Lightroom Classic

[Katrelle]

I have installed Lightroom Classic on my new desktop but it is not recognising my catalogue which is on an external drive. The catalogue works on my laptop. Any suggestions please? I am working in windows 11.

[dj_paige]

Try this: in Windows Explorer, find the catalog file on the external drive (named ends with .LRCAT, probably in lower case) and double-click on it.

If that doesn't work, please explain "it is not recognising my catalog" in a lot more detail.

[AxelMatt]

What do you mean with " it is not recognising my catalogue"? Please give us more details.

Is you external drive is connected correctly? Do you see it in the Explorer?

If the drive connected, what happened if you try to open the appropriate catalog via the menu File - Open Catalog...

[Katrelle]

When I double click on the catalogue file on the hard drive Lightroom opens and the catalogue name is shown on the header but shows no files and and asks me to click on import to continue.

[dj_paige]

Then this is an empty catalog, and you need to find the non-empty catalog. Use your operating system's search feature to search for all files on all disk(s) whose name ends with .LRCAT; open each one until you find that catalog that you want.

[Katrelle]

When I open the same catalogue on my laptop it loads as normal!

[dj_paige]

Sorry, but I think this is impossible. It cannot be the same catalog file on both computers, or you would see the same photos in it.

[AxelMatt]

@Katrelle I agree with @dj_paige that's impossible. This must be different catalogs. I've never heard that if you openend the same catalog (stored on a external hard drive) is on one computer empty and on the other it contains pictures.

Please insert some screenshots in your next post that shows us the issue.

Open Lightroom on your dektop and goto "Edit - Catalog Settings..." Make a screenshot from the General tab.

Open Lightroom on your notebook an do the same. Post both screenshots here.

Copy the catalog to your internal drive on the desktop and try to open it. What happend?

Here you'll find additional informations about using Lightroom's catalog on multiple computers: 

How do I use my Lightroom catalog on multiple computers? | The Lightroom Queen