Catalog Question

My collection of photos is growing and I would like to put some of the pictures that I don't use all the time onto a portable hard drive for storage. Is there any way to do this, or would I have to put those in a seperate catalog? I would not have the portable hard drive plugged in all the time. Thank you for your help! I have the latest version of Lightroom 3

No reason to put those photos into a separate catalog. Just move the folders you want onto the portable drive from within LR. This will keep the connection between your catalog and the actual image location. Just make sure the portable drive gets the same drive letter assigned every time you plug it in (assuming you're on Windows). If you don't know how to assure that, come back here and ask.
You don't need to have the portable drive plugged in all the time. If it's offline, LR will show the folders missing, but you can still browse through the previews and see/work on metadata. You won't be able to do develop work, print or export images if the drive is not online.
If you don't see the drive you want to move your photos to in the folder panel, create an empty top-level folder on it using Windows Explorer and then add this folder to LR using the little "+" right next to the word "Folders" and choosing "Add Folder ...". After that, you can drag/drop existing folders in the folder panel into this folder.
Beat

Similar Messages

Moving images/catalogue from daughter to main catalog - Question and help requested on flow

All,
I have been using LR since 1.0 and now on 2.5 on a PC (Vista & Windows 7)
My picture management work-flow
I pull-in photos onto laptop which has a small catalog of 2009 images and usually only 6000 in (Nefs D300/D70) (Daughter catalog)
On laptop I keyword etc and prepare photos.
Once my hard drive (250GB) gets about 2/3 full I move 10-20 folders (I store images by shooting date) to a "master" hard drive (1TB) using the freeware "Syncback".
I back up catalog at this point.
Also moving the images to the 1TB means those photos are now going into my Main catalog, and I export the catalog of images that I transfered above and import that intot he main catalog that sort of works
Now question(s) come(s)
I lose in the 2009 catalog the link to the images once they have been moved by sync back to the 1TB driveand have to manually reconnect within lightroom.
I am sure there is a better way yo do this, is there and can anyone help me -
Can I drag and drop in the library mode in the "folder LH view" the images from the local (c) drive to the 1TB drive. I haven't tried this (I'm a coward)
If I eschew the use of Sync back and then export the catalog and images from the Daughter catalog, how can I make sure when I import them into the Main catalog that the images are stored on the 1TB drive correctly (Images/yyyy-mm-dd)?
Is this handled through the image import dialog when moving the exported catalog into the Main one ?
I hope this is understandable, as I say I have been a little timid with these steps
Many many thanks in advance for help and pointers
Simon Leppard

When you import a catalog, the Import Dialog will come up. Click copy to new location and Import. Lightroom will import using the existing folder structure as is.

Moving Images and Catalog Questions...

Since I first started using Lighroom, I have kept all images in one catalog on my laptop hard drive. It was time to change that and move all images to my NAS, further backing up a copy of all to another external drive, and keeping some copies of images on my laptop for when I am undocked and want to show my best work.
Seemed the only way to do this was to use two catalogs, so I created a new one for the images on the NAS.
After checking that all was good and making a backup of the Laptop catalog, I copied the master folder of all images and sidecars to the NAS. I then opened the new catalog which was empty and imported all from the new location.
So, now I have two catalogs and both backed up as catalogs and complete image sets so I am good no matter what. Let's call them Laptop and Network. I have not yet deleted anything on the Laptop.
Network found not only all images, but somehow 21 more than on the Laptop. Cannot figure out how the number of images could be different, but they are. Not really a problem, but a curiousity, no?
All edits are there. Images look identical to Laptop. Keywords, image titles, folders - all perfect.
But here are my questions:
I lost my edit histories. By this I mean if I compare an edited RAW image on Laptop. I can see the original image before I started to edit. This is sometimes very helpful. On the Network catalog, it shows the current image and does not have the original preview. The laptop catalog shows the original and current state.
And I lost my collections. Not the end of the world, but would be so nice to not have to rebuild these.
So, is there any way to get these two back? Let's assume, for a moment, that both catalogs are identical (even though there is that 21 image difference). Can I do something with the catalogs or the Previews folder that would bring back the collections and original pre-edit images?
I thought it worth checking before I start to delete images through Lightroom on the Laptop Catalog and continue to edit on the Network catalog. Anything? Export as catalog and replace the .lrcat and rename it? Copy over the root-pixels.db? Any trick?
And last, if anyone is reading, a feature request:
Would be nice to have a preference to select the number of backups to keep. For example, if I could set it to ten, I would never have to worry at all abotu backing up after each session and going to delete old backups no longer needed.
Thanks for any advice. Posted this on several boards hoping someone might reply before I start to edit again later today. Apologize if you see this in multiple places.
~Bob

