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Sync one lightroom catalog with two drives

Community Beginner ,
Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

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Hi

I have two hdds, I want to have all my photos on these two, and can work on both of them, one hdd is in my office which I usually do my works on it but when I work outside I want to able to edit my photos on my other hdd, syncing these to hdd is not the problem, the problem is how can I tell adobe that these two hdd is the same and if each one of them connected it should use them?

I'm using Mac.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

Greetings....

It is not too hard to do what you want.

Just ensure that all of the image files/folders and included in a top level folder with an identical name on each drive - something like Images, I steer away from Pictures as it is used by OS's..

Then when you plug in the drive different from the earlier use you will just need to crtl+click the 'Images' folder in the Library (which will have a ? indicating it is unavailable) and choose "Update Folder Location from the menu. Navigate to the fold

...

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Community Expert ,
Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

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Greetings....

It is not too hard to do what you want.

Just ensure that all of the image files/folders and included in a top level folder with an identical name on each drive - something like Images, I steer away from Pictures as it is used by OS's..

Then when you plug in the drive different from the earlier use you will just need to crtl+click the 'Images' folder in the Library (which will have a ? indicating it is unavailable) and choose "Update Folder Location from the menu. Navigate to the folder on the connected drive.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

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Thanks for your answer, I'm already using this method but it's kind of problem because sometimes I nedd to do this 5times a day, isn't any other automatic way?

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Participant ,
Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

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I don't believe what you're asking is possible. Lightroom can't reference the same image from two different locations or drives. You will need to use the method that Geoff described above.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 10, 2018 Jan 10, 2018

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Thank you for that approach Geoff, just what I needed!

One question, will the exif data/keywords I have added to the one drive migrate to the second drive or will the drive without the added keywords remove the keywords?

Thanks much

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LEGEND ,
Jan 10, 2018 Jan 10, 2018

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Unless you question is exactly the same as the original poster I suggest you start your own thread and detail exactly what you want to do.

Although Geoff's solution will work it is not the best way to deal with this type of setup.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 11, 2018 Jan 11, 2018

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https://forums.adobe.com/people/Roberto+Gardener  wrote

Thank you for that approach Geoff, just what I needed!

One question, will the exif data/keywords I have added to the one drive migrate to the second drive or will the drive without the added keywords remove the keywords?

Thanks much

The metadata is in the catalog. If you have 'auto write to xmp' checked in preferences it will write to both copies of the files when each is connected. The drive without the keywords will have them added... and not remove them unless you 'Read Metadata from File' which there is no reason to do....

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 11, 2018 Jan 11, 2018

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Perfect! Thanks much.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

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The easiest (not prettiest) way to share your catalog and images between multiple computers is to put the images and catalog on an external hard drive and move the drive from computer to computer as needed.

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Participant ,
Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

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The question is not about multiple computers, but about multiple hard drives with the same images. That's a different beast entirely.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 03, 2017 Mar 03, 2017

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That is just a variation on a theme.

LR does not do multiple locations for its images. The "original pictures" exist only in one place. You can keep changing that location by doing a "relocate folder" in the Folders panel, but why? There are easier ways to work around the LR limitations.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 04, 2017 Mar 04, 2017

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What is the other way?

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LEGEND ,
Mar 04, 2017 Mar 04, 2017

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A common attempt is to use a file sharing service like Dropbox.com or OneDrive.com. This approach takes some hoop jumping and eats a lot of bandwidth and comes with a few risks.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 04, 2017 Mar 04, 2017

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ManiacJoe  wrote

A common attempt is to use a file sharing service like Dropbox.com or OneDrive.com. This approach takes some hoop jumping and eats a lot of bandwidth and comes with a few risks.

How would that help when the OP has his image files in two locations ????

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LEGEND ,
Mar 04, 2017 Mar 04, 2017

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It would not help.

LR does not do what the OP wants.

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Explorer ,
May 29, 2022 May 29, 2022

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Hi,

 

I just tested renaming my USB-Stick to the same name as my external SSD after copying some images to the stick with the same folder structure and it works without relinking folders. So you could give it a try naming your external harddrives the same (Finder -> right click on the drive -> rename). When mounting both the one mounted last will have the same name in finder but will have „1“ attached to it's name on system level. Next you need to test if syncing works fine when using tools like carbon copy cloner.

 

Kind regards

Fabian

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