Moving photos between computers in Lightroom Classic

[@rossaff6238]

This is such a great tutorial. Even though it's 3 years old, everything still applies. If you travel with a laptop and struggle to get photos on to your main catalog, this is how to do it

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks

[@shutterbug49]

I struggle with catalogs and structures in Lightroom Classic. Every tutorial I can get on this is helpful. Thank you Colin for putting out your helpful videos on LRC and PS. I am learning these programs little by little with your help.

[@kencedeno1697]

Thanks Collin- I am a photojournalist and needed to mirror my images from the MacBook I use in the field to my iMac desktop in the office. This was perfect. Thank you!

[@stevesovern1870]

Thanks very much for this! I have viewed a number of videos on this subject as I am embarking on a month long trip to national parks and wildlife preserves and want to be assured of this capability. So many videos on the subject are confusing and complex. Yours has great clarity and simplicity of instruction. I depart, now, with great confidence my work will be transferred upon my return. Again, huge thanks

[@sagalyn1]

Thank you very much for this step by step detailed instruction on how to move photos/catalog from a lap top to another computer. This was very helpful! Keep up the great work and I will subscribe to your channel.

[@jimdonato4242]

This was great. I’ve been struggling with with LRc on multiple computers. Viewing other videos only increased those struggles. THANKS MUCH this has been soooo helpful.

[@benjaminbauer3955]

Really great video tutorial. Clear, concise, but thorough enough to get all the way from start to finish. Nicely done! Thank you.

[@benji405]

This was a super helpful tutorial! thank you! I'm trying to consolidate all my photo libraries between Mac, PC, and mobile devices and this helped me get a better handle on some of the process. I'm now going to look through your other videos for more useful tips! 😄

[@DouglasWilcox]

Thank you so much for such a clear walk through of this process :)

[@fcoker73]

Great video tutorial!!! I struggle trying to organize my photos in LRC especially when it comes to the catalog. This helps a lot!! I would like to see more LRC tutorials like how to set up printing through LRC, how to organize your catalog in LRC. I also struggle with exporting my photos settings when it comes to posting it into instagram, facebook etc. Thanks!

[@photoshopcafe]

I have a tutorial I made called "help my lightroom library is a mess" check it out

[@LokiDWolf]

Agreed. I would like to see more as well.

[@abickett1]

Excellent tutorial. Very clear and easy to follow. No wasted time.

[@bobkillen8396]

I teach Landscape Art Photography for the Natianal Park Photogprahy Expedition Masterclass Program as a long a form eduction provider in the field. This subject comes up every day with our students and we give them instructions for transferring field work on their laptops to thier desktops as we also do online follow up. This video will become our number one resource for students going forward (and back). It is precise, clear, and and delivered without emotional fanfare. So useful. Please note that we refer students to your website and full line courses for further study as well as your free tutorials. Thanks so much for the useful work and fun but professional presentations.

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks Bob! I appreciate the referrals and confidence in our content.

[@BobG-eh5fc]

Thanks, a great workflow to remember. I've been thinking on moving my photo's to a new SSD card and this is a great option!!!

[@huntstyle]

Exactly what I needed. For basically the same thing; travel with the laptop and edit photos in the evening, but at home I'd like those to be on my desktop without having to edit them all over again! Lightroom's catalogs, collections, folders, etc is very confusing to me. I really haven't organized my photos well at all!

[@terrykellyphotography6171]

Thank you! Just returned from a trip and I'll have to move photos from LR laptop to desktop. Your presentation is straightforward & very easy to understand!

[@willilaufmann38]

Thanks great tutorial I’m always struggling with Lightroom catalog shifting to another drive or computer 👏👏👍

[@cindywilsonrisko4508]

As a subscriber, Your tutorials are quite helpful, so thank you! I would very much like a tutorial on transferring photos from an Android, Galaxy S21 phone to LRc and desktop computer.

[@paintrock]

Thank you for a very clear, structured tutorial.

[@kevinrungephotography1201]

Very helpful. I've been wanting to know how to do this. Thank you.

[@ralphpayne6259]

Great to have workflow and organisation tutorials as well as the normal processing ones.

[@cornwall_in_Squares]

Really helpful I have brought a Mac M1 to replace my old Macbook Pro so was wondering how best to move photos and keep the edits and folders in place.

[@BradyHommel]

Just bought the M1 MacBook as well!!

