Where does Lightroom Classic store photos & Lightroom 5 comparison

[GGorska]

Looks like I finally have to leave Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 running on Mac Mojave and go ahead with a perpetual monthly subscription to Lightroom Classic (Dropbox just quit supporting Mojave):

1. Am I correct in that this would be the app that replaces the editing and organizing features of Lightroom 5 with its catalog method?

2. Can I store the photos and catalogs on a hard drive or on Dropbox? (Or do I have to use Adobe's web server.)

3. Will my Lightroom 5 catalogs transfer over? Note: I'll probably not transfer over everything  but start new catalogs in Lightroom Classic. However, eventually I'll want to update the platform for the old photos.

Thanks

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

Am I correct in that this would be the app that replaces the editing and organizing features of Lightroom 5 with its catalog method?

Yes this is the app. Both softwares use the same editing and organizing features, if you can use the Lightroom 5 Library module then you can use the Lightroom Classic library module, there are very few difference. Similarly for the Develop Module. Clearly some new features in Lightroom Classic that were not present in Lightroom 5, and you will probably want to use the new features, which requires some learning, but on Day 1, you can use Lightroom Classic based upon your knowledge of Lightroom 5. By the way, Lightroom 5 used a catalog and Lightroom Classic uses a catalog. No real difference there.

Can I store the photos and catalogs on a hard drive or on Dropbox? (Or do I have to use Adobe's web server.)

Hard drive or SSD (internal, external or network) is the place to store the photos. Catalog cannot be on a network drive, but internal or external drives are fine. Storing photos and catalog in the cloud (or even folders that are synced to the cloud such as the Dropbox folder on your computer) is highly problematic and not recommended.

Will my Lightroom 5 catalogs transfer over?

Yes

Note: I'll probably not transfer over everything but start new catalogs in Lightroom Classic

I think this is a poor choice. There's normally no benefit to keeping these separate. And since you use the plural word "catalogs", I recommend that in most cases you want to use one catalog.