Moving Your Lightroom Photos To Another Hard Drive (without losing track of any of them)

[@ricardopachecoart]

This is how every tutorial on youtube should be. Short and simple, you my friend, are a master.

[@totesthegoats8255]

I’ve watched three 15-30min tutorials on catalogs and folders and it only took you less than 3 mins to explain it in a way that I understood 😂 thank you so much 🙏

[@bkcampb]

Had to listen to 4 you tubers giving doctoral thesis before I ran across you . Thanks !!!!! Straight to the point!!!

[@seanthompson258]

This video was the most helpful you must open a new folder within lightroom for it to work i was opening a folder on my exterrnal no doesnt work must open it within lightroom thanks Scott i have been battling with this for a good few days now. so thank you!

[@timknight6258]

Just finished doing this and it was so easy….. My photos were taking up 1/2 if ny 1tb hard drive so I was able to move them to a 5 tab external drive and it really didn’t take all that long…. Works great!!!!

[@michaelwalker6577]

Perfect! Clear and concise! Don't forget to adjust your energy saver settings so your computer doesn't sleep during the process.

[@alexforsyth5895]

Thanks Scott! I wish I had seen this years ago, it would have saved me a lot of problems. Now I am going to buy another external drive and rearrange things and simplify the whole process. I wish all the videos were as good as this one, short and sweet and straight to the point!

[@lisabokelmann862]

Thank you for making my day so much better!

[@robyncowlanfineartphotogra8438]

Hey hey Scott - I can not tell you HOW many times I have used this video to help people with their Lightroom whetehr Mac or PC! You are the best!! Been with you since many moons ago NYC.

[@logicmr.8351]

Thank you for making it short, straight to the point, and easy to understand

[@tonycampbell-wd3cp]

Thank you for getting to the point and not spending forever talking about useless info. Great instructional video!!!

[@nicholasnichols7560]

Concise, clear and informative. Fantastic tutorial

[@rutaemilija]

I do this once a year and LOVE having something so quick and clear to refresh myself. Thank you!

[@TommyMacTube]

this was so simple. so annoying going through other videos to get this step by step direction. thank you.

[@rmp3636]

Trying to collect and organize images from all over. This is just what I needed. Thanks.

[@beothyphotography6653]

This was a super helpful tutorial -short and to the point. Thank you!!

[@RogerJones-mountfield]

You’re a life saver, Scott, thank goodness I’m saved, Bless you 🙏🙏🙏

[@vagnotz]

Thanks! Great tips, making it very simple and immediate

[@darrinlalla9008]

So good and still relevant. I've seen too many people over-explain this. I think I finally get it. Thank you for this Scott.

[@studentofphotography3593]

THANK YOU FOR A SIMPLE WAY TO DO THIS! I watched four other videos that made this look like rocket science!

[@lindaitken3321]

Do NOT! Do NOT! Do NOT use this method UNLESS you first make sure you have copies (NOT JUST BACKUPS) of the folders you are moving. That note about them being move and not copied is dead serious. If anything goes wrong with the move, you could end up losing files. I had two duplicate external drives - one for the photos and one to be a backup of the first. My pix were kept in folders by year and then subfolders by incident. As a test, I chose a year and moved that folder. When it got to the new drive, only one subfolder had made it to the new drive. No problem - I had the backup file. But when I went to do a restore, I found that the backup file was corrupted. With a backup, everything goes into one file which then needs to be restored with software. If one disk is copied to another, one can look at the second disk and see what's there and if a file is corrupted, that's all that is lost. I'm glad I ran the check on one year; had I tried to move all of them at once, I would have lost about 4 tb of pictures. My solution was to make a copy of the remaining files and THEN use this method. It work the second time. I like the method - it's simple and straight forward. Just make sure you have COPIES of the files you are moving before using it..

[@bradelligood3344]

How do you go about copying the photos before moving them? Thanks…

[@tialavin-glatt6825]

Its unheard of for me to write any comments, but THIS was great. straight to the point, no fluff. needed to come on and say this.

[@scottabshire8732]

Thanks. I get anxiety about the size of this catalog, and knew the process, but your video was very reassuring and simple to follow. Thanks!

