Lightroom and New Computer

[dmdejoy]

I recently had to replace my computer. I have installed LR onto the new machine. No problem there. All my LR photos are on my external backup drive and I now want to copy them to the local drive on the new computer and return to the setup where I backed up to the external drive. Although I have watched and read online help sources, I remain confused about how to do this without messing everything up. Any help or suggestions welcome.

 

[Ronald M]

Why I stay away from LR. Darn catalog system

CC is on my computer and I use PS and Bridge and my own catalog. You can do in Bridge what you can do in LR so why make life difficult. This includes making the same changes to multiple files with a few clicks.

I fail to see the advantage of LR other than confusion.

 

[jszokoli]

I just switched computers and had the same issue. I just copied the catalog file from my old computer. I was kind of surprised, but it worked.

So far so good, your mileage may vary...

Joe

 

[Dwig]

... All my LR photos are on my external backup drive...

That's a start, but it is only half of what your need. The copy of "your photos" is not a copy of the LR catalog. You need a copy of that also and you should be backing that up as well as your image files.

If the old installation is still able to run, you can find the actual catalog by going to the "Catalog Settings" dialog. There should be line that shows the path and a button to go there. Copy the catalog to your backup drive, and then on the new machine, copy the catalog to the same place on the new machine or in some other desirable location. If you then copy the backup photos to the same folder location on the new machine everything should work fine. Launch the new LR and point it to the new catalog location.

 

[willie_901]

All you need to do is transfer the most recent LR Catalog from your old computer to your new computer. Even a recent Catalog back up will work. There are other files to transfer as well (such as Presets, etc), but the Catalog is absolutely critical. It is possible to have LR will automatically populate the contents of the Library.

I have used LR since day one and have never, ever had an issue with the Catalog. To be fair my LR Catalog is backed up hourly and I have two other Catalog copies that are backed up at least once a week. The Catalog is LR's greatest strength.

 

[froyd]

I recently had to replace my computer. I have installed LR onto the new machine. No problem there. All my LR photos are on my external backup drive and I now want to copy them to the local drive on the new computer and return to the setup where I backed up to the external drive. Although I have watched and read online help sources, I remain confused about how to do this without messing everything up. Any help or suggestions welcome.

I'm not sure if one of the many sources you looked at included Julianne Kost. I found her videos very helpful when I transferred computers. I copied my catalog to the new machine, copied my photos from the back-up drive to the new PC drive (kept the same directory structure) and it all worked seamlessly.

 

[dmdejoy]

yes, she was one of the first sources I followed. It did not help. Sorry.

 

[jarski]

am keeping LR catalog on same usb drive than the raw archive, to avoid such situations. can use several computers seamlessly as well, e.g. am having more powerful iMac at work so am doing heavier tasks with that, its faster than with old MacAir in home.