So... how does one import a Lightroom 5.5 catalogue

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

I delayed upgrading to CC for a while, and now I find 5.5 catalogues can't be imported, and it's telling me to download LR6, which.... is no longer available for download.

Are you telling me that my catalogue along with all edits is now obsolete and no longer importable into Lightroom CC?

[john beardsworth]

First, unfortunately it's not clear what you mean when you say "Lightroom CC" as there is no program with that name, and we're only guessing at which of the two Lightrooms you mean.

So, in that program please go to Help > System Info, copy the first line and paste it into your reply.

It may be that the name confusion means you've got the wrong Lightroom.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

Interesting that "Lightoom CC" is still mentioned all over the place then, on Adobe's website and videos, if it doesn't exist as a product: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic/lightroom-cc-vs-lightroom-classic.html#pl...

[john beardsworth]

Interesting that "Lightoom CC" is still mentioned all over the place then, on Adobe's website and videos, if it doesn't exist as a product

By @fierce_Euphoria5CC7

That's all Adobe's fault and no-one blames you for using that name! To be helpful to you, we all need to know exactly which Lightrooms we're talking about.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

I mean the cloud version of Lightroom, with the 1TB storage.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

I don't know why this was moved to a different sub forum. My question pertains to Lightroom the cloud software, not Lightroom Classic.

[Conrad_C]

Cloud Lightroom never used catalogs, because for cloud Lightroom there is only one image store that stays in the cloud, never stored as a local catalog. (Cloud Lightroom apps are really just client terminals to the Lightroom Photos cloud server.)

So, if the question means…

The photos are currently stored in Lightroom Photos in the cloud, because they were uploaded by cloud Lightroom…

…and…

You want to import them into the latest successor to Lightroom 6, which would be a current version of Lightroom Classic (stores originals on your own local storage)…

…then…

1. Install Lightroom Classic (currently at version 13.5).

2. Enable cloud sync.

That should download all originals that were uploaded by cloud Lightroom (formerly called Lightroom CC), to whatever local folder is set up in Lightroom Classic Preferences, Lightroom Sync tab, Location options.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

No, what I want to do is:

* Take my photos and RAW files from my Lightroom Catalogue (just one) which was made with Lightroom 5.5

* Upload/migrate them into Ligthroom (cloud) along with all the edits/adjustments information that is stored in the catalogue

I don't want to use Lightroom Classic or Lightroom 6.

[GoldingD]

How about posting a screenshot of your Lightroom program running.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

For what purpose, exactly?

I don't quite understand the difficulty here. Am I really so out of touch with the current state of Lightroom?

I thought it would be a simple question to answer.

I used to do photography in 2005-2015. I used Lightroom software starting from version 4, and up to version 5.5 to manage and edit my photos. I then stopped doing photography. Now I want to move my photos to the cloud and into the new Lightroom cloud. I still have my old catalogues with edits, keywords, album structures, etc. etc. I want to preserve all that, naturally. 

How can I do that without installing an obsolete intermediate Lightroom 6 version first?

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

Surely I can't be the only one in this situation?

[john beardsworth]

Possibly.

With Lightroom Cloudy, try using its Migrate command to bring in the old 5.5 catalogue.

If it says it's too old, try installing the latest version of Classic Lightroom, use it to open the 5.5 catalogue, and then use the Migrate feature.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

Yes, this is what it told me (that it's too old).

When you say install the latest version of Classic, do you mean LR6? This cannot be downloaded anymore.

If you mean the other version, isn't that the same as Lightroom cloud? I looked at the "differences" and apart from it being desktop only, it didn't seem like there were any, so I subscribed for a trial to the cloud version with 1TB storage.

Is Lightroom Classic the way to go for me instead here?

[Per Berntsen]

Lightroom Classic is now on version 13.5, it looks and feels like version 5.5, but has come along way since 5.5 with loads of new features.

If you want to continue working the same way that you did in Lr 5.5, then Lightroom Classic is what you should use.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

Ok I might trial it as well then and see which one feels best.

So feature wise, and in terms of how it works, even though the marketing page touts them as pretty much the same, you are saying that LR Classic feels more like 5.5 did, and the new LR cloud is basically a different application?

[Per Berntsen]

The cloud version is very different, it has fewer features than LrC, and uploads your originals to the cloud.

My impression is that it's targeted to amateurs who shoot jpg only.

Since I've never used it, I cannot give you any more details.

When you start using LrC, I think you'll feel at home right away.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

Great thank you

[john beardsworth]

Ok I might trial it as well then and see which one feels best.

By @fierce_Euphoria5CC7

That's a good way forward.

So feature wise, and in terms of how it works, even though the marketing page touts them as pretty much the same, you are saying that LR Classic feels more like 5.5 did, and the new LR cloud is basically a different application?

By @fierce_Euphoria5CC7

Cloudy Lightroom is more like Lightroom Mobile, just running on a computer rather than on a phone or tablet. So it's a bit of a cuckoo, while Lightroom Classic is 5.5's direct descendant.

I use both, but it's Lightroom Classic that is on my main computer and is central to me. From it, I do "sync" photos to Adobe's cloud (which will be new for you) and can access them in Cloudy Lightroom on my laptop or Lightroom Mobile on my phone and tablet. I might show people pictures on the tablet, or make rough edits on the train or pub, even import new pictures and edit them, and all those changes flow back to Classic. So for the convenience of these mobile apps including Cloudy, it's Lightroom Classic that is in charge. Hope that helps.

Certain features have parity, plenty don't and those are overlooked in the touting. Try LrC and you'll feel in a familiar environment.

[GoldingD]

Ok this is the issue. This is an issue that Adobe marketing created.

Lightroom Ecosystem Cloud Based (Lr) vs Lightroom Classic (LrC)

• Lr current v 7.5, with 1 TB of cloud storage
• LrC current v13.5.1, by default with 20GB of cloud storage, but also available with 1 TB of cloud storage (rarely selected)

Issues/solutions very different

[Per Berntsen · Accepted solution]

Do you still have access to Lightroom 5.5?

If so, click on All photographs in the Catalog panel, disable all filters, select all the photos, and go to Metadata > Save metadata to files. (Cmd + S). This will probably take some time if you have a lot of photos.

(If you have always had Automatically write changes into XMP and Include develop settings in metadata inside JPG, TIFF, PNG and PSD files enabled in the Catalog settings, metadata has already been saved to the files.)

All your edits (but not ratings, collections and History states, and a few other things I can't remember) will be written to XMP files for proprietary raw files, and to the header of all other file types.

Now import the photos (or whatever the cloud version calls it) to Lightroom.

I have never used the cloud version, but I would have thought that it will understand the XMP settings, and that your edits will carry over.

If you don't have access to LR 5.5, install Lightroom Classic, open the 5.5 catalog (LrC will upgrade a copy of it), and do the procedure I described above.

For all I know, the cloud version can extract all the metadata from the from the upgraded catalog, in which case writing metadata to XMP won't be necessary.

[fierce_Euphoria5CC7]

Great, this is useful, I will try this out. Yes, it should have XMP files, and I still have access to the LR 5.5 app, so I will give this a go.