I use Lightroom, and I have one main catalog on my desktop computer. This catalog houses all of my photographs (over 250k of them), and they all are on a Drobo in my office at home. However, when I travel, I still want to be able to use Lightroom, and so I have what I call my “travel” catalog on my laptop. This is sort of a temporary home for the photos I am creating while traveling.
Here’s how it works: I create photos with my camera, import them to my laptop (and oftentimes a backup hard-drive as well), and then sort, edit, and share from that catalog on my laptop. Then, when I get home, I transfer those images from the Lightroom catalog on my laptop over to the Lightroom catalog on my iMac. This way I am able to save all of the edits and organization from my travel photos so that I don’t have to redo anything when I am home.
How to transfer photos from one Lightroom catalog to another:
In this example, I will be transferring photos from Lightroom on my 13-inch MacBook Pro to the Lightroom catalog on my iMac:
- First, on my laptop, I go into the catalog and select the folder of images I imported and want to transfer over. Then, I go to File > Export this Folder as a Catalog.
- I select a location I want to store the catalog, typically the Desktop. I also only export the catalog information, and not the negative files (those will be moved within Lightroom once the import is complete).
- Once the catalog is exported I need to connect the laptop to my iMac with a cable (I use the lightening cable for my setup). Then, I need to access the computer as a hard-drive on my iMac. So on my MacBook Pro, I go into the System Preferences, select the Target Disk Mode and the laptop will restart.
- Now, inside of the Lightroom catalog on my iMac (desktop), I go to File > Import from Another Catalog.
- I select the catalog I just exported, and click Choose.
- A window will pop up, and I select the option that says Add new photos to catalog without moving and click Import. The images and their data will now import into the catalog on my desktop.
- Now, in the Folders panel, I can locate the images that were just imported. However I want to move them to my desktop computer, instead of keeping them on my laptop. To do this, I select the folder of imported images and drag/drop it over to the folder on my desktop where I want it to permanently live. The photos will be moved internally within the Lightroom catalog, as well as be removed off of the laptop computer as well.
Actually you could eliminate the step of creating the output catalog and just pull them right from your travel catalog, by folder. Clean out your travel catalog after transferring, from time to time, to uncluttered it.
Yes, that would work, too :)
Nicole- that sounds pretty daunting to me. Let me outline how I handle the travel files and please tell me if your method is safer (in which case I will switch even if it’s more steps). I share my catalog by storing it on Dropbox (I always back it up on every closing). I import directly to LR on the MBP in a folder that is named the same as the folder they will live in on my external drive at home. I also sync that folder using GoodSync to portable drive while traveling (in addition to safety I will… Read more »
If it works, that’s great! I’m personally always a little wary of storing or transferring catalogs over a cloud-based system. LR is a database and you never know what it could mix up during the transfer.
Hi Nicole
I have followed your steps except the cable connection since I have exported the catalog from my laptop to an external hard drive and then imported it to LR on my MAC desktop. For some reason I get the ? sign in where that catalog was imported, meaning LR treats these as missing files… any idea what went wrong?
Ofer
Actually you could eliminate the step of creating the output catalog and just pull them right from your travel catalog, by folder. Clean out your travel catalog after transferring, from time to time, to uncluttered it.
Yes, that would work, too :)
Nicole- that sounds pretty daunting to me. Let me outline how I handle the travel files and please tell me if your method is safer (in which case I will switch even if it’s more steps). I share my catalog by storing it on Dropbox (I always back it up on every closing). I import directly to LR on the MBP in a folder that is named the same as the folder they will live in on my external drive at home. I also sync that folder using GoodSync to portable drive while traveling (in addition to safety I will… Read more »
If it works, that’s great! I’m personally always a little wary of storing or transferring catalogs over a cloud-based system. LR is a database and you never know what it could mix up during the transfer.
Hi Nicole
I have followed your steps except the cable connection since I have exported the catalog from my laptop to an external hard drive and then imported it to LR on my MAC desktop. For some reason I get the ? sign in where that catalog was imported, meaning LR treats these as missing files… any idea what went wrong?
Ofer