[@abbiness6785]

So grateful that you posted this video! it literally saved me!!!

[@magnegrimen3376]

Great tutorial, very easy, very clear and very useful! Thanks! 😀

[@maripido]

you sir, are amazing! THANK YOU! Straight to the point and very easy to follow

[@robertcallaway3821]

Thanks a lot. I was tired of running out of space on my internal drive. Now, no worries.

[@beatboxthemovie8152]

Finally someone who actually helps

[@JaroPitkanen]

Awesome! Thanks Scott!

[@KatieKookaburra]

THANK YOU!!!!! Awww I had photos all over the place so thank you :)

[@michiespinoza1322]

Thank you so much!! I am not tech savvy AT ALL and this was easy and straight to the point. I appreciate it!

[@carlagonzalez1227]

Amazing explanation! thank you!

[@yellowbeck6209]

Super clear, thank you very much!

[@Laura-dolphinfan]

WOW THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH, you've made sense out what some are making so difficult .. thank you , i pray this works on my DELL .. (?? ) hope that window pops up (??!!)

[@gosman949]

Everytime I migrate to a new drive, I have to do this and it takes me awhile to figure it out. Thanks and hopefully I can find this video the next time I do it!

[@travisstevens4369]

I just dragged the pictures file to the SSD file i set up, clicked move and I am getting an error that says "The folder named “Pictures” contains your Lightroom catalog and cannot be moved while Lightroom is running." I am running macOS Monterey 12.4.1.. have not been able to move the folder..

[@nguyenhangnam]

Thank you so much for your help.

[@buddaman42]

Does this also include all edits? Do I do anything with the LR Cat? I'm moving from an external HD to a new external HD. Thank you

[@LarsDahlin]

Thank you! The best and trustworthiest source. (Y)

[@kristopherhicks4412]

You're the goat for this!

[@stevejohnstone2184]

Great video Scott, very straight to the point. I already have my images on an external drive but I want to copy them on to a second external hard drive. Please could you explain how to do this?

[@mp9596]

did you find an answer to this?

[@someguy_]

you need a device that takes the photos from the first hard drive and then copy them to the second one

[@Savage1776_]

For 3 days now I've been messing with my one terabyte Lightroom collection. I'm having multiple issues because of the size of the catalog. I watched and read one of your books and it said take all your photos from every hard drive and every device and put them in one area preferably an external hard drive. I bought an eight terabyte external hard drive and put all my pictures in one place. Then I had the issue of having duplicates so I ran a Lightroom plug-in duplicate cleaner and I also ran an external cleaner that I have for finding duplicates after getting rid of all the duplicates I then tried to have two folders in the same catalog. I want one folder on my actual desktop which has two drives. One drive is 1 TB the other Drive is 2 terabytes. The two terabyte drive is where I'm going to store my stuff the 1 TB Drive is my main C drive. Then I have my external hard drive behind my computer on the desk with 8 terabytes and that's going to be my main storage and where I back everything up. But when I do the add folder thing like you did my folder through the new Drive does not come up which is the one on my computer. I don't know why but I'm having the hardest time and it's taking me almost 3 days of moving these folders around.

[@Tilten]

Thanks, exactly what I was looking for...!😊

[@victory-loriebarnett1877]

Thank you Scott. May seem silly. But, I have been praying about storage … Answer to me from God thru you.

[@Gnaixwh]

Thank you Scott! I was wondering, by migrating the library like this, will Lightroom Classic retain the photo syncs with Lightroom?

[@AgnesEtienne]

Thanks Scott! I would like to know how to do this the other way - from the external hard drive to the laptop.

[@timothysmallwood2367]

Easy when you know how! As an aside, I leave the “moving files on disc” confirmation box enabled in case my mouse finger twitches while I’m dragging the folder. I once moved all of 2019 into Jan 15 2012 and it took ages to find!

[@shanelitts9461]

Hi Scott. I’m trying to do this with my catalog. All my Lightroom photos are in pictures. When I try to move the pictures folder to my external hard drive, I get the first message, then when I click ok, it says cannot move the pictures folder when Lightroom is running because this folder contains your Lightroom catalog…. Any thoughts? I’m wondering if something has changed with recent updates, or am I missing something? Thanks in advance of your consideration!

