New computer. Edits didn't transfer correctly. Help!

[benp98912842]

Finally upgraded computers after 6 years, moved all my photos over and the saturation seems way off. It's not the new screen because the jpegs I made from the original edits still look right. Adobe has not been helpful and did not call me during the schedule time,  didn't help much with chat, and email has been hopeless. I'm hoping community can help out!

This is the process I've done twice now. 

1. Copied all my photos and lightroom files that were saved in "my pictures" on my old laptop.
2. I pasted all the photos into the new laptops "my pictures"
3. I opened the most recent catalog "Lightroom Catalog-2-2.Ircat"
4. Lightroom opened and it imported all my photos.
5. The photos look very wrong. The editing history is there but the photos lack a lot of color. There is difference between the original and the edited but they seem to lack a lot of color and saturation that I had edited in before. There is no exclamation so it seems the catalog found the original photos. 

[Theresa J]

You shouldn't have to reimport your photos. Copy the old catalog to the new computer, including all of the files associated with the catalog. When you open the catalog on the new computer it will ask you to open a newer catalog, or update the older one you are trying to open. Update the older catalog. After the update is completed you should see all of your photos, but they may say that they are missing. Now you have to fix Lightroom's link to the new location of the folders. Here's the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/locate-missing-photos.html

I am also going to move this thread to the Lightroom Classic forum where it belongs.

[benp98912842]

I believe I misused the word "import". When I opened the catalog it automatically brought in the photos, as in they were all suddenly there. No link issues.

I was never asked to opea newer catalog or update the older one. I was editing these photos on the older computer just a few weeks ago. Should I resintall lightroom and try to get these errors?

[Tony_See]

Yep like Theresa has posted above, the key to this is your Lightroom Catalog and your source image files.

[benp98912842]

I think I may have misused some words but I think I did lightroom catalog and source images correctly.

[dj_paige]

and the saturation seems way off

Are the other edits present (such as exposure, contrast, and so on)? What does it say in the History panel of the Develop Module, do your edits appear there?

If yes, it could be that your new computer has a bad monitor profile, and you need to re-calibrate the monitor on the new computer, or do this: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-change-my-monitor-profile-to-check-whether-its-corrupted/

[benp98912842]

Edit history is there. I believe the monitor profile is just fine because the JPEGS I exported for social media look just fine in lightroom. So I can see raw unedited, the edited is slighty better than the raw but the exported JPEG is what I expect the edited to look like and it does not.

[dj_paige]

"Edit history is there. I believe the monitor profile is just fine because the JPEGS I exported for social media look just fine in lightroom."

Certainly an incorrect conclusion. Fix the monitor profile.

[Per Berntsen · Accepted solution]

You have a new computer, your exported jpgs look right, but the originals look wrong in Lightroom.

So I'm guessing that you are on Windows 10, are viewing the jpgs in the Photos app, and that your new computer has a defective monitor profile. Unlike Photos, Lightroom uses the monitor profile to display correct colors.

The Photos app just sends the uncorrected numbers to the screen, and will not be affected by a bad profile.

As troubleshooting, and as a possible temporary fix, try setting the monitor profile to sRGB (use Adobe RGB if you have a wide gamut monitor).  If this fixes the issue, it is recommended that you calibrate the monitor with a hardware calibrator, which will also create and install a custom monitor profile that accurately describes your monitor.

Close Lightroom, then press the Windows key + R, type colorcpl in the box and press Enter.

Add the sRGB profile, and set it as default. Launch Lightroom and check.

See also https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-change-my-monitor-profile-to-check-whether-its-corrupted/

[benp98912842]

That makes a lot of sense. I will try this immediately when I get a calibration meter in tomorrow.

I assume my old laptop could also have a bad screen calibration and not the new one? Is there any way to solve for this other than going through and editing every photo? This would make sense why all my photos seemed to come out more muted in color when I published them on social media and then viewed them on my phone. I assume there is not a way to compensate for the older monitor being off?

[Per Berntsen]

If it turns out that you have to re-edit everything, there's a chance that you can create a preset with a set of new edits, and apply it to all the photos. It may not work for every image, but it could save you a lot of work.

The disadvantage is that you cannot use relative edits in a preset. like Saturation + 5, presets can only contain absolute values.

But it would work if all your photos were already set to the same saturation value.

Phones are not color managed, so you can't expect them to display correct colors.

But you can try publishing some new exports after calibrating your monitor, and see if they display differently.

Always use the sRGB color space when exporting for the web.