Migrating Lightroom to new PC

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Hi,

I'm just moving to a new installation of lightroom on a new PC.

I've moved all my images across from my old PC and they reside on a new drive D: on my previous installation my images were on C:

Once ive installed on my new PC please can you advise how i let lightroom know the images now reside on D and enable it to restore all my edits from the backup file from the old PC ?

tia,
Mike.
 
Hi,

I'm just moving to a new installation of lightroom on a new PC.

I've moved all my images across from my old PC and they reside on a new drive D: on my previous installation my images were on C:

Once ive installed on my new PC please can you advise how i let lightroom know the images now reside on D and enable it to restore all my edits from the backup file from the old PC ?

tia,
Mike.


I did mine the other day was just a simple matter of moving across the new catalogue, don't import the images. Once the catalogue has been moved you will need to go in and point the folders at the new location.
 
You've got your images on your new PC so that's fine.

Put your Catalogue wherever you want it to be on your new PC.

Install LR on the new PC and open it with your LR catalogue. This will sync LR with the catalogue and you should see your folder structure.

If your folder structure has a parent folder then you simply need to point LR to the parent folder and LR will do the rest.
 
If you have LR already installed on two devices you will need to deregister it from the old pc (if its still operational)
My old machine crashed and I had to get on to Adobe for them to sort it out, which they did very efficiently
 
You've got your images on your new PC so that's fine.

Put your Catalogue wherever you want it to be on your new PC.

Install LR on the new PC and open it with your LR catalogue. This will sync LR with the catalogue and you should see your folder structure.

If your folder structure has a parent folder then you simply need to point LR to the parent folder and LR will do the rest.

Hi GazJ,
I have the same problem, but I can't find the old LR catalogue in my back up and I'm not sure I can access the old PC (dodgy hard drive - the reason why I replaced it).

Do you know where LR normally stores the catalogue?
 
Hi Guys - thanks for the help.

Just to confirm the catalogue is just the backup file i create when LR exits ?
 
Hi Guys - thanks for the help.

Just to confirm the catalogue is just the backup file i create when LR exits ?

Yes Mike. The catalogue stores all the edits and where everything is on the PC which is why it needs to be pointed to the folder of images when you move them. Once you've done that then all your edits etc will be linked again to your image folder.
 
Hi GazJ,
I have the same problem, but I can't find the old LR catalogue in my back up and I'm not sure I can access the old PC (dodgy hard drive - the reason why I replaced it).

Do you know where LR normally stores the catalogue?

If you can't find the backup or your original catalogue then I don't know of any way that you can retain the edits to your images. I have my catalogue in the same folder as my images so when I back up that folder to my external drives I back up the matching catalogue at the same time.
 
Hi Guys - thanks for the help.

Just to confirm the catalogue is just the backup file i create when LR exits ?

NO! thats the backup, the catalogue file has a lrcat extention, usually found in \Users\[user name]\Pictures\Lightroom but you may have it elsewhere
Once you've copied your raw images, copy the following from your catalogue directory
  • Catalog: [catalog name].lrcat
  • Previews: [catalog name] Previews.lrdata
  • Smart Previews (Lightroom 5 and later): [catalog name] Smart Previews.lrdata
Then on Lightroom startup choose File > Open Catalog
 
View media item 13122Evening Guys - i've imported the lrcat file from the backup i took and as i expected it's trying to find the images on my C: drive and naturally can't

They exist now on my D: drive.

How can i tell lightroom to look on the D: drive instead where the filesystem layout should be the same
 
Right click on folder -> locate missing images

Or something similar, it's pretty easy.

This - Open up the folder view, the folders will have a ? against them and be greyed out (ish). Right click, locate missing folder. If you have a hierarcy under a top level folder, it'll search subfolders to save you having to do lots of folders manually.

This is why they say move files/folders within lightroom, which is ok if you're doing it on the same machine, not if changing between machines - hence this method.
 
  • Catalog: [catalog name].lrcat
  • Previews: [catalog name] Previews.lrdata
  • Smart Previews (Lightroom 5 and later): [catalog name] Smart Previews.lrdata
Then on Lightroom startup choose File > Open Catalog

Hi...do I copy and paste these 3 lines?...how do I get them into LR ? thanks.Ian

Sorry..I have got LR onto new PC...and managed to get all my photos into LR...but all the Develop settings I've used over the years have gone. Not a disaster by any means, but I would like them back. I seem to have more than one catalogue in the Pictures folder ( only in the PC Picture sub file...not in LR!) Any help appreciated.
 
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Hi...do I copy and paste these 3 lines?...how do I get them into LR ? thanks.Ian

Sorry..I have got LR onto new PC...and managed to get all my photos into LR...but all the Develop settings I've used over the years have gone. Not a disaster by any means, but I would like them back. I seem to have more than one catalogue in the Pictures folder ( only in the PC Picture sub file...not in LR!) Any help appreciated.

You could just write them down and then copy the files from the old pc to new pc, same locations (relative to where you've installed Lightroom)
 
Hi, thanks for that. I have actually transferred all my photos to the new PC (4000+). What hasn't transferred is the files that relate to my "Develop" changes on the old PC..ie contrast / exp / white balance etc. I believe these are related to .lrdata files. I have seen a "Lightroom" file which shows in the long list of photo folders in LR. So, how do I manage to reunite my settings with the photos? appreciate any help.
 
Hi, thanks for that. I have actually transferred all my photos to the new PC (4000+). What hasn't transferred is the files that relate to my "Develop" changes on the old PC..ie contrast / exp / white balance etc. I believe these are related to .lrdata files. I have seen a "Lightroom" file which shows in the long list of photo folders in LR. So, how do I manage to reunite my settings with the photos? appreciate any help.
The transfer process is detailed in the link below:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

Previously when I did it I moved the image files and LR catalogue file. Pointed LR to the catalogue file and re-linked the image folders (doing the top folder found the others for me but it probably depends how your folders are setup).

Main thing is to make sure you have backed everything up in case the worst does happen.
 
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