[@ParWallgren]

Is it the windows pictures folder then you can't move it anyway. Try moving the photos only from inside the folder to a folder on the new disk. Make sure you don't move the catalogue file named "catalouge" or similar with the pictures.

[@scarcesense6449]

Great tutorial! Although I don't like the idea of just moving everything on this scale. Is there a way to create copies then point the catalog to the other drive?

[@Rich-Reacts-2024]

Thanks for your help.

[@michaelbandeko3519]

I am a Nikon shooter. I have found it easier to use Nikon Transfer2. I can have one set to an internal hard drive and another set to an external hard drive. I then import the raw files into LR from my internal hard drive. As Scott says I clone that external hard drive once a weeks. With the Acronis software It also saves a copy to the cloud.

[@fearlessmadamex5685]

This may be a stupid question, but does this mean I need to keep the external connected to my desktop for Lightroom to be able to recognize the photos?

[@delgriffith4629]

Yes

[@Mr31formula]

Thank you! Straight forward! Understandable! Simple! Do you have a video on LIBRARIES?

[@SandyHansenPhotography]

Awesome! Thanks Scott

[@marieschaller4560]

This is fantastic thank you! I have two questions: First, when uploading photo files from SD card, can you designate the photos go to the external harddrive, and if so, how is this done? Also, if the photos are stored on external harddrive, you are still able to see the photo files in the LRc library, yes? Thank you Scott!

[@mxyptlk]

Just found your excellent site. I don't use my internal drive to store images on instead I use two external SSD drives...one 8Tb drive holds all my LR photos, the smaller 2Tb I am going to use travelling to offload images and cull, make edits, rate etc. When I return home I want to move everything from my 2TB drive into my main 8Tb drive. How do you move those images between the two drives and keep all the data intact Scott ? In the meantime I am going through your first rate tutorials....

[@jonathandarts5454]

Is there an option to retain the photos in the original drive? One can then use the original drive as an emergency backup.

[@terrygrehan3210]

This is a great video, however as it's a couple of years old, the part where you add your hard drive, when I add my hard drive it shows up, all my photos are already in the new drive, and put in 6 folders, and the the big import screen shows up. saying import, I'm guessing I go ahead and import, but not entirely sure, so could you please confirm either way please. I am working with Lightroom Classic 13.3.1 and I am on a PC. I have also just purchased your Lightroom SLIM course, so would the info be there ?

[@sekaf4125]

Awesome!! Hear is a question for those in the know. I have a new fully loaded Mac 14” laptop. Very fast. By doing this when I download my files, edit them THEN when I save them they go to the external Hard Drive? I’m a novice. I assume the laptop is way faster than the external. Thanks guys

[@portraitsquarebyjerrycerpa6204]

New in Lightroom but have a little experience taking photos, learning to navigate the system it’s a bit crazy. Looking into making into a business eventually. Your video was simple and really helpful. Thanks!!

[@SURAJ-qq3oi]

thanks for tutuorial...

[@maisieorendorf2658]

When I try to move my highest folder it says it contains my Lightroom catalog and it can't be done when LR is running C

[@michiespinoza1322]

Same here 😣

[@dryrainwetsun]

Same here

[@warrenwalters4245]

Has anyone posted a solution to this problem

[@estherestrada2016]

Great video! so simple and to the point. Does this work the same for moving catalogs from one external hard drive to another in Lightroom?

[@TheExtraTerrestrial]

Thanks! I just started researching this topic only to find a lot of long-winded answers. You'd think Adobe would make an option to do this when backing up the catalog (which apparently doesn't back up the images themselves).

[@alex_179]

thank you so much

[@scottmatsumoto76]

Is there a difference between initially importing the photos onto the desktop hard drive or to the external hard drive if I know that after this project is completed, I want the photos on an external hard drive? Thanks for the great video

[@johnd9357]

Also curious. Could we not just skip the step of adding them to the internal HDD of the computer?

[@ahmaddimasfachri4511]

Thanks!You earned a like and sub

[@SneakyCaleb]

Does not work while lightroom is running.

[@jamescolbeck9079]

Thanks Scott....

