Help needed with moving to a new computer and LR4

dnwsmith · 10 Mar 2013

Morning,

can anyone point me to a good resource ( my google only came up with forums which were not clear) of how to take my photos from my old pc to my new Mac.

What i am really interested in is how to make sure all my adjustements come with me so that i am not copying a load of raw pictures with no adjustments and thus having to start again.

all help is greatly received - thank you

Dave

russellsnr · 10 Mar 2013

http://www.lightroomforums.net/forum.php

hollis_f · 10 Mar 2013

Full details from The Lightroom Queen. LINK Buy her book for more really useful info.

dnwsmith · 11 Mar 2013

thank you all for your help, this should do it.

D

dnwsmith · 13 Mar 2013

OK still confused.

in the link above it says that i need to back it up.

this leaves me still confused. What i am trying to find is which bit i need to copy to gives me all the adjustments on the pictures. I have managed to transfer the pictures form old computer to new, it has the stars attached to the picture but none of the adjustments.

i have always imported my pictures to a folder on my pc, then added those photos into lightroom through importing that folder into 'folders' so as such i have no catalogs - is this where i have been messing up?

oh lord - i can see a lot of work coming on, please help!!!!

neil_g · 13 Mar 2013

Just copy the image files (jpg/raw) and the catalogue(s) over to the new machine. Open the catalogue. If any collections have ? On them, right click and locate the folders.

Easy peasy.

theurbanclown · 13 Mar 2013

neil_g said:
Just copy the image files (jpg/raw) and the catalogue(s) over to the new machine. Open the catalogue. If any collections have ? On them, right click and locate the folders.

Easy peasy.

After doing the same thing recently, I can confirm it really is this easy.

Neil, do you know what purpose exporting the catalogue serves, if you can just move the catalogue without exporting? I've never really understood it.

hollis_f · 13 Mar 2013

theurbanclown said:
Neil, do you know what purpose exporting the catalogue serves, if you can just move the catalogue without exporting? I've never really understood it.

'Export as Catalog' allows you to create a catalog that is a subset of your main catalog.

dnwsmith · 13 Mar 2013

neil G - i don't have any catalogues. i think this is where the problem is. i just have folders. are all the picture ajustment held in the catalog files?

Neil B · 13 Mar 2013

dnwsmith said:
neil G - i don't have any catalogues. i think this is where the problem is. i just have folders. are all the picture ajustment held in the catalog files?

On your old PC, open LR and click EDIT then scroll down too Catalog settings.
You will then see your location, click on show and it will take you too the folder and just copy the folder to your new PC.

theurbanclown · 14 Mar 2013

hollis_f said:
'Export as Catalog' allows you to create a catalog that is a subset of your main catalog.

Ahh, gotcha.

Thanks.

neil_g · 14 Mar 2013

dnwsmith said:
neil G - i don't have any catalogues. i think this is where the problem is. i just have folders. are all the picture ajustment held in the catalog files?

youll always have a catalogue, its shown in LR here..

Neil B said:
On your old PC, open LR and click EDIT then scroll down too Catalog settings.
You will then see your location, click on show and it will take you too the folder and just copy the folder to your new PC.

remember to close LR before copying otherwise itll tell you the file is in use