Lost develop settings

[barryw51]

After I migrated files to a new iMac from an older iMac I find that when I open Lightroom classic cc that there are no photos in the catalog. When I import the photos from the external hard drive the develop settings are missing. It is as if I have just imported the photos as new and have to do all the development work again.

Any suggestions as to what is causing this problem?

[richardplondon]

You have started out on the new computer, with a brand new (empty) Catalog.

You need to be using your previous Catalog, in the new computer. That may mean copying it across physically, or else making it accessible via an external drive. Then Open this Catalog from within Lightroom, in the new computer.

You will instantly see all of the pictures that were previously imported as well as all of the editing work you have done to those pictures - in Develop and in Library... Collections, keywords, everything. This Catalog has full records of which pictures are imported. THERE IS NO NEED TO IMPORT ANYTHING AGAIN; the image files just need to continue to be available, just as they were available before.

That is what a Catalog is for.

It may be that from the point of view of the new computer, the images appear in a different drive and folder location than they did in your previous setup. Usually all these pictures sit underone common parent location - called "Photos", or whatever. It is just necessary to "re-direct" LR as to where that now is, and LR updates all its records to suit the new context: all the subfolders etc duly re-connect themselves.

Alternatively if the photos can be in an exactly equivalent drive and folder location in the new setup, as they were in the old setup, not even that much is necessary.

Oh, and LR does not particularly notice or care where this Catalog now lives or lived before; it only cares, where do the image files live.

[barryw51]

This is what I thought you should do, however when you open the catalog within Lightroom nothing happens. No photos appear. The original photos are on my external drive which is connected to the new iMac. I should also point out that the migration has not brought over collections or presets which I had set up in the old iMac. Finally I upgraded to Classic CC before I moved the files but the catalog for Classic is greyed out when you try to open it within Lightroom.

[Just Shoot Me]

Then you haven't copied over the correct catalog file you were using on your older computer.

Even if you didn't copy over the image files to the new system when you open your original catalog on the new system all the images will be listed, shown, although will be listed as missing, Exclamation Mark on image thumbnails, and your folders, in the "Folders" section of the left hand panel of the Library module, will have Question Marks on them and all the thumbnail may be blank gray boxes.

If you are opening what you think is your original catalog and there are no image thumbnails and no folders in the Folders section then you haven't open the right catalog file.

[barryw51]

I used the catalog file to open Lightroom successfully in my old iMac. I manually copied and moved that file to the new iMac. When I open Lightroom on the new iMac with this file there are no images available and the presets and collections are missing. I understand the logic of what you are saying - it's just that my experience does not tally with it!

[dj_paige]

Start over.

Follow the directions carefully at the link given above in reply #2 by joefry99​. Pay particular attention to the part where it says " Don’t be tempted to remove the missing photos and re-import, or try to synchronize a folder, and don’t try to relocate individual files by clicking on a thumbnail icon, as you’ll create a bigger job."

More important information at that link: "Otherwise, right-click on the parent folder that we created in step 1, and choose Find Missing Folder from the context-sensitive menu, and navigate to the new location of that folder. Relocate any other top level folders (you should have one for each drive), until all of the photos are online. There are more details on reconnecting missing files here. If you get stuck at this stage, please ask on the forum and we’ll help."

[barryw51]

Thank you. I went back and reviewed the article and looked again at the old catalog files. There was a version which had not been copied over and I tried that and it worked. Thank you again from a very relieved Lightroom user.

[Just Shoot Me]

Then the bottom line is you did not copy over and or opened the correct, original, catalog that had all your images imported into it.

[Joe Foe Toe]

What Richard said, and https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/  explains how to relink after everything is copied.