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LandS1929
Participant
October 18, 2018
Question

Questions about merging catalogs

  • October 18, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 254 views

I use Lightroom CC Classic on my MacBook at home. One of the main collections in my catalog is images relating to my organization. A couple years ago I exported this to the organization, which uses Lightroom CC to enable use with multiple devices, mostly PC. Since then the two catalogs have diverged. Their albums look nothing like my collections, and it's hard to be sure whether all the files are there or not. Searching by keywords or file names suggests not. They've added photos that I don't have or need, but I now have a couple hundred images I need to incorporate in their catalog. In addition I have made a few metadata changes such as adding to the keywords (which are the main organizing principle the two catalogs have in common), and some captions in previously exported files. Although they haven't been using local storage, I have their backup drive and can log onto their Lightroom CC.

So I think I could import files straight to their catalog from my own backup disc, thus giving them the new material along with its metadata. But I wonder if there's a way to merge the two catalogs without duplicates, so as to cover any changes to metadata in previously shared files and the possibility they're missing part of the previous export. Also, in the event of duplicates, would I have to replace their present metadata with mine, or could I merge it?

Also I think the organization would be happier with local backup of their LR CC catalog in addition to cloud storage. Is there a way to make that happen?

And, going forward, since I have no intention of migrating to Lightroom CC, what would be the best way to share new material with the organization?

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    1 reply

    john beardsworth
    Community Expert
    john beardsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 18, 2018

    There's no way to merge their online data (LRCC means they don't really have a catalogue) with your LR Classic catalogue. New photos could be added to their LRCC, as you propose, but updating existing photos would be a manual process. That's how I think you're going to have to handle things going forward too.

    There is no way to make a local backup of their LRCC data*. They should also be made aware that if they do delete a photo in LRCC it is deleted everywhere, and Adobe have failed to implement any online trash or recovery, even a year after launching the LRCC service. So they should make sure they have photos backed up independently of LRCC, in my view before they ever go into LRCC.

    John

    * There is something called the Lightroom Downloader which downloads everything in LRCC to your hard drive. But it's not designed as a backup or suitable - it's really for when people want to leave LRCC and take all their stuff out of Adobe's cloud.

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