how do i move lightroom to a new computer

8/3/2019 How Do I Move Lightroom to a New Computer

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How do I move Lightroom to a new computer? It’s a question that comes up over and over again, because people expect it to be complicated. It’s notreally! Even movingWindows to Mac is a straightforward operation.First, a bit of preparation will go a long towards preventing headaches…

Make sure your regular backups are up to date.Set Lightroom’s folder panel to show just a few top level folders, to make it easy to relink them if they getconfused inthe move. Instructions are here: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/2008/12/17/i-have-a-long-list-of-folders-can-i-change-it-to-show-the-folder-hierarchy/ Install Lightroom (the program) on the new computer. No need to install off the cd and then installupdates, as eachupdate is the entire program, so just skip along to the latest update which can bedownloaded from Adobe’s website.

Now we’re ready to move. Think about how you’re going to move the files – an external hard drive is theeasiest option.If you’re switching from Windows to Mac in the move, remember that OS X can’t natively write to a NTFSformatted drive, so eitherformat as FAT32, or remember you’ll need to copy the data off and reformatagain once you’ve finished moving.

You’ll want to transfer all of your presets, which are entirely cross-platform, over to the new computer, andpossibly yourpreferences file too, if you’re moving Windows to Windows or Mac to Mac. Don’t forget anyplug-ins, and custom DNG profilesthat you’ve created too. You’ll find all of the file locations here:http://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/2008/12/15/default-file-locations-lightroom-2/ Bear in mind thatthese are hidden locations on Windows, so you’ll need to turn go to Start menu > ControlPanel > FolderOptions > View > Advanced Settings and turn on ‘Show hidden files and folders’ in order to find them.You have 2 options for the catalog and images move – either moving and relinking, which is generally mypreferred option, orusing Export as Catalog, which is handy if data is scattered across your computer.Opt ion 1 – move a nd re l inkFind and copy your catalog to the new computer. If you don’t know where to find it, go to Edit menu >Catalog Settings(Windows) or Lightroom menu > Catalog Settings (Mac) and it’ll be l isted there.Find and copy your images to the new computer. Personally I like to use File Synchronization software tomake sure Idon’t miss anything.

Open your catalog on the new computer – double clicking on it is the quickest way.There may now be question marks all over the place, if it can’t find the files. It’s just a question of relinkingthose toplevel folders with the updated folder locations. Instructionshere: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/2009/02/21/lightroom-thinks-my-photos-are-missing-how-do-i-%ef%ac%81x-it/ Double check everything is up and running before you delete the old computer!

Opt ion 2 – expo r t a s ca t a logOpen Lightroom and go to File > Export as Catalog.Select a location on your external hard drive, and ‘include preview files’ and ‘include negative files’ so thateverything istaken along.Press Export and let it run. It will take some time.Now on your external hard drive should be a catalog, with an Images folder containing all of your negative

files. Itshould warn you if it couldn’t transfer some files.Transfer the external hard drive to the other machine.You could transfer the catalog itself (the *.lrcat file and *.lrdata file) to the new machine’s internal harddrive if you wish.Double-click on the catalog to open it.If you move the images, the drive letter changes between machines, or you’re moving between operatingsystems (i.e.Windows to Mac) you may still have to do the relinking listed in option 1.Double check everything is up and running before you delete the old computer!

You’re all set!




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I have a long list of folders – can I change it to show the folderhierarchy?

Extract from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

Yes, in fact it’s a very good idea to do so, and just have one or two top level folders. If Lightroom everloses track of all of your photos, perhaps as a result of a hard drive failure, you will only need to re-link thetop level folder and that will cascade through the rest.

So how do we go from this slightly nondescript tangle of folders…

to the tidy hierarchy….?

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Right-click on the current top level folder and select ‘Add Parent Folder’. This doesn’t import new photos, just adds an additional hierarchy level to your Folders panel (and does a lot more behind the scenes…).

Keep clicking on the top level folder until you see the folder you’re looking for.

If you go too far and want to remove a top level folder, right-click on that folder and choose ‘PromoteSubfolders’.

This does the opposite of ‘Add Parent Folder’, and will ask for confirmation before removing that top levelfolder.




