Lightroom Classic is designed to be used on a single computer. However, many photographers have multiple computers (for example a desktop computer at home, and a laptop for travel).

XMP files can facilitate syncing edits between multiple machines, making it easy to work on your photos in Lightroom Classic on your travel computer, and then move those edits into your primary Lightroom Classic Catalog on your home desktop computer.

XMP files sit next to your original images and hold metadata and edit information — the same information that is kept in your Lightroom catalog. This means that by writing this information to XMP files, you can simply import or add your original images to your main Lightroom catalog along with their XMP’s, tell Lightroom to Read Metadata From File, and all of your edits will appear in your primary catalog, automatically syncing edits. No tedious catalog merge needed.

1. Enable XMP Files on all computer running Lightroom Classic

Syncing Edits - Automatically Write Changes to XMP in Lightroom Classic

From the top menu bar, open the Catalog Settings.

  • On macOS, go to the Lightroom Classic menu and select Catalog Settings.
  • On Windows, go to the Edit menu and select Catalog Settings.

Choose the Metadata tab, and check the box next to Automatically Write Changes to XMP.

2. Import and edit using the travel laptop

Go somewhere (hopefully fun), take a few magnificent photos and then import them into Lightroom Classic on your travel laptop. The imported files can live on your internal hard drive if you have space, or on an external drive. Make any desired edits. Those edits will be automatically written to XMP files next to your original photos.

3. Copy your images from your travel laptop to your home computer

Once you are home, you’ll need to copy your original images and XMP files from your travel laptop (or travel external drive) to your home computer. For most people, the destination will be an external drive connected to your home computer that stores your primary photographic archive. I use Mylio Photos to sync my media across all my computers/devices, but you can also manually copy your originals and XMP files from the laptop or external drive to your main photo archive.

4. Import your photos into your primary Lightroom Catalog

In Lightroom, click the Import button, and locate the folder of images you added to your photo archive drive. Use Lightroom’s Add option to add photos to your primary catalog without moving them.

5. Syncing edits

Syncing Edits - Read Metadata from Files in Lightroom Classic

Once your photos have been added to your primary Lightroom Classic catalog, select all of the imported photos (Ctrl/Cmd + A). Open the Metadata menu in the top menu bar, and choose Read Metadata from Files. This will import all of your edits from your travel laptop into your primary catalog.

That’s it! All of the work you did while you were on the road has been easily integrated into your primary Lightroom Classic Catalog, without the hassle of copying and merging the entire catalog. Using XMP files for syncing edits is a great way to facilitate working with Lightroom Classic on multiple computers.