How to move Lightroom CC catalog to another Adobe Account?

Report · Nov 30, 2017

I have a work CC account I've used for Lightroom CC, but I'd like to move to a personal account. What is the best way to migrate my entire Lightroom catalog (folder, albums, and all) to another account?

Report · Nov 30, 2017

Can you clarify which version of Lightroom you're referring to: the desktop-based version (LR CC2015 or it's updated version LR Classic), or the new cloud-based version LRCC? One's easy to switch, the other's not so easy....

Report · Nov 30, 2017

I'm referring to LRCC, the new cloud-based version.

Report · Nov 30, 2017

But the new cloud-based Lightroom CC does not utilize a catalog.

Report · Nov 30, 2017

Okay, that's good to know. I don't know what the term is for my entire collection of photos, then, but that is what I need to move to another account.

Report · Nov 30, 2017

Sorry, I'll have to defer on that one. I don't know.

Report · Nov 30, 2017

JimHess wrote
But the new cloud-based Lightroom CC does not utilize a catalog.

Actually it does, Jim, just not in the format that you know from the desktop version. It's cloud-based, but there's also a locally held version.

The problem in this instance is that whereas the desktop-based Lightroom catalog isn't connected to any specific Adobe ID, the LRCC cloud-based assets are. So I don't know of any easy procedural way to "migrate" the cloud-based assets from one Adobe ID to another. It might be possible to cobble something together by downloading all existing cloud assets into an empty LR Classic catalog, then switching to the new Adobe ID, starting LRCC and adding all the downloaded assets to it (or using the catalog migration tool in LRCC). Of course, it means uploading all assets again, but at least that way all the edit work done on the first ID would be saved (but not any keywords).

To be honest, I think the first port of call should be Adobe Customer Care, they might have thought of this possibility and have an internal method for switching existing cloud assets from one account to another, without any loss of work. Won't hurt to ask.

Report · Jul 28, 2018

FWIW - I talked to Adobe support and they had no solution for me.

Report · Apr 12, 2018

I am in the very same boat. Does anyone have an answer on this? I have a work based account I have been using but I want to know if I can migrate my entire cloud based photo library/collection/whatever its called to a different adobe ID account if needed.

Thanks!

Lawrence

Report · Jul 19, 2018

Has anyone found a solution? I'm dealing with the same problem. I've been using my dad's Creative Cloud account for almost 3 years now but I've finally created my own. I simply want to move all my project files from his account onto mine.

Report · Jul 28, 2018

Hey everyone. I never found a good solution—I just had to manually upload all my files from one account to the other. It was a pain but it got done in a few hours and it's all consolidated now.

Report · Sep 13, 2018

How do you download and upload the files with as projects? (with adjustments etc) I have a lot of photos on my old expired Adobe ID that I want to move to my new Adobe student ID.

Report · Sep 13, 2018

Hey! I had the same problem. Basically you have to export the folder as a catalog (which saves all the adjustments) - you can then save this on your laptop/computer. Then log into your new adobe student account and import the catalog.

Hope this helps!

Report · Sep 13, 2018

Adobe provide a free Lightroom Downloader to retrieve everything that is in the cloud. You can then upload it all again. But while the download folder contains xmp files with the adjustments, titles and captions, ratings and keywords, it doesn't contain the album or LRCC's so-called "folder" structure.

Report · Oct 21, 2018

I've found a solution but it's time consuming if you have a lot of photos (350gb for me). It's a much better solution than lightroom downloader because you get to keep everything ! That's right, you'll have everything copied over to your new account and that includes your albums and edits.

What you need:

-a laptop or a desk computer (not possible on ipad or mobile)

-Lightroom Classic and lightroom cc installed.

-a fast internet connection with good upload speed (optical fiber or 4g+ with your mobile)

-a backup of all your photos on an external hard drive, NOT ON YOUR LAPTOP (you don't actually need it but you'll be happy to have done it if something goes wrong).

-access to both of your adobe accounts (the old one and the new one). Do not worry If you do not have lightroom classic included in your plan, there is a free 7 days trial that you can use.

-Free space on your computer: 2x times the size of your catalogue. For example, I had 350gb of photos so I needed 700gb of free space on my laptop.

Here is the solution steps by steps (close all apps before starting):

1) open the creative cloud app and login with your old account (make sure both versions of lightroom are the latest available).

2) download and install lightroom classic if you do not already have it.

3) open lightroom cc classic and access the sync preferences (this is where you can choose where lightroom classic is going to store your photos), choose Edit (Win)/Lightroom Classic CC (Mac) menu > Preferences > Sync tab.

By default, Lightroom Classic CC desktop syncs your Lightroom CC ecosystem images at:

(Win) C:\Users\[user name]\Pictures
(Mac) /Users/[user name]/Pictures

If you already have enough space on your C drive then don't change anything else you can use the following options to choose a preferred location (external hard drive or another drive)

4) Now you can sync lightroom cc classic with lightroom cc cloud. You just have to login in the top left corner and start syncing (steps 2 to 4 of this tutorial :How to sync Lightroom Classic CC desktop with Lightroom CC ).

5) Wait for the download to finish (it can take a while)

6) Once its done you can close lightroom classic.

7) Open the creative cloud app and logout of your old account.

8) Now log back in with your new adobe account.

9) Open lightroom cc (cloud)

10) Now you need to choose where lightroom cc is going to store your images during the migration process: The migration process creates a copy of your images. If you're running low on space on an internal drive on your computer, you might want to connect an external hard-drive and specify a location on it as the custom location.