[@juanmm9297]

Very helpful 🙏🙏

[@karshi1290]

THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY AMAZING LIFE YOU GOT A NEWSUB

[@wallove67]

I am running OS Sonoma 14.1.1 and found that when I tried to move the Pictures file as shown in step 3, an error message said that I could not move it while Lightroom was running. Obviously, I tried this more than once and got the same message. Then I found that all of the images in my LR folders were greyed out. I could no longer successfully import images to LR on the computer or the Mac Photos app on either the computer or my iPad. Apparently, the Pictures file was stuck in Limbo. If you have read this far, my advice is hold off until there is a fix. Note: a day later LR now seems to be functioning normally, though nothing was moved (as expected.) At least the problem was temporary.

[@joetagg1961]

Great video, but I have a question. I jumped the gun and already copied all my photos to my new ssd. If I now copy my catalog into lightroom, will I now have 2 copies on my hard drive, or is it just gonna connect my catalog to my library? I was hoping I didnt have to delete all those pics and start again. Thanks for any advice you have on this!!

[@clivewuest8529]

Hi Scott. Great video. Straight forward and easy to understand. Two questions and I am sure I have probably guessed right. I want to my all 10000 photos on my external hard drive to a new external SSD drive to spead things up. I assume the process is the same, but can I assume that as long as I move the very top folder all of its many subfolders will move and work too. Sure they would, but can you conform. Many thanks. Clive

[@aspenacreschickenfarm]

Is this the same process for windows?

[@Pennstpenny]

very helpful!!!! does this also save all my lightroom edits in the develop mode?

[@johnd9357]

Yes, because your edits are always saved in the Lightroom catalog which is stored on your hard drive.

[@larrymoss2745]

I had to do something a little different to make it work. When clicking on the Pictures Folder from within LR, I got a hard stop that said "The folder named "Pictures" contains your Lightroom catalog and cannot be moved while LR is running." Since about 98% of my 15,000 photos in the Pictures folder were in my "Photos and Videos" subfolder, I clicked and drug those over to the external hard drive folder to move them and unload my desktop hard drive. It looks like it will take a couple hours, so will do some Christmas shopping. Will comment again, if further problems.

[@shanelitts9461]

I’m having same issue, how did it ultimately resolve for you?

[@larrymoss2745]

@@shanelitts9461 Hi Shane. I think what I did, is just close LR, and moved the Pictures folder from my computer hard drive (Using FINDER on the Mac), and dragged it over to the external hard drive. After completed (which can take a while if your computer is slow (as mine was) or you have a ton of photos to move, you have to re-open LR and let the catalog know where you put the files in the new location so it can link up and you won't get a question mark next to all the photos and folders. That is actually easy to do - if you don't know how, let me know and I think I can find a different KZbin video that explains it readily.

[@shanelitts9461]

@@larrymoss2745 thank you Larry!

[@ellenrosenthal6706]

@@larrymoss2745 Hi Larry, I am having the same problem. Do you know of another youtube video that explains this maneuver?

[@ktwo.photography]

@@shanelitts9461 I think I found a solution. Expand the pictures folder in lightroom and only select the folders with photos, not "2023" (or whatever your folder containing the catalogs, backups, and previews are) and move those into the new folder. Hope this helps!

[@shadowOflights]

It is not working on windows with the latest update. Created a folder, but LR says, no folder in that folder. Ended up no luck, not sure how to sync between my Windows to new Mac

[@gosman949]

how do you move just one file from internal catalog to file in external drive LR catalog?

[@Jordiephotography]

Why is every tetorial so long.. this one I unsterstand completely.. I am working on a external hdd right now but I have an 8tb hdd in my PC and a NAS for backup. I needed this vid to start.. Other KZbin didn't answered me or had vids that difficult they says make a new catalog and start import every file again... that will take me days.. this vid is perfect. 👌👌

[@luckyluc03]

How do I move a Lr Catalog from one laptop to another? My photos are all on an external drive. Thanks!

[@nes4362]

SCOTT,please tell me how I can do the reverse!!!!! Please!!!!! I bought a new computer with huge hard drive and want to move my photos and catalog from the external drive to the new computers hard drive. Thanks!

[@MrChrissk]

Tried this, put it says unable to move due to lightroom running.