You are actually exactly right.
I spent the morning deleting all I had done on the NAS drive and exporting as a catalog with negatives to the NAS. It now has everything I wanted there including the history and collections.
Took a while to get there, but works just fine now and I have two catalogs - one portable and one server based with the .ircat on the laptop for both. Not the most intuitive, but done.
Thanks.
~Bob

PSE 7 catalog questions

I made an abortive attempt to upgrade from PSE 4 to PSE 7 in May. When I had difficulty converting my PSE 4 catalog and did not have time to deal with it, I de-installed PSE 7 and reverted to using PSE 4. Now, I am trying to update again and have 3 questions about the catalog.
1. When I did the catalog conversion in May, many of my tags and tag categories were missing or rearranged. Is there something I need to do in converting my PSE 4 catalog to 7 to prevent this from happening?
2. Now that I have re-installed 7, the old catalog I converted in May is still there. I need to delete this PSE 7 catalog in its entirety and reconvert my current PSE 4 catalog. When I try that, I get an error message that says "My Catalog already exists - use another catalog name". How do I get rid of the version 7 catalog from May?
3. PSE 4 gave me the choice of showing my photos in either date sequence or in file name sequence within each folder. Does PSE 7 have the same ability to display in file name sequence? If so, I can't find it.
I've got Barbara Brundage's book on the way and it may answer some of my simple questions but, in the meantime, if anyone can help with these I'd appreciate it.

1. When I did the catalog conversion in May, many of my tags and tag categories were missing or rearranged. Is there something I need to do in converting my PSE 4 catalog to 7 to prevent this from happening?
The conversion process is pretty buggy. Make sure you do File > Catalog > Recover in PSE 4 before attempting conversion. If that doesn't work, see steps 2 and 4 of this FAQ:
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshopelements-6-7-faq.htm#_Problems_converting_cat alogs
2. Now that I have re-installed 7, the old catalog I converted in May is still there. I need to delete this PSE 7 catalog in its entirety and reconvert my current PSE 4 catalog. When I try that, I get an error message that says "My Catalog already exists - use another catalog name". How do I get rid of the version 7 catalog from May?
You can delete the old catalog by doing File > Catalog, selecting My Catalog, and clicking Remove.
3. PSE 4 gave me the choice of showing my photos in either date sequence or in file name sequence within each folder. Does PSE 7 have the same ability to display in file name sequence? If so, I can't find it.
Display > Folder Location

Lightroom Catalog Questions:

Hey guys, a few quick LR questions...
1. Can a Lightroom catalog see folder structure? (If for example, I asked it to reference files already on my hard drive, could I see the folder structure that existed, and navigate to it from within the program?)
2. Would those files remain accessible via Finder?
3. If I ADDED a photo to the folder via the finder, could I update the catalog so Lightroom knew it was there?
4. If I Moved/Deleted a photo from a folder, could I make Lightroom update the catalog with the new info?
5. If I added an extra FOLDER, could I make Lightroom see it? Would I need to add it via Lightroom, or the Finder?
Thanks!