[@tjcuneo]

Very helpful as I have struggled with ways to moving photos from one computer to another. More like this from time to time would be helpful. Thanks.

[@ralphpayne6259]

Great idea to have practical system and process flow videos alongside the general how to edit videos. Tips for using some of the Adobe apps in conjunction with Classic would be very useful.

[@poppamichael2197]

Another very clear, practical and useful tutorial. Many thanks Colin

[@smithjmail]

very helpful...especially your attention to details Thank you

[@teadish1448]

Thank you for this excellent tutorial. I just followed it step by step and finally did the thing I've been putting off :) Best video out there. Will be saving and coming back to this one. Cheers!

[@sergiogomezphotography]

Thank you, that was very useful and painless. I'm saving the video and subscribing !

[@blainerawdon6545]

Thank you very much for this clear exposition. It was very helpful to me.

[@robertburnett4442]

You outlined the steps perfectly. Thanks!

[@philipkrayna9804]

Thank you! I was traveling and had the exact situation. So helpful :)

[@NeluCiorba]

GLAD TO FIND THESE SIMPLE EXPLANATION AND CLEAR VOICE!

[@louisdirect]

Thank you for this very helpful tutorial. I am just about to transfer my photos and I was struggling on how to do it right.

[@bummer4451]

Thank you for this video. That's exactly what i am looking for. So glad I found your tutorial.

[@szewskipiotr]

Super helpful tutorial! Thank you!!! ♥📸

[@eddylianellarazumovich2712]

This was super helpful, and easy to follow! Didn’t know I could transfer everything in Lightroom (including all the editing I’ve already done) between computers!

[@jeffpotter7958]

Exactly what I need. I finally reached my breaking point with trying to view images on the back of my camera when shooting macro and want to shoot tethered but didn't know how to move the shots over to workhorse desktop. Now I do!

[@yveshetu8026]

Thank you for this very helpful demonstration. I will watch it again the next time I have to move my catalog from my laptop to my desktop. By the way, I see you are using Catalina so I suppose it is now safe to use Photoshop and Lightroom under Catalina. Thank you again!

[@robberthummen8283]

Thanks a million, this was very helpful!!!

[@franciskwok3515]

Very useful and needed. Yes, more tutorials, please.

[@dhondtdigital]

Excellent tip, thanks for sharing. I've been struggling with finding a better workflow for rating/culling and I am highly considering photo mechanic as an alternative. I used to use bridge because I liked the review mode and magnify window, but the ratings don't seem to be seen by lightroom classic.

[@jamesleahy3048]

Excellent tutorial

[@1SnarfyDude]

Great timing, I was going to transfer files later today. This is way better than the way I was going to do it. Thank you.

[@mshea5906]

Very clear and concise! What if I'd like to bring the EDITED photos from the desktop back into the Laptop?

[@jacksonteague876]

Thank you, I wish I had known all this a couple of years ago. But at least now I know, very helpful.

[@GeezerMike]

Thanks, that was helpful. I too have the same problem Evan Christie referred to below.

[@pmehta4452]

Thank you very much for the video!

[@alanclarke6195]

Thanks very well explained

[@paulatkins4968]

Brilliant! Thanks so much.

[@jerryhutchinson2543]

This is great as are all your tutorials. However in LRC 13.0.1 the export catalogue dialogue box looks different (much less content) to the one in this tutorial. I'd love to see an update for the latest version of LRC!

[@lgrinspan]

Great tutorial as usual. 👏🏻

[@memlay465]

Very informative. Thank you.

[@hugh4gilbert]

Excellent Video.. Thank you. I just finished shooting at a stately home... Transfer went fine, but the tifs that I'd processed got left behind in the same folder asa the Raw files. Any thoughts as to what I wasn't doing? Thank you Hugh

[@rkwimages]

Thank you very much!!

[@darrellhornick7764]

This was extremely helpful. Thank you so much. You traveled (flew) during the Pandemic? Yikes. Thanks again.

[@photoshopcafe]

Everyone going to Hawaii had to have a negative Covid test before departing, so I was safer than going to a grocery store.

[@rhgoldman2821]

This was helpful going from the laptop, with new photos that have been worked on. What would you do if you now were working on some photos on your desk top, but wanted to bring them over to the laptop because you were traveling and wanted to work on them additionally--how would you do that?

[@RhettBrownatRetroWreck]

Great video! What is your software workflow for all your pictures? Do you ALWAYS upload all pictures to lightroom to edit, then "Edit In" Photoshop, and then back to lightroom for export? I find myself doing all sorts of workflows.

