How do you keep edit selections and adjustments when transferring raw files?

[mikemuswellhill]

I'm editing raw shoots in Lightroom Classic on my macbook pro laptop in the field, making selections and making ajustments on those selects.  So from a shoot of say 1,000 images I will select perhaps 200 4 star on a first pass and of these images I may select 50 to be 5 star on a second pass. I'll spend some time making adjustments on the 50 5star final selects. 

When I return to base I back up the whole raw shoot to my data storage and then import these raw images into Lightroom Classic on my iMac Pro desktop so that I can see the images better on the larger screen and refine the edit further.  

I would like to be able to import all of the selection and adjustment data that I made on my laptop when I open the images on the desktop but I've not found a way to do this.  I've tried saving metadata to the raw files (command S) on the laptop before copying them to my data storage but this metadata info isn't recognised by the desktop LRC.  I'm running 10.15.7 on the desktop 10.14.7 on the laptop and LRC 10.3 on both machines.  Any ideas on how to fix this would be much appreciated. 

[JohanElzenga]

Saving metadata should work, but there is a better way that is specially designed for this scenario. Export the images to an external drive as catalog. Check the option to include the negatives and previews. Connect the external drive to the other computer and use 'Import from Another Catalog' to import them.

[mikemuswellhill]

Hi Johan, this sounds perfect!  I'll try this later today.  Many thanks!

[mikemuswellhill]

Hi Johan,  I just got a chance to try this approach out and it works perfectly! All image selection data and  adjustments are copied  and imported perfectlyto the desktop!  Problem solved - thanks so much!

[JP Hess]

When you perform the command S, Lightroom will write XMP files for all of the raw files. However, if you do not transfer the XMP files along with the raw files to the other computer and then do a command R to read the data from the XMP file then those adjustments will not follow. Another alternative would be to export the shoot as a catalog, including the files, and then import that catalog to the catalog on the other computer.