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes, you have to add it in your operating system first, and then add it to LR
Having said all that, I point out that Lightroom is NOT a file browser. It only knows about photos (and the folders that contain them) that have been imported into LR, and so you have to alert Lightroom properly of any changes that are made outside of Lightroom.

Moving and splitting photos - catalog questions

Until recently, all my photos were On one disc with one Lightroom catalog. Now there are too many photos for a single disc, so I split them into two discs and created a new catalog to deal with the two different locations. Of course, I immediately lost all of my light room edits. I have plenty of backups, so nothing was truly lost now the question:
How do I keep one Lightroom catalog while splitting the photos into two drives, AND keep all my edits, virtual copies, etc?
Right now, the restored catalog contains all the edits, but half the photos aren't where the catalog expects them to be. What is the easiest and safest way to do this?
Running Lightroom CC, windows 7/64, all software up-to-date.
Thanks,
EdB

A single Lightroom catalog can support photos stored on multiple disks, even offline photos. If you want to move photos from one disk to another you can do the moves within Lightroom. If you choose to do the move in the OS then you can relink the photos. In short, it can all be done with a single catalog.
See this:Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

OSB Catalog Sizing & Other Catalog Questions

I'm new to OSB, so was trying to find any sizing information on how much disk capacity I need to consider for the OSB catalog on my Admin/Media server.
Obviously typical metrics like:
■ The number of files being backed up
■ The frequency and the retention period of the backups
has a direct influence on the size and growth of the catalog, but are there any formulas which can be used to estimate required capacity, based on these (or other) metrics?
Does the catalog ever get compressed (or even deduplicated) on disk during it's lifetime?
Also, are catalog backups written to tape in the same way that normal OSB backups are? And what happens if the size of the catalog exceeds a single piece of media?

Thanks Rich,
so for the largest client you talk about, once its backup has completed and the catalog is being updated, it now needs 24 GB of space for OSB to update the host's own catalog file?
Of the 5TB of data, do you have an idea roughly how many files that might include?
Going back to my original sizing question, if I look at Veritas NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide, for example, there are two methods described there that assist in sizing the amound of space needed for the NetBackup catalog (pages 28 - 31). Both methods use as their basis a 3180 bytes catalog size for each file retained. Do you know of a similar figure?
To your point about hosting the catalog on fast disks, are there any recommendations as to particular IO characteristics for them? For example, would hosting the catalog on an NFS share be a good idea (if it was provided on a 10 GbE connection, for example)? Or would internal disks or even LUNs from FC-SAN attached arrays be better?

Application Catalog - questions

Hello guys.
I have a few questions about application catalog. It's new for me!
1 - I have 1 cas and 2 primary sites (Domain01 PSite and Domain2 Psite)... I need that all users can see applications in App catalog. I need install site system roles in CAS or all Primaries???
2 - I need create an application and deploy as AVAILABLE? I can create a PACKAGE rather than Applicattion and deploy to all users?
3 - Anyone have a step-by-step of how to deploy app to application catalog?
Thaaaaankss!!
Atenciosamente Julio Araujo

Hi,
1, Primaries, or separate site servers
2, Yes, no problem with a package.
3,
http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2012/03/31/introducing-the-application-catalog-and-software-center-in-system-center-2012-configuration-manager.aspx
Regards,
Jörgen
-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter
@ccmexec

New User To Lightroom 3 - File / Catalog Questions?

My first time out I did an " Import Photos " and all looks good, but I have some questions about where the image files are located?
First my setup .....
"C" drive contains all applications and operating system
"G" drive contains iPhoto libraries and this is where I copy all files before doing anything with the.
"G" is an external drive and allows me to easily move work between two different computers.
I do "Import Photos" and pointed it toward the folder on the " G " drive labeled " Timonium Bike Show "
All images were imported into LR3, but where are the physical files kept?
I'm going to guess they remain on the "G" drive and LR3 only creates a " catalog " referring to them. Is that correct? If so, than I guess I should leave that folder on "G" drive alone and work its contents from within LR3.
I plan to do most of the work in LR3, occasionally as needed going to an external editor.
Catalog Names ...... Can I rename a catalog once it has been created, or only name it before it is created in the creation dialog box?
Prior to LR3 I was using Apple's iPhoto for organization, and Adobe PSE 9 for editing.
Thanks foir any and all help.

