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kristins87226897
Participant
November 10, 2018
Answered

Lightroom Classic only showing Smart Previews on new laptop

  • November 10, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 984 views

I've ticked something wrong, chosen a wrong option, somewhere in the line.  Hoping someone can help.  Here's what I did:

0. Bought new laptop (Mac), to replace desktop (PC).

1. Installed Lightroom CC on new laptop.

2. Realized I meant to install Classic, so uninstalled CC and installed Classic.

3. Classic gave me this window:

You can only sync a single Lightroom catalog.  You are currently syncing "Lightroom Catalog.lrcat".  Would you like to sync "Lightroom Catalog.lrcat" instead?  If you choose to sync this catalog, photos that you've already synched will be added to this catalog." 

I chose "Yes, sync this catalog instead"

Laptop spent hours syncing my 1600 files.

4. But when I attempted to edit them, it only shows smart preview, giving me the error "The photo is missing or offline, but can still be edited using its Smart Preview."

5. So I exited Classic on the laptop, opened Classic on the desktop.

6. Desktop gave me the same question about which files to sync.  I again said yes.  It spent a while syncing.

7. Came back to laptop, and I get the same "missing or offline" error.

8. Desktop will show original photos, I think - but when I open the application, I get the same window about syncing the catalog.  If I choose "yes" again, it spends time doing that.  But if I choose "Cancel" it says I'm not syncing at all.

I just want to edit my full images on the laptop.  Where have I gone wrong?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Just Shoot Me

Simple fact is you should NOT of Synced that older catalog.

LR Classic can only sync collections from ONE catalog. Even if you Copy your original catalog to another computer that copied catalog will get a Different Unique ID number and that is what LR Web uses to identify which catalog is being synced up with the Web/Mobile system.

Did you Copy over all your image files from your old computer to the new Mac? Have you Copied over the catalog from the old computer too? If you have and opened that original catalog does all you images show up and do any of the folders have question marks and do the images have exclamation marks on them.

Please note that No images are inside the LR catalog file. The catalog file is just a database file that References where your images are stored on the hard drives connected to your system.

2 replies

K
kristins87226897Author
Participant
November 10, 2018

I think I have it figured out!  I'm editing original files now on the laptop, and it seems to be syncing with my iPad.  Thanks so much for setting this newby in the right direction.

Just Shoot Me
Just Shoot MeCorrect answer
Legend
November 10, 2018

Simple fact is you should NOT of Synced that older catalog.

LR Classic can only sync collections from ONE catalog. Even if you Copy your original catalog to another computer that copied catalog will get a Different Unique ID number and that is what LR Web uses to identify which catalog is being synced up with the Web/Mobile system.

Did you Copy over all your image files from your old computer to the new Mac? Have you Copied over the catalog from the old computer too? If you have and opened that original catalog does all you images show up and do any of the folders have question marks and do the images have exclamation marks on them.

Please note that No images are inside the LR catalog file. The catalog file is just a database file that References where your images are stored on the hard drives connected to your system.

K
kristins87226897Author
Participant
November 10, 2018

Oh, wait.  I see now that I have completely confused "synced photos" and the actual files.  I didn't follow any instructions at all about moving Lightroom to a new computer (obviously).  I've found those instructions now, but am still confused.  My RAW files were stored on the hard drive of my desktop, but the laptop is too small, so they're on an external now.  How do I get Lightroom to find them?  (I don't see any exclamation marks or question marks on either the desktop or the laptop.)

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
November 10, 2018

I'm going to let JSM Help you sort this out. But the reason you aren't seeing any indication of missing photos is because you have smart previews generated which allows you to edit images when the master images are not available. However, the external hard drive will have to be connected should you ever want to print or export full-sized copies of the images. I suspect that when you connect that external hard drive you are going to have to go through the process of finding missing folders to get Lightroom synchronized so that it knows where those folders are located on that external hard drive.

Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

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