See Local storage preferences.

Ensure that there's enough disk space in that location to accommodate the original, full-sized images in the Lightroom Classic CC catalog.

11) Migrate the catalog into lightroom cc. Steps 1 to 8 of this tutorial : Migrate photos and videos from Lightroom Classic CC to Lightroom CC

12) That's it you are done! Now you have everything from your old adobe account that has been copied onto your new account.

13) You can now delete everything from lightroom classic and even uninstall it if you want to. (do not worry everything has been copied to the cloud so you won't lose anything).

14) Do not forget to unsubscribe from your old plan from the adobe website.

Rzaza out.

Report · Jun 22, 2021

LIVESAVER!! Thank you for sharing this method and solving a first world problem of mine lmao

Report · Sep 15, 2021

So appreciate this post, saved me bigtime.

Report · May 02, 2019

It took over an hour on the phone with Adobe to find the simple solution:

Log into Lightroom CC with the "old" account:

Select all files in your library (using CTRL+A)
File > Save To...
For "File Type" select "Original + Settings"
For "Location" choose a convenient location
Save

This will download all your files in their original format (for me: .CR3) along with a matching .xmp file which contains all of your edits/adjustments for that file.

To add the photos to your individual account, login to Lightroom CC with your "new" account:

File > Add Photos...
Navigate to the folder specified in Step 4 above
Select all files (CTRL+A)
Review for Import
Tick the "Select All" check box
Click the Add Photos button

Report · May 03, 2019

The problem with that method is that all album information is lost, so all the existing album/folder organisation would have to be done again. For people such as myself with tens of thousands of images all organised into albums, that's a non-trivial task and one I wouldn't be prepared to undertake. For such users the method posted by rzaza-gxcQUu would be better.

Report · Jul 08, 2019

HUGE HELP! I searched everywhere in forums and was banging my head against the computer.

So simple haha

This is the easiest method to sync my multiple catalogues including EDITS between both LR CC & LR Classic.

Thanks!

Report · Nov 18, 2019

Worked for me! (I only have the one album on lightroom cloud) Thanks.

Report · Feb 02, 2020

I ran into this exact problem this week and Adobe's customer service has been so bad that I am seriously considering trying to find a Lightroom alternative.

The worst thing is that most of their staff do not even seem to be aware of the problem. I had a webchat with someone who insisted that my library should be visible within Creative Cloud and I could just migrate it. They then passed me from person to person until eventually I reached somebody who admitted that there curently is not a solution. It is evident from this thread that it has been an issue for some time, so I wouldn't hold your breath for a fix soon.

I thought about just putting up with having the seperate accounts, but even this is not really possible as you can only log in to one at a time for all Adobe applications, so you are not able to have Photoshop open on one account and Lightroom on the other, for example.

I am now trying the workaround posted by rzaza (thanks by the way), but I wouldn't recommend it as the sync to Lightroom Classic has been going for 2 days and is nowhere near finished. I have a fairly fast connection, so this is obviously due to the transefer rate from Adobe's servers. No ETA or transfer speed information is provided though.

My main concern is what happens if my situation changes again (ie. I move to a different workplace or cancel my CC subscription). Most people seem to be under the impression that selecting the option to store your originals locally means you have a backup, but clearly this is only in the most basic sense that you have all your photos dumped in folders, ordered by date only. Having to reorganize all of these files from scratch could literally take some people hundreds of hours of tedious and unnesessary work

Report · Aug 25, 2021

I ran into this same issue after switching from a personal account to a corporate account.

This is how I handled the migration:

1. Log into the old account and open Lightroom. If the account is expired just dismiss all the warnings.
2. Make sure all of your photos are downloaded from the cloud. Go to Preferences > Local Storage and make sure "Store a copy of all originals at the specified location" is checked. It could take a while to download all the images if they aren't already local.
3. Close Lightroom and log out of the old account and log back into the new account.
4. Locate the Lightroom library on your computer and rename it to something like library_old. On my Mac I found the library at ~\Pictures\Lightroom Library
5. Open Lightroom and add a photo (any photo). This will create a new Library in the same folder as step 4.
6. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART: Clone the contents of the old library into the new one. If you're on a Mac, just right-click on each library and select "Show Package Contents". Copy ONLY the contents from the old catalog to the newly created catalog. They will both have a strange folder name like "09354331c5fe4fc8b4f8883ea8a539b6". Inside this folder you'll see an "Originals" folder. Check that the photos you want to migrate are in there before doing this step. And of course, don't MOVE the items, COPY them. You don't want to accidently destroy your old catalog.
7. Restart Lightroom. Lightroom should "check" all the photos at this point which may take a while, but you should see your albums and edits intact. In my case it also said is was "moving" photos, but nothing appeared to actually move on the drive. Lightroom may also perform other actions on your library. Just be patient.
8. Once you're absolutely sure everything has transferred successfully you can delete the old Library.

Report · Oct 21, 2021

Thanks for this tip. Worked well for me. However it's showing Cloud sync as "disabled" without any option to turn it on. Did you run into this same issue? My guess is there is something from the old account within the packaged contents that is causing issues with the new login.

Report · Nov 04, 2021

Curious if you resolved this problem and manage to move everything? I'm about to do the same and I would like to avoid downloading 1TB of data if it doesn't work 🙂