[@photoshopcafe]

Not "Always" but very often. However I usually export from Photoshop if I edit them there.

[@timg5593]

Thank you for another great tutorial, I've struggled with this for a long time. One question: Is it possible to not use a portable HD and just connect the two computers together?

[@keithpinn152]

Hi Colin: Thank you for this informative video. I was wondering if you had created Collection Sets, Collections and Smart Collections while the images where originally on your MacBook Pro would you be able to keep that structure in place when you imported/merged them onto you Mac desktop. Thanks, Keith

[@RemcovanVondelen]

Thanks!

[@euclideseugenio7100]

That was amazing!!! thank you!

[@joennick1]

Great video. All my RAW (unedited) images are always kept on an external hard drive. So does this mean I only have to take my LR catalogue off my old computer and put on an external drive before putting back on the new computer? Thanks.

[@my2004rt]

Thanks for this tip. Question… after copying them to the other Mac, did you then delete them from the laptop to free up space?

[@roberttorres345]

Colin, I really enjoy your videos, as they are very informative. When you say that you moved the Lightroom Catalog in its entirety from the Laptop, does that mean that the Laptop Lightroom Catalog is empty or did it just copy? How many Lightroom Catalogs do you use or recommend we use? If you have multiple, how do you keep track of what's in what catalog? Thanks again

[@photoshopcafe]

I copied everything, so everything on the laptop is intact. Because I created my LR Catalog and all the files in a separate folder, I can safely delete it from my laptop once I have verified that everything has copied successfully. To verify, I often look at the files sizes of the images folder on the source and destination, among other things. On my main machine, I have 4 catalogs. My main catalog, the drone work, mobile phone and a confidential catalog for things that I don't want to share if I'm making a tutorial.

[@tinpenak]

hi colin , thanks for the video, the way i have been loading my cr2 photos is into a folder in pictures on my pc, then importing to lrc. lately, after i finish the import into lrc the photos in my folde,r in pictures disappear?any comments about this and why they are disappearing from my pc or a better way to handle my photos from my camera and lrc would be appreciated, Thanks!

[@evanchristiephotography]

Thanks Colin this was a timely tutorial. I noticed how you then dragged the Hawaii folder into Collections. This reminded me about some syncing issues that occur. I have an ever growing number of photos that are constantly waiting to be synced. I know this because when I shutdown Lightroom I'm always asked if I want to shutdown anyway or wait for syncing to finish. It seems the images concerned are ones that I have imported into Lightroom Mobile from my iPhone to edit, or existing ones that I have further edited on my iPhone. Is this an issue you think you may want to discuss in a future video? Thanks you.

[@jonbeth44]

It works thank you this was very useful.. The only place where COPY is a real word. I cannot believe that there is no simple copy or backup function in lightroom.

[@geoffstradling6709]

Hi Colin, great video but I have a question. I have a MacBook Pro running Big Sur and I want to export to my old iMac which runs High Sierra (too old to install anything later). The laptop has the latest Lightroom classic edition but is showing as not compatible with High Sierra edition. Am I chasing a lost cause?

[@DForand]

Great video! Would be nice to see how to do this transfer from an iPad Pro to desktop.

[@photoshopcafe]

Lightroom on the iPad already syncs with the cloud, so there is no need. This is for Lightroom Classic

[@joeharrisonnz]

Thanks for making this, I just moved followed all your steps and it worked fine, however I now notice the sub-folders (jpg) within the transferred folders (raw) did not copy over, any reason why ? Thanks

[@SinaFarhat]

Thanks for the info! :)

[@chadbyerly4361]

Great video and very helpful. I do have a slightly different situation. I have a DROBO and the enclosure has bit the dust. With the Pandemic, no new enclosures are available. DROBO was nice enough to send me a loaner enclosure so I could access all my image files ... slightly over 300,000. I had to get a ThunderBay external Raid so I had a target location for the image files. ( the loaner has to be returned in 15 days ) I am trying to figure out how to move, or copy all the images over to the Raid. in lightroom classic, i don't see the drive showing up unless I go into export. do I really want to export these? eventually the DROBO enclosure will be added back into the set up .. i think. thoughts? do you have a video fo this sort of thing?

[@ElPescadoMan]

Does it copy the raw files? Or just whats synced to lightroom cloud? Im going to be philosophy moving the hard drive to the new computer just for storage. So I'm little confused about transferring the catalog.

