Moving multiple collections between catalogs

[hannahb86148098]

Hi, I recently had a corrupt Lightroom catalog that could not be repaired and would not transfer all my photos to a new catalog.  I had to create a new catalog and manually reload all my photos.  I finally have that done, but now I would like to load my collections from the old catalog to the new catalog.  If I use the "Export as a Catalog" method I have read about, then I have to open the old catalog, export, close the catalog, open the new catalog, import, close.... This will take a long time if I have 50 collections to move.  Is there a way to move multiple collections between catalogs?

[Rob_Cullen]

It is possible to select multiple Collections. (Hold [Ctrl] as you click on random Collections. Or Click/Shift-Click to select continuous block of Collections.)

Then go to the Menu - File > Export as Catalog. to make your temporary transfer catalog.

(Note: the R-click option to 'Export as Catalog' is not available when multiple collections are selected, but the top menu still works. For me anyway! Lr-Classic v8.2 Windows-10)

[Michael Bullo]

Are you sure you have to first export things from your broken Catalog?

From your new Catalog...

1. File > Import from Another Catalog

2. Select another other Catalog and choose which Collections to import.

I have done this multiple times without a problem. Having said that I wasn't attempting this on a corrupted Catalog.

Also be careful it's not defaulting to importing everything. Perhaps first choose the "Uncheck All" button and just turn on a single Collection to import. If this works then go nuts and import everything.

[hannahb86148098]

Thank you so much for these suggestions!  I didn't know about these options since this is the first time this has happened.  I don't have time to try them now but will follow your suggestions tonight after work and let you know what happens.

[dj_paige]

You can open the corrupted catalog? Normally corrupted catalogs can't be opened. How do you know it is corrupted?

[hannahb86148098]

Wobert, I still haven't tried your suggestion but I can I how it would work. 

Michael, I like your idea and want to try it, but if I click File> Import from Another Catalog, I can select another catalog but I cannot choose to only import Collection.  I can't choose the "Uncheck All" button...I have only seen that when using the Import button found to the bottom left of the Lightroom workspace.  Am I missing something?

DJ, I can open the corrupt catalog but I cannot back it up.  That's when it tells me it's corrupt.  Adobe tried to help me repair it but it couldn't.

[Michael Bullo]

You wrote: " I can select another catalog but I cannot choose to only import Collection"

I don't understand. Can you see a list of the Collections inside your problem Catalog when you try to import from it? Perhaps include a screen shot.

[Michael Bullo · Accepted solution]

I did a poor job of explaining so let me elaborate.

When choosing "Import from Another Catalog", the "Catalog Contents" section is a series of Folders. When you import a Folder, not only will those images be imported but any Collections that they were in inside the other Catalog will also be built and populated in the Collections section of the current Catalog. At least that's what happens on my system with my current configuration.

The contents and names of my Folders and Collections are often extremely similar which is where I messed up in my original explanation. Sorry for any confusion.

[hannahb86148098]

Sorry, but I've never done anything this in-depth with Lightroom.  Since I have over 84,000 in each catalog I did notice that it took a long time to even arrive at the "Catalog Contents" and I didn't even try importing anything.  So it looks like I'll have to work on this a little at a time.

I did try Wobert's method of exporting and importing for 17 collections.  The first time I didn't export the negative but the new LR catalog didn't even import as a valid Lightroom catalog.  I may try to include the negatives with another export/import but then I'm afraid it will move my files even though they are on the same hard drive.

I'll try again tomorrow with a few folders and let you know how it works.  Thanks again for your help!

[Michael Bullo]

You could always create a Lightroom Catalog just to experiment with and throw away when you are done. You could even create a second test Catalog which is populated with some temp images from which to import from if you are concerned about accidentally moving images.

Good luck.

[hannahb86148098]

I tried importing 3 folders today and it moved the collections, settings changes, etc that I was hoping to save.  Success!  Since checking the catalog seems to be the most time consuming part, I will keep working with this import method.  Thanks so much for your patience and your help!

[Michael Bullo]

Hey great to hear. Thanks for the update.