Moving and continuing edits between desktop and laptop

[yachtshot]

I have an iMac and Macbook Pro. Everything is up to date. My catalog and files, both raw & jpeg edits are on external hard drives. In this case, catalog on one and files on another. When I travel, I take the externals with me. While away this past week, I loaded my photos into Lightroom Classic on the laptop, began editing, and exported jpegs to a specific folder as I always do. All good so far. I come home, hook my externals back up to my iMac to finish editing, and while my files are there, I am forced to reimport the photos from the external drive but there are no edits. I have to start from scratch. My jpeg edits are on the the drive, but I can't rework any of them because it doesn't recognize what I have already done. Do I need to export as a catalog? Do I need to sync? I can't articulate my problem in a search to try to figure out what to do. While I havent't needed to deal with this scenario often in the past, it appears it is going to become more regular in the future.

[JP Hess]

Why is it necessary for you to reimport the files? If they have been imported, They are already in the catalog and that process shouldn't have to be repeated. Are the external hard drives named the same on both computers? Are you opening the same catalog when you return home? Is there a catalog actually accessing exactly the same images, in the same folders, on the same external hard drives, as it was when you were working in the field. If it is then you should have access to all the images and all the work that you had completed. If you are importing the images again then it would seem to me that they are being imported into a different catalog.

[yachtshot]

I'm reimporting because I do not see them when I look to open up the folder. Same catalog, same files. You are right, they should be there but for the life of me, I can't find or even see them. I'm not new to lightroom classic. I'm obviously overlooking something very straight forward and simple...which is why I'm asking the questions. What am I doing wrong? I'll retrace my steps using yesterday's scenario. Laptop is with me. Catalog is on drive A. My raw files are downloaded from my CF card to a folder on drive B. I open up LRC. I import the raw files, edit some and export as jpegs into the same folder they came from. If I go back later (still on the laptop), no problem. I can open up the folder and continue editing. Now I come home. Hook up the same drives to my iMac. Open up the catalog and they are not there. But I see them in the folder. I even see my edits in the folder. I'm missing something basic here...but what is it?

[Just Shoot Me]

You have to make sure both computer are using the catalog file that is on one of the external drives.

I suspect when you came home and started the iMac it was not using, opening, the catalog on the external drive and it opened another catalog it found on the internal drive of the iMac.

Search the iMac of files ending in .lrcat. Open LrC and go to the preferences and make sure you point it to the catalog on the external drive. It is best to actually specify a PATH, Volumes/DriveNameI/Folder Name/Catlog File Name.

It should show up in the preferences like this (this is from my Win 10 PC so it says C:\ but will be similaron a Mac).

[yachtshot]

I think you are onto something. I had already checked the external and there is only one catalog on that drive. Looks like the same one is on the external. How did I manage that?

[Just Shoot Me]

Sorry I don't understand?

Quote:

I had already checked the external and there is only one catalog on that drive. Looks like the same one is on the external.

End Quote:

You Looked at the External and have One catalog on that drive, "Looks like the same one is on the External" Do you mean the INTERNAL drive????

And then you show a screen shot showing 2 different LrC catalogs..

Bottom line What has happened is for whatever reason when you opened LrC it did not Find the external that has your WORKING catalog and reverted to opening the one on your Internal drive.

The one on the Internal drive did not have all your images imported.

You need to HARD SET the Path in the LrC preferences to open the catalog on the EXTERNAL drive.

Also Mac's are famous for Not Connecting external drive right away when the system starts or wakes up from sleep mode. You have to give it time to find and connect, Mount, the external drives before you open LrC.

Actually the prefect way to always open the catalog on your external drive is with LrC close use Finder to browse the external and Double Click on the LrC catalog on the external. LrC will open and Load that catalog. Use that method on both systems and you won't have this problem again.

[JP Hess]

It would seem that when you get home and open Lightroom that you are opening a different catalog, possibly one that is NOT on the external hard drive. Something to try would be to, using Finder, locate the catalog on the external drive and just double-click on it. Lightroom should start and use that catalog. Then see if those images display.