[@julieann5649]

Ok, love tutorial, here's my situation, I have an iMac that died, but all of my files are on an external hard drive. I migrated to a new MacBook Pro and continued working from there. How do I merge catalog .lrcat with to the new one on my MacBook Pro and same external hard drive without losing my new images and edits on the new Macbook? I will have to figure out my old presets not loading on the new computer as a second problem. Please help asap!!! Thank you!!!

[@LarryFasnacht]

What’s the advantage of doing it this way vs. keeping the main Catalog on the external drive and plugging that in when you want to use the laptop? I’m currently doing it exactly the way you are, with one exception, I plug my laptop into the network via Ethernet and transfer the catalog directly to the desktop. But it’s a bit of a pain and takes quite a while if there are many images. I’m looking at other KZbinrs who are keeping their entire catalog on the external and plugging it into which ever computer they need to get the job done.

[@stephanknull3579]

Hi Colin, thanks for this one. Does this also work cross platform i.e. from a Windiws PC over to Mac Pro? Directly using a catalog cross platform is not possible because LrC does not get right the absolute paths stored within the catalog...

[@photoshopcafe]

As long as the external drive you are using works on both it will work fine, I do it all the time.

[@stephanknull3579]

Thanks, good to know.

[@lauriewahlig2819]

Perfect timing!

[@salpatalano2306]

Is there a way to transfer PC LR Files to an iMac LR?? Thank you...

[@gosman949]

What I want to do is move my pictures folder over to a larger internal hard drive to give me more storage space. Can I keep the Catalog at the same place?

[@gosman949]

So do you make a separate catalog each time you travel to a location? What if you have just one catalog on your laptop?. Can you transfer just a file over to your desktop?

[@photoshopcafe]

If you are using a shared catalog, you choose the images rather than select "all images" like I did.

[@choiriyahadha4913]

it work on my pc thx bro vеry much

[@jeffstephens5266]

I’m about to replace my MacBook Pro with a Mac Mini. My raw images (and sidecars) are all saved onto SSD drive plugged into the laptop. Is it as simple for me to let Apples migration facility move everything from MacBook to Mini and then plug in the SSD into Mini?

[@joeybageyes]

Hey Colin. Thanks for another great tutorial. Just a question though. Perhaps I am missing something, but you exported 2316 files from your laptop, but after the import to your desktop you only had 2276 files. Did you delete some, or did they go missing during the file transfer?

[@photoshopcafe]

This is a great question and I was curious too. It turns out I had some images from before (of the comet) on a card I hadn't formatted. These were already on my main computer, so they were duplicate images already cataloged. So nothing went missing. Im actually surprised it was able to copy over my 4k 120fps videos, even though Lightroom isn't capable of displaying them.

[@photoshopcafe]

And just for the record, no, my comet images didn't turn out any good, too much light pollution.

[@TomStrazulla]

Did there used to be a "Merge Catalog" option under the file tab? Does the process in this video add a separate catalog or merge it to an existing master catalog on your desktop?

[@photoshopcafe]

Merges to the existing catalog.

[@RajeshKumar-vt6zb]

Very good

[@LokiDWolf]

Having to upgrade hard drives in my RAID setup, this was a need! I tried in the past to transfer and now my LR gets pics from two hard drives current. 🙄 Thanks for this! Because yeah, only Metadata was transferred at one point. Ugh

[@photoshopcafe]

yikes, thats scary

[@LokiDWolf]

@@photoshopcafe Agreed! It's about to get fixed. Getting two new hard drives and dedicating 1TB (SSD/internal) to photos ONLY. Even getting a 500GB (PCIe) for the boot drive and software. Time to get organized. But truly!!! Thanks for this video!!!!

[@MortAllachie]

This might be a workaround so I can edit on my laptop, and then import to the Mac. I love to edit on the iPad, but for some reason the settings won’t sync between LR Classic and LR mobile anymore. On 80-90% of the photos it says “Waiting for settings” with the option to reset the edits. I see on Reddit that people have struggled with this for up to 3 years. I have had this issue for a few months, but I haven’t found a solution. Have you heard of this issue?

