How to transfer pictures/images from one Lightroom account to another?

[sammydlg]

Hello, I have been using an adobe account that I made a long time ago and want to transfer all 7000 pictures I have from my old adobe account onto my new adobe account.   Besides downloading all of my pictures and re-uploading them to my new account, is there a way I can do this that is built into adobe? 

Thank you

{Thread title edited by moderator}

[nikunj.m]

Hi,

We're sorry but we currently do not have a way of transferring images/data from one Lightroom account to to another. You can download the images using the Lightroom downloader & then upload them to your new account once you have signed in to the app.

You can check out the Lightroom downloader here: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/kb/download-lightroom-photos.html

Regards,

Nikunj

[Jim Wilde · Accepted solution]

My advice would be to ignore the Downloader option, there's just too much stuff that it doesn't download. Instead, assuming both accounts are still currently accessible, you could do the following:

1. Login to your new account, open Lightroom and create a new empty album and set it to be shared. Use the "Invite Only" option under "Link Access", then enter the email address that's related to the old account, use the drop-down list under the "eye" icon and choose "Can Contribute" then press the Invite button.

2. Then logout of Creative Cloud and log back in using the old account details. Find the email that you've just sent to yourself and click on the link. That will open the shared album in a browser window, which is how the authorisation is accepted. Now open the Lightroom desktop app (still using the old account credentials), click on the "Shared" tab next to the "Albums" tab below All Photos, then click on the "Shared with You" tab. You should see the newly shared album in the list, if you do click on All Photos to populate the grid with all of the 7000 images in the library. 

3. Depending on your operating system use Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Win) + A to select all images, then either drag them all (by dragging from the centre of any one of the selected images), and drop them on to the new shared album in the Shared Album list. Or right-click on any one of the selected images and choose "Add photos to Album", using the flyout list to select the new shared album.

4. When you add the images to that shared album you'll see a dialog box asking you to select what attributes you want to include, so make sure you check them all. Then wait until Lightroom finishes syncing (i.e. the blue spinning circle disappears from the Cloud icon top right), after which you can close Lightroom and logout of Creative Cloud.

5. Log back into Creative Cloud using the new account details, launch Lightroom and you should see that the shared album now contains all of the 7000 images that you "contributed" from the old account, and you are now free to organise them as you wish. CARE: there's a 48-hour window for the contributor to change their mind and delete those images from the shared album, so don't do anything drastic such as closing down the old account until that 48-hour window has passed.

[natasha25022069lota]

Thanks for the guide Jim.

Would this work the other way, for example right clicking an album on the old account and sharing it to the new account's email? I am able to set the permissions to "edit and contribute" this way. It saves a step of tagging keywords to preserve album structures.

I feel like there is a reason you did not suggest this method. Could you kindly share the reason?

Thanks

[Timothy.Spear]

Because the old account "owns" the shared album. When you close that account, the shared album will disappear.

One other idea, if you still have access to the old accounts email address, and have not loaded anything yet into the new account. Check with Adobe if they can change the email address associated to the account. I have never asked, or seen anyone ask this that I can recall.

Tim

[natasha25022069lota]

Thanks Timothy, I thought this might be the case.

Thanks for the response

[Rus7am]

This is the only solution that keeps cloud sync working. Thanks a lot!

[Timqi12]

Great solution. Thanks Jim. 

[ChrisW1337]

Thanks for your tip, Jim.
I do need to transfer 70.000 Pictures. I followed your guide, but LR seems to stall at one point. If i give it like 1.000 Pictures it seems to work.
But i cant seem to add more then 6.863 pictures. because even if i give it year by year nothing is happening
Question: Do you know of any limitations?

Additional Question:
I have 90% of the pictures ordered on my lokal harddrive and would mind syncong it to the NEW LR Account.
BUT: I would hate to loose the modified Picture i changed in LR and all the FACE Tags: any way to sync those?

[Dmitry34091910x7of]

Thank you for your wonderful tip! I have another problem - running out of space on my HD. When I try to populate the created album with the images I want to import, I get a message - not enough space. Can I move the album I created to another location? I can't seem to find any option. Thank you!

[Jim Wilde]

Thank you for your wonderful tip! I have another problem - running out of space on my HD. When I try to populate the created album with the images I want to import, I get a message - not enough space. Can I move the album I created to another location? I can't seem to find any option. Thank you!

By @Dmitry34091910x7of

Which account are you logged into when you get that message? Does the message specifically state a lack of HD space, or might it be referring to cloud storage space? Perhaps you could post a some screenshots of the Lightroom desktop preferences (both the Account and Cache tabs when logged into each Adobe account, so 4 screenshots in total)?