LR3 catalog from Mac to PC?

[Pupator]

I know that you can export a catalog (that you worked on while traveling, for example) from your laptop to your desktop, and the two will "merge." Can I do this if my laptop is a Mac and my desktop is a PC?

I have my catalog on my desktop (PC), but I'll be traveling in the next few weeks and will only have my Macbook with me. Does anyone have any experiencing moving things between the two platforms?

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

Yes, catalogs are cross platform. You would be best to keep the catalog on an external drive and access it from either computer though along with the images.

 

[Pupator]

Thanks for the info.

Why would an external drive be best? When I get home I'm going to want to put the new images on the desktop anyway. Why isn't it better just to have them on the laptop while traveling and move them over when I get back?

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

Easier on one drive than moving. If you keep them on the l/t and shift to the d/t later, do it in Lightroom so the database maintains links to the folders/files.

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

I do this all the time, keep a catalog and image files on a portable drive and copy them to backup. If I use my desktop all I do need is plug in the portable and open the catalog on it by double clicking. One catalog - two computers is better than two catalogs - two computers, everything is always up to date.

 

[Pupator]

Gotcha. But the one drive option isn't a possibility. No way am I going to have images in my (desktop) catalog located on an external drive long-term. I should have mentioned that I do 99.9% of my photo work on the desktop and .01% on the laptop. It doesn't even have LR installed yet. But on the trip I'll be taking next week I'd like to be able to get some work done.

So with that said. I'm guessing I can create a new catalog on the laptop (I need to install LR first). When I'm traveling I can import the images there as normal. Then when I get back, I can export the catalog from the laptop, then import it on the desktop - make sure it can find the images (which I'll move to my standard desktop directory structure), and I'll be good to go. Right?

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

That wil work for that use just fine. When you bet back if you can connect the two computers you can just export as catalog from the l/t to the d/t including "negative files" for all to go across, then import using the d/t catalog from the exported one.

Hope that makes sense!!:biggrin:

 

[Pupator]

Excellent. Thanks for the help!

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

No problem!

 

[Electromen]

It would be nice if LR was able to run on a network but it doesn't.

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

It would be nice if LR was able to run on a network but it doesn't.

It would need a whole new database for that to happen.:wink:
Not today I believe!

 

[Weebles]

It (even LR3) can be made to work on a LAN (PC only), but I'm not saying it's simple. However, it's not supported by Adobe.

David Ziser has a video tutorial on it here...

http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2010/06/technique-tuesday-lightroom-jailbreak.html

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

It (even LR3) can be made to work on a LAN (PC only), but I'm not saying it's simple. However, it's not supported by Adobe.

David Ziser has a video tutorial on it here...

http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2010/06/technique-tuesday-lightroom-jailbreak.html

And can and has led to unretrieveable catalog corruption and the consequences of that happening.

 

[Weebles]

True and hence unsupported. However, I haven't had it happen...yet.

As always: backup...backup...backup. This is why LR prompts for a catalog backup.

ps: The LR catalog can be corrupted for a number of reasons, unsupported network use among them, but the advantages of having it on a LAN are worth it imo.