Please update 'Import from another catalog'

[Gabor Lenart]

Hi!

Adobe should really reinvent the whole system of moving photos from one catalog to another because the "Import from another catalog" function just isn't working most of the time.

It is very hectic. Sometimes it doesn't even start importing and I have to restart Lightroom to even get it to work.

But my main problem is it always wants to copy everything and it doesn't recognise that the photos are already in the catalog I want to move into and I just want to update the settings.

So here's how I work:

I have a temporary "Editing Catalog" on my SSD.

But I have a final Archive Catalog on my HDD as well.

Of course my photos have to be backed up so when I arrive home with my SD card, I copy the files onto the SSD and I copy the files onto the HDD as well. And I import the corresponding files into both catalogs.

I import the files on the SSD into the Editing Catalog and I import the files on the HDD to the Archive Catalog.

Afther that I start to work on the Editing Catalog, I do all the culling, editing, everything. And when I'm done, I just want to import every setting and layers and all that to the Archive Catalog. So I open the Archive catalog and click on the "Import from another catalog" to import the settings you know.

So I pick the folder, and also choosing the option: I don't want to replace negatives, I only want to import metadata.

And then it is starting to copy to somewhere almost every time. But this is the funny part becuase not every time it does this, but most of the times....Totally random.

But basically I can not find a good folder structure solution for it to not create all the folders all over again on the HDD and copy and import the photos to that location.

And when you have 10.000 images to import it becomes really frustrating to copy everyting to the HDD all over again. These are 300gb and it takes hours to copy them to the HDD instead of a few minutes if it could properly copy only the metadata. It is super frustrating.

The quick solution to this would be if I could actually tell Lightroom where to copy the files and it would actually recognize that they are already in the Catalog and just needs to update the Metadata. And it doesn't need to create all these folders and everything.

I can not get it to actually copy into the folder I want ever, because it always creates a folder with my SSD's base folder name on the HDD and it always tries to copy everyting to there. 

Please fix this as soon as possible.

[JohanElzenga]

I think your problem is that you import the images in both catalogs. Try this: Only import them in the Editing catalog (you can of course copy them to the HDD for backup purposes, but don't import them into the Archive catalog yet). Then when you use 'Import from Another Catalog' you can simply import all the new images into the Archive catalog. That is how lots of photographers use a 'travel catalog' and a main catalog successfully. I have used this for many years without any of the problems you mention.

[Gabor Lenart]

No, unfortunately you are wrong. I tried what you said and it doesn't work like that.

If I copy the photos onto the HDD and don't import them to the Archive catalog, then obviously the Archive catalog doesn't see them, so when I click the "Import from another catalog", it will think that the photos are not on the HDD and copy them so I'm doing dobule copying again....

This is why "replace only metadata" option should exist, when the photos are imported already, it should just replace the metadata and that's it, bug for some reason it can't do it and always copying everything. It becomes really frustrating with 12.000photo/wedding which is 340gb for example...I don't want to double copy everyting because it is very very time consuming and that's why this function exist already, it just needs to work properly.

[richardplondon]

"Import photos and videos" will - if so set - carry out a file operation as well as a metadata operation. This might be moving the file, or copying, or copying and converting to DNG.

But "import from another catalog" does not do any of that. It looks at whatever file location reference there is for a given photo within catalog "source", and makes a duplicate reference pointing to that same file location, within catalog "destination", as well as a copy of all the metadata alongside: editing History, virtual copies, collection membership etc as well as latest edits.  

The only way I can think of whereby files may be duplicated in this workflow: the Export as Catalog command. Say you have catalog "source" open, and select a certain number of photos. Then you Export as Catalog and choose to include selected images only, and make a new temporary transfer catalog "intermediate", Then you Import from Another Catalog to merge the contents of "intermediate" into "destination". If when you created "intermediate" you had checked the option Include Originals, that will have duplicated the source files for those selected photos. So it is best not to do that, under this workflow. So there will only be one instance of each file on disk. These catalogs merely deal in editing etc metadata, associated with (shared) references that all point to this same single file.

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

I agree with @richardplondon that you are clearly doing something wrong. The workflow with a temporary catalog on a laptop and the main catalog op a desktop is used by hundreds of thousands of photographers (including myself until I bought a laptop as main computer), and you are the first who claims that it does not work correctly. I still think this is where you go wrong:

"Of course my photos have to be backed up so when I arrive home with my SD card, I copy the files onto the SSD and I copy the files onto the HDD as well. And I import the corresponding files into both catalogs.

