Image thumbnails in Catalog appear gray after moving Lightroom Classic To New Computer

[mike51423080]

Hello all.  I purchased a new MacBook Pro and i am trying to move LR Classic from my old Mac to my new Mac.  I do not wish to use Migration Assistant so I doenloaded LR Classic from the Adobe site.  I then moved over "Lightroom Catalog.lrcat".  I also moved to the new computer "Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata".  This file is 101 GB's.  When I opened LR Classic on the new computer, it told me that I had to update the ctalog, so I did.  I now have new files with "-2" at the end of the file names, such as "Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat".  My question is, when I open LR Classic on the new computer, I see all of my photos organized as they should be and I can see the collections that I created, but I do not see te images.  All I see are gray, boxes where the photos should be displayed.  Does anyone know how I can get the photos to disply?  I have the files in the correct location but I don't think LR is seeing the "Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrata" file.  Is this because LR created the "-2" version?  How can I get LR to be where I left off on the old computer?  Do I need to connect the extrnal drive that contains all the photos and let it rebuild?  Thank you for any help.

{Thread title edited by moderator}

[nikunj.m · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

Do the image in the catalog show as missing (with an exclamation mark on the top right of the image thumbnail)? If the images are saved on an external drive as you have mentioned, please connect the drive and allow Lightroom Classic to process. If it is not able to link the images with the external drive, you may need to relink the folders to the location on the external drive maually. 

You can check: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/locate-missing-photos.html

Regards,

Nikunj

[mike51423080]

Hi Nikunj.

Thank you for the reply.  Yes, there is an exclamation mark and the photos show as missing.  If I connect the external drive then all the photos show up but they are slow to populate as I scroll through.  I had the drive connected for a few minutes and when I reopened LR after disconnecting the drive, some of the image thumbnails are showing now.  Do I need to simply leave the external drive connected and eventually all the thumbnails will show up?  If yes, then did I need to transfer over the "Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata" file?  I assume LR is creating a new one of these.  Also, is there a way to see a progress bar or someway to know when this action will be completed?  Thank you again for your help.

[nikunj.m]

You can leave the drive connected with Lightroom Classic running so that the application can re-index the files and in a way refresh the previews. Also, you would need to keep the drive connected while editing the images. You can see the progress if you initiate the preview generation (1:1 previews or smart previews) manually. You can do that by going to the Library menu in the Library module, then Previews and select the option to build 1:1 previews.

[mike51423080]

Thank you again for your reply.  I will leave the external drive connected and LR open.  I do not wish to create smart previews for all of the photos because that would take up too much drive space so I will assume that the thumbnail images will recreate without a progress bar visible.  Can you please tell me when this is all done, if all of my edits will still be there?  Thank you for your time.

[nikunj.m]

When the previews are being generated in the background like in the case of a catalog upgrade we do not see a progress bar. It may take some time depending on the number of images in the catalog.

[mike51423080]

Great.  I will just let it run then.  Thanks again for your help.

[mike51423080]

Just an update to this issue.  I needed to go to "Library" - "Previews" - "Build Standard Size Previews".  This solved my problem of not being able to see the thumbnail images when my external drive was not conneted.  Thank you for your help.

[Noah23413758k6fg]

Hello, I have the exact same issue as described in the initial post—moving Lightroom classic to a new machine and losing my previews. Yes, I could rebuild them as described above, but my issue is: I don't have access to some of the images any longer (lost HD) and would prefer to retain the complete preview in my Lightroom Library. Is there any way to relink the old previews file to my (updated) catalog?

[Noah23413758k6fg]

I was able to get previews to display by correcting the filenames and opening and updating the catalog from my saved version again. I had some extra catalog files in the Pictures/Lightroom folder (a new empty one which had been generated when I first installed Lightroom Classic on my new machine, and the -v12 updated file). Since there was a preexisting catalog file when I installed Lightroom Classic, the catalog I wanted to work with had been changed to Lightroom Catalog 2.ircat. This no longer matched the previews file (Lightroom Catalog Previews.irdata). So I deleted the catalog files I didn't need, matched the filenames, and then opened and updated the catalog I wanted, and now I can see all of my previews!