[@rcpanorama]

I appreciate this video very much, I am getting better yet not quite where I need to be, need HELP. I am retired and travel extensively, take many pictures everywhere, always in RAW, edit in Lightroom, if iPad I go to Lightroom mobile, if in MacBook Air, in Classic. Everything syncs in Adobe cloud. Then I am back home in my MacMini, large hard drives where all my data resides. Question: What to do with my original RAW pictures (which I transfer from my camera to an SSD hard drive)? Adobe Cloud syncs only small images, not the large original file from my 24MP camera. If you have done a video, please give me the link, if not, could you be so kind to HELP!!!! I have not found anything in KZbin.

[@allabouthim03]

I purchased a new desktop. if I have the drive cloned from the old desktop to the new one shouldn't lightroom transfer over fine?

[@photoshopcafe]

Yes it should

[@lauriewahlig2819]

I’d love to know if you edit your photos from your external drive or internal drive? And if external do you find it slower?

[@photoshopcafe]

On my laptop I edit from Internal, On my desktop from my raid which is faster than the typical connected drive.

[@lauriewahlig2819]

@@photoshopcafe many thanks!!

[@lorijohnson7966]

No matter how many times I try this, or which catalog I use, I am getting an error message during import saying "The catalog does not appear to be a valid Lightroom catalog". I've tried trouble shooting this online, but have come up with nothing. Any advice is very much appreciated!!!!

[@kendeemer518]

Hey Colin. I know this is an old post, but still very helpful. However, I notice that you exported a catalog with 2316 images, yet only 2276 came over to the desktop. What happened?

[@photoshopcafe]

I don't remember, some were probably virtual copies, orphaned or videos probably.

[@Ballistichydrant]

Great video. Could have used this 10 years ago😂 I don't us Or classic anymore and I always hated the way Or "managed" the individual files. IMO the xtf data should be stored beside the image. Call it a mental block but I'll not use any file management software that doesn't have this functionality. I now do my editing on ipad and manage my files manually. The main reason I'm so strict on this point is because at some point your computer is going to blow up and your root drive is going to lose all your catalog data. Obviously we all have many redundant copies of the raw files but the xtf data will be gone unless it's stored beside the images

[@patricemiller5391]

I have just added a 20TB harddrive to my desktop Studio computer. Can I piggy back hardrives? help

[@photoshopcafe]

Sure, you can add as many drives as you want

[@benjamindray8087]

You are just great....Au plaisr

[@DevonChristopherAdams]

Good tips for catalog migration but you didn't talk about presets at all. I have a ton. I need them to move with it.

[@photoshopcafe]

Just copy them from the presets folder

[@DevonChristopherAdams]

@@photoshopcafe I figured it out. The problem was I had the old school presets and the new ones are XMP files so it’s very difficult to work around them because if I just copy and paste them they will not work because there a different format so they need to be imported directly.

[@igibbs2000utube]

Intersting. When I "go on location" I'll bring my laptop with me and make a directory and LR catalog just for that trip on my laptop. I'll edit photos while traveling in that catalog. When I get home, the laptop is on the same network as my iMac. I'll copy my just-for-that-trip folder (including the catalog in image files) from my laptop to my iMac across the network, then use the "Import from Catalog" feature within LR on my iMac to import the photos into my "general" catalog and continue editing/working from there. I'm not sure - perhaps your method is faster if you're using an external SSD as your transfer mechanism and your computers have USB-C connections. My 2015 iMac doesn't have USB-C, so I _think_ copying files across the network works out to be a faster approach for me. Also, I don't have to take up space on an external "staging" device. (But otherwise, I'm doing some pretty similar stuff I think.) Side note: For me, once I've copied the files onto my iMac and have imported them in that computer's LR catalog, I'll go back to the laptop and move them to a different folder (called "Moved to iMac") so I know not to continue editing on the laptop. I suppose I really could/should delete those files, but so far haven't really found a need to do so.)

[@photoshopcafe]

I usually delete them off my staging drive and the laptop when done, oncer I have verified the images are all safe and sound.

[@davidscottblacksmith]

Adobe couldn’t make Lightroom more complicated if they tried. Good video though, thank you.

[@photoshopcafe]

They are trying to make it more complicated, at least with the naming. ;)

[@EugeneMaynard]

🙏🏾

[@waawaaweewaa2045]

Although I appreciate this demonstration, I think it should be made clear to beginners that while this method of sharing files has its place, it also presents drawbacks and potential for error. Best practice (or at least the easiest way to avoid headaches) is to have your catalog(s) and images on an external drive that can be accessed by both computers, and to have a backup of that drive.

[@LongGlovv]

What are you doing, man? Just copy-paste

[@photoshopcafe]

LOL, I take it your joking right?