Lightroom Smart Collections Syncing With Other Catalogs

[Printdevil]

I have two Lightroom Classic catalogs, one for landscape photography and one for portraits.

I noticed that some (may be all) of the Smart Collections I have created in my Portrait catalog have some how appeared in my Landscape catalog!

I did not tell Lightroom to do this, it just happened maybe because of some synchronisation somewhere in the system?

I should point out that it is ONLY Smart Collections, not regular Collections or Collection Sets.

How could this have happened and how can I prevent this from happening again?

If I delete these duplicated Smart Collections that I don't need in my Landscape catalog will it then delete them from my Portrait catalog where I do need them?

David

[JohanElzenga]

Catalogs do not sync anything. Did you perhaps use 'Import from Another Catalog' at some stage? That could do this. Or are these the standard smart collections that are the default for a new catalog? Creating a new catalog will add some default smart collections. Deleting a smart collection in one catalog will not delete the same smart collection in another catalog.

[Printdevil]

Yes that could be it!

I do often use the Import from Another Catalog feature as I find it preserves my settings and formatting much better. I didn't realise that it would also import the Smart Collections with it.

Is there a way of preventing this from happening?

I'm sure I don't have the Build/Include Smart Previews box ticked in the export panel...

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

Smart previews have nothing to do with smart collections and do not cause this. If you import from another catalog, then you will also import any (smart) collection that the imported image is in. This cannot be changed.