I copied the files and folder structure from the old computer (Win7) to the new computer (Win11). Used the "How to Move Lightroom to New Computer" ebook steps.

Then I downloaded LrC onto the new computer and opened it. Navigated to the copy of the old catalog file and opened it. LrC upgraded the catalog file and renamed it. The new catalog then opened and I seemed to be back in business.

Well, mostly ...

It seems that most (perhaps nearly all) of the imported files are there with the edits and information.

However, I have a set of folders that I use to stage images that I download from the camera prior to import. I can't get LrC to display all of the folders and image files that are in these folders in the folders panel - one of the subfolders shows up, two folders (both with image files) have their names show up but they are grayed out and their subfolders won't display), and three subfolders also there will  not show up in the folderspanel at all.

No  exclamation points are question marks involved (as one might expect for misplaced files); they just won't display at all.

I don't get it. They display just fine in Windows Explorer and I can see the image thumbnails. But in the LrC Folders panel they just can't be found. I'm mystified.

[dj_paige]

@ian_z said:

"I'm having a somewhat different issue."

Please start a new thread about this different issue. It does not belong in this thread. People will be happy to help you in the new thread.