How to setup a new master catalog

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 24, 2023
3 replies
890 views

I recently moved my LR Classic archives to a NAS and want to create a new LR Master Catalog. what steps do I need to take to create a new catalog and move all my images there? Once this is accomplished can I delete the old catalogs that are on my HD? My OS is Mojave 10.14.6.

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dj_paige

Legend

You don't say where you want the new catalog, or even why you want the new catalog. I point out that catalogs cannot be stored on NAS drives (only photos can be stored on NAS drives).

Depending on exactly what you did, you may not need a new catalog. If you just moved the photos to the NAS and left the folder structure/hierarchy unchanged, you don't need a new catalog, you can use the old catalog (from before the move) and just point LrC to the new location of the photos (instructions).

Otherwise, we need to know exactly step-by-step how you did this move.

S

Steve33458Author

Participant

I may not have asked the question correctly. On my Synology NAS 920, I copied the archives from an older DS414 because of a storage issue. Now that the entire archives is on the DS920 and I open LR, it's showing 11,000 images missing. I assume this is because LR does not know where to look for the archive. I thought creating a new master catalog and moving the images to it, that I would a clean start with a new catalog. Seems I have sevral already. Thanks for you quick response.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

Missing images only means the images are not at the last file path recorded for them. Fortunately, if all the images are within a folder hierarchy that was moved to the NAS while preserving their entire folder hierarchy as it was in the current catalog, then all you need to do in the current catalog is right-click the topmost parent folder and choose Find Missing Folder. Once the parent folder relinks, all sub-folders and their images also relink, as long as that hierarchy hasn’t changed.

If you really want to start a new catalog for them, you can do that. However, you will leave behind all edits associated with the old catalog, including Develop edits, collections and smart collections, Publish Services, saved slide shows or print jobs, and any other metadata you entered that was not saved out. This is why it’s recommended to simply relink the existing catalog to the new location to keep all edits, instead of throwing out years of work and starting over.

Of course, if your current catalog is mostly just about finding the images and you didn’t really use Lightroom Classic to edit images or add metadata, then maybe for you the cost of starting over with a new catalog is low. In that case, in Lightroom Classic you could just choose File > New Catalog, import the entire NAS volume using the Add option, and now they are all in the new catalog,

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

[Moderator moved from Using the Community forums to Lightroom Classic.]

See Create & Manage Catalogs below:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/create-catalogs.html

Hope that helps.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

kglad

Community Expert

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post if it helps you get responses.

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