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Selecting ‘Remove…’ from the right-click menu gives you the choice of promoting the subfolders, but alsogives you the option to remove all of the subfolders and their images from the catalog too, which youwouldn’t want to do when simply tidying up the hierarchy.

Default File Locations – Lightroom 2

The default location of the Lightroom catalog is…

Windows XP – [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\[your username]\My Documents\MyPictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcatWindows Vista – [systemdrive]\Users\[your username]\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcatMac – [systemdrive]/Users/[your username]/Photos/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog.lrcat

The catalogs are now fully cross platform, and the catalog ?le extensions are:*.lrcat is version 1.1 onwards.*.lrdb was version 1.0.*.aglib was the early beta.

The default location of the Preferences is…

Windows XP – [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\[your username]\ApplicationData\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\Lightroom 2 Preferences.agprefsWindows Vista – [systemdrive]\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\AdobeLightroom\Lightroom 2 Preferences.agprefsMac – [systemdrive]/Users/[your username]/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Lightroom2.plistPreference files are not cross-platform.

The default location of the Presets is…




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Windows XP – [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\[your username]\ApplicationData\Adobe\Lightroom\PresetsWindows Vista – [systemdrive]\Users\[yourusername]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\PresetsMac – [systemdrive]/Users/[your username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ Lightroom/Presets/ Presets are cross-platform and are saved in a Lightroom only format (.lrtemplate)To find them easily, go to Preferences > Presets panel and press ‘Show Lightroom PresetsFolder..’

The default location of all of the Camera Raw Cache is…

Windows XP – [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\[your username]\ApplicationData\Adobe\Camera Raw\CacheWindows Vista – [systemdrive]\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\Adobe\CameraRaw\Cache

Mac – [systemdrive]/Users/[your username]/Library/Caches/Adobe Camera Raw/

The default location of the Adobe Camera Raw Pro?les is…

Windows XP – [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\All Users\Local Settings\ApplicationData\Adobe\Camera Raw\Camera ProfilesWindows Vista – [systemdrive]\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Camera ProfilesMac – [systemdrive]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/

Your custom Camera Raw Pro?les can also be installed to the User folders…

Windows XP – [systemdrive]\Documents and Settings\[your username]\ApplicationData\Adobe\Camera Raw\Camera ProfilesWindows Vista – [systemdrive]\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\Adobe\CameraRaw\Camera ProfilesMac – [systemdrive]/Users/[your username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/

Lightroom thinks my photos are missing – how do I fix it?

Excerpt from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

Missing files are usually a result of files being moved or renamed outside of Lightroom, perhaps inExplorer or Finder. In this case, Lightroom loses tracks of the files.

They can be identified by a little question mark in the corner of the grid thumbnail.If the entire folder can no longer be found, the folder name in the Folders panel will go grey with aquestion mark folder icon. They used to go red in LR1.








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When you go in to the Develop module, Lightroom will tell you that the file is offline or missing.

If the whole folder is missing and the folder name has turned grey, you can right-click on the folder andselect ‘Find Missing Folder…’. Point Lightroom to the right folder, and it should update the links for all ofthe files contained in that folder. That’s the quickest option!

If the folder is still showing as recognised, you’ll need to relocate individual images, but Lightroom will tryto help where it can.

To locate a missing file, click on the question mark icon, and the following dialog will appear.

Click Locate to find the missing file.




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Locate the missing file and press Select. Check the ‘Find nearby missing photos’ checkbox shown in thedialog above in order to re-link other files in the same folder.If you have renamed the files outside of Lightroom, each file will need linking individually.If Lightroom appears slow to re-link related photos, restart Lightroom to force a search for ?le locations.A few preventative measures, to avoid missing files in future:

Rename any files before importing into Lightroom, or use Lightroom to rename them.Set Lightroom’s folder list to show the full folder hierarchy to a single root level folder. If all of the filesare moved from their expected locations, they can easily be updated using the ‘Find MissingFolder…’ command in the top level folder right-click menu, or by using the ‘Update Folder Location…’command even if they’re not yet marked as missing.Move any files or folders within Lightroom’s own interface, simply by dragging and dropping aroundthe folders panel. Folders can only be moved one at a time.