Smart Previews and Different Computers

[bryanc31400415]

So I just got a new desktop, and am working on connecting all my projects from my laptop over to the desktop. I have transferred my lightroom folder to my external harddrive so I can bounce back and forth between the two computers. However, I realized that by transferring the entire folder, I pulled the smart previews from my laptop.

I am wondering how to 1. set the location of the smart preview folder for my computers to pull from, that way I can see my photos while my external hd isn't attached, and 2. does this idea actually work, or no?

Also I noticed that in the "Folders" section where it shows you all the folder sources of all the photos, on my laptop it is laid out very cleanly, having a main folder "Pictures" then underneath it all the years, months, dates, etc. However, on the desktop I can't add that folder in and make it look clean, but it is still showing all of my pictures normally. I'm wondering if this will be a problem that the folder isn't actually showing my picture folder (but still showing all my photos and not saying files are missing).

[ManiacJoe]

Assuming that your "lightroom" folder contains your catalog (*.LrCat) file, the regular preview (*Previews.LrData) folder and optionally your smart previews (another *.LrData folder), you should be able to share the catalog between the two machines.

If you put your image files on the same external drive, you will have access to all your files as you move the drive from computer to computer. If you don't put the image files on the external drive, you will want to create the "smart previews", which will be stored on the external drive since that is where the catalog is stored.

Keep in mind that the location of your image files is completely independent of the catalog location. The catalog tracks your images by their full path and file name. If you move the images from one drive to another, you need to tell LR where you moved them to.

See this link to make sure you have copied all the needed files from the old computer to the new one:

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

[bryanc31400415]

Yes, the .LrCat file was in the folder that contains the previews and smart previews. I am wondering if having smart previews on each computer will really do anything, because if I am housing my lightroom catalog on the external harddrive to move between the two computers, then I couldn't pull up my catalog unless the External HD was plugged in anyways, which is where the original photos are, so it would be reading the original photos at the same time. Is there another way of using the smart previews while the catalog is on the ext. hd and not on the computer?

I figured out the issue with the hierarchy of my folders. My main "picture" folder wasn't showing, but I had one or two folders show up below where it should be. So I right-clicked, hit find parent folder, and then it populated it. I then have to synchronize the folder with the ext hd folder to actually pull in all the originals, because it was only showing smart previews even though all the photos are on the same drive.

[ManiacJoe]

The smart previews are contained in a subdirectory of the catalog directory. If the catalog is on the external drive, the smart previews are also on the external drive.

If I remember correctly -- not a safe bet -- the newer versions of LR seem to have some performance options where smart previews could be used even when the original images are available. If this is true, you might see a little performance gain from the external drive usage. I don't use smart previews, so I may not be remembering this correctly.

[joachims25232702]

The previews are linked to your catalog and you should not have two catalogs ( one on each computer) for the same photo folder. You can work with the smart previews without having the full photo folder attached. Any changes will be applied once the full photo folder is attached again.

You could have the catalog with its previews on an external SSD and gain speed that way while leaving the full folders on a conventional disk. Then work with the SSD and after you are done you can connect the photo disk and changes will be applied.