I import the files on the SSD into the Editing Catalog and I import the files on the HDD to the Archive Catalog."

This means you now have two copies of each image, and both catalogs link to a different copy. That is not how this workflow is supposed to work. Add new images to your laptop catalog only, then these can be imported into the main catalog using "Import from Another Catalog". They should not yet have been imported into the main catalog using 'Import Photos & Videos'. You can copy the new images to the HDD during that import, so if you already manually copied images to the HDD, then these will be backup copies only!

https://mastering-lightroom.com/merge-sync-catalogs-lightroom-classic/

[Gabor Lenart]

Nope, it is wrong, and it does nor work if you don't import the images into both catalogs. 

If you copy the files onto the SSD and copy the files onto the HDD. You import the SSD photos to the SSD Catalog and you do not import the HDD files to the HDD catalog, then this happens: If you choose Add images, it will add the images to the HDD Catalog without movint the files, so now the HDD Catalog is seeing some images that are on the SSD and it does not see the images on the HDD. If you choose "copy", then it will copy the files from the SSD to the HDD to a new location and the HDD Catalog will only see the newly copied files. 

So the real solution is this:

It starts the same, copy files to SSD and HDD, and Import the files to both Catalogs as I did before! HDD Files to HDD Catalog, SSD Files to SSD Catalog. Then when you want to import the Metadata, go to the HDD Catalog and select "Add photos without moving". Then it will replace the metadata. 

The confusing part is those "without moving" words in the menu, and also that this menu acts differently if the photos are not imported on the HDD Catalog already. If you don't import the photos into the HDD Catalog in the first place, the "Add new photos without moving" option will only add the photos on the SSD. If you have the photos already imported, then it will replace the metadata. And just so you know, it would have to do the same if I select the copy, because sometimes it works the same as the Add option, sometimes it copies everything. It is totally random. It should already recognize that those photos already exist in the catalog and it should not copy them again. Hence the menu option right below the copy selection: What to do if LR recognizes that the photos are already in the catalog: 

Replace negatives and metadata

Replace only metadata

If you select the only metadata option, it should only replace the metadata, regardless of what you choose before(add or copy).

Anyway, the Add option now seems to be working, I really hope it will work properly in the future as well, because the copy option worked totally random.

The main thing is, this is wrong:
"This means you now have two copies of each image, and both catalogs link to a different copy. That is not how this workflow is supposed to work."

That is precisely how it should work. And it is working if you select the Add option.

[drtonyb · Accepted solution]

@Gabor Lenart 

I tested your workflow and found that it worked just fine.

I created two identical folder structures on different drives ( Windows C and D ), copied the same photos to the two drives, created an Archive catalog on drive D and an Edit catalog on Drive C. I imported the photos from D drive into my Archive catalog. I imported the photos from C drive into my Edit catalog, then made some edits on those photos. Opened the Archive catalog - photos had no edits. I used Import from Another Catalog to import the edited photos from the Edit catalog into the Archive catalog with Add new photos without moving set and all other settings off.

Result: the Archive catalog shows the photos on drive D with the same edits that the Edit catalog had for the same photos that are on drive C.

[JohanElzenga]

@drtonyb Good to hear that this works too! I wasn't sure that the merge would recognize that the new photos in both catalogs were duplicates, and in a normal 'travel catalog' setup the new images would not be in the home catalog yet when you come home and use 'Import from Another Catalog', so I thought that might have been the problem. I'm surprised that you did get the option to import 'new photos' at all, because the photos were in both catalogs already, so technically there were only new edits, not new photos... I stand corrected on that part. The final conclusion is clear however; there is nothing missing in the 'Import from Another Catalog' option that needs updated. It should work fine if you use it correctly.

[Gabor Lenart]

Yes thank you, this is working, if I select the Add option.

Previously I did not select the Add option, because previous Lightroom versions worked with copy option as well, because Lightroom just recognised the photos inside the Archive library anyway, regardless of what you chose(add or copy) so it just replaced the metadata as I asked. But then lately it started acting weird and sometimes it copied everything, sometimes it did not copy, just replaced the metadata.

So the Add new photos without moving option is working when the files are already imported into both catalogs and the photos are in two different locations. So this is what I wanted and right now I only tried it once but it seems to be working. I hope it does not change its behavior randomly as it did with copying before.