[@alyssamarquez5898]

We’re you able to resolve this problem? I am finding the same problem. And I am stuck! Please help me

[@ellenrosenthal6706]

@@alyssamarquez5898 Me, too!

[@nlh835]

I transferred my Lightroom from one external hard drive to another, as you suggested. But, I missed something e cause I have to keep old hard drive open as well because of catalog. Help?

[@tcrietz]

I am hopefully 2/3 complete in the process of moving my Lighroom photos to another hard drive. Folders have been emptied on the old drive that were stored by date but mobile images seems to have applied the break and folders labeled Nature , People, travel about 8000 more remain but I do not see the count down moving as I did earlier. The “Moving Folder Indicator has about another 1/3 rd to fill before finished but I could still send an email of one of the pictures remaining on the old disk in the midst of this process. Does this mean these are all duplicates (it could be I’ve had a mess trying to organize 155,560 photography over decades. my new lightroom photos has C logo. It has been 3-4 days. Will I have to try to exert the remaining folers as a catalog and move the rest that way . I’m afraid to interrup anything befor the end Moving monitor. Should I try to drag the remaining folders above the" mobile images” folder to see if that would start them moving again? Help?

[@carsandconcerts]

Thank you!!!👍👍👍

[@ryanrootphoto]

Question! After I make my Lightroom aware of the new hard drive, I can not simply drag one folder with all my photos into the new drive. On my "Macintosh HD", it has all my photos divided into years. Do I simply drag those folder years into the new external drive? If so, will Lightroom know to keep future photos saved from this external?

[@krenkurts5054]

I am moving folders to an external hard drive using the drop and drag method. I see there is an Import to This Folder option that might be easier as I cannot see the targeted Archived Photos XHD in the same screen as the folders I am moving. Can you direct me to a step-by-step process for using this Import to This Folder option?

[@suzannemullaney3205]

Wonderful !

[@alittlekinder]

When I followed these exact steps it didn't set up my hard drive in the list of drives. It placed it in the volumes folder on the mac. Is this going to cause issues for me? How do I get it to recognize the hard drive like you show?

[@WillJBailey]

Thank you.

[@garyadams5201]

Hi Scott, Will this method also work for moving all photographs in the Lightroom Catalog? Thanks! Great Video!

[@ellenrosenthal6706]

That's my question, too. I wasn't able to do it.

[@julieabella5917]

I keep getting a message that says The folder named Pictures contains your Lightroom catalog and cannot be moved while Lightroom is running. That did not happen in the video tutorial. Why am I getting this message and how can I do this if I have to close LR. Please someone help me. I have. Anew computer and am trying to get my images off of the old computer to have them on an external drive instead of Storing them On my new computer.

[@ArgentoRAWRz]

is it ok if i do it like this too? So i copied the photos folder to my new external drive, then if i try to add folder from lightroom and select the copied photos folder that has the same name as the folder on my current drive, will that work at all or i have to rename it to a new one necesarilly?

[@batex3]

This seems simple but needs to come with a BIG warning. Be very careful to move ONLY the folders that contain the pictures that you want to move. I just found out the hard way! I needed to move all my iPhone photos off of one drive and store them on another, so I opened my iPhone Photos catalog and, since I wanted to move all the iPhone photos in that catalog, I dragged the old HD to the new HD (instead of the individual photos). That moved ALL the photos from one drive to the other, not just the iPhone photos in the catalog, which has now created a huge nightmare! When I open any of my other catalogs, those photos are now "missing" since they were all moved to the new drive. The Move feature is very powerful, be careful! It is not a simple matter to move them back to the original drive!

[@esanford]

what about the catalog?

[@gregfisher216]

I have a drive in my computer with all my images on it . The drive letter is G . It was the F drive . When I installed windows 11 ,I had the drive unplugged , Long story . Now I want to replace that drive with another drive . I want to maintain that G drive letter on the new drive. Can this be done within Lightroom ?

[@MorganGrip]

Great video! Will this work with a remote NAS?

[@Martya55]

I have the same question.. I would like to move from a NAS to two external thunderbolt drives.

[@Titancarreon]

saved my life!

[@fatherheer]

Thanks