Catalog Names ...... Can I rename a catalog once it has been created, or only name it before it is created in the creation dialog box?
You can rename the catalog, but why bother? It doesn't matter what you call it.
By the way, for beginners, the advice is to use only a single catalog for all of your photos. The only time you would need multiple catalogs (and thus specific catalog names) is if you had photos that absolutely needed to be separated, such as personal and work.

Catalog questions before I make this move

For reasons that'd take quite a bit more time to explain than I (or I suspect anyone else) has, I'm getting rid of my iMac and moving to a Win7 Ultimate (64bit) i7 machine.
I am going to attempt, if possible, to move my LR2 catalog and files over to LR3 across platforms. I'm not sure exactly how to go about this, or if anyone even thinks it has a sliver of a chance of actually working. Here is the way things are laid out on the iMac:
LR2 catalog: /Users/Anthony/Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat
Actual location of RAW photos: /Volumes/photodump/photos/originals/[year]/[location]/[style]/[yyyymmdd]/
I've got the raw photos moved from the external on which they used to live, to a partition on the hdd in my i7 machine. They're at E:\photos\originals\[year]\[location]\[style]\[yyyymmdd] now.
Is there any way I can install LR3 on this i7 machine and import my iMac's catalog to keep the changes I've applied to the several thousand images in that catalog? Right now, my plan is to export the full-res JPEGs I need for a shoot I need to deliver to a client and finish processing on the new machine - but I'd like to know if there is any way at all to salvage my changes. I'm not in a giant rush to rid myself of the iMac, so even if it's something that requires several hours, I'm willing to do it.
Thanks!

Your licence allows you to install LR3 on two computers at a time, and you're not limited by brand.
Just copy your Lightroom catalogue (an lrcat file) and its previews file (lrdata extension) over to the other computer, and copy the images folder too (keeping the same folder structure).
Now over on the Windows computer, double click the lrcat file and you'll see the folders show question marks. Click these, and choose to update the folder location to where they are on that computer.
Once that's safely done, you've verified everything's OK and you've got backups, you can inflict whatever physical damage you wish on your iMac.
John

CCM 2.0 edit catalog question

Hello group,
We have several catalogs in SRM but now want to start using CCM and a master catalog. I've configured everything with the configuration fact book CCM 2.0. And can start editing the master catalog. But now I'm lost. I would like to have just one item in the catalog. Have read that you should upload schema's, but I don't know how to make csv's for that. I've made a schema and a catagory, and can assign new made fields to them, but I don't want to make a mapping from nothing. Now I also cannot get rid of the schema and try something else.
Does anyone have a helpfull link or can anyone tell me what to do?

Hi
<u>Please refer to the following links.</u>
<b>CCM automatic upload of CSV files
Re: Uploading in CCM
Re: CCM 2.0 Sample file CSV
Re: How to change an existing line item in CCM catalog using CSV file?
Re: Date Problem in CSV 2.0 Format in CCM
Re: How to change an existing line item in CCM catalog using CSV file?</b>
Regards
- Atul

Lightroom 3 catalog question (newbie)

I have been using bridge but recently installed lightroom 3. I wish to make one overall catalog containing all the images in my Images folder,a large C drive folder with numerous sub-folders. I restarted LR with alt key down (PC) and specified this folder. Now LR appears to be importing the same images repeatedly. Is this normal?

No, it is not normal.
I cannot figure out how you may have achieved the effect.
But in order to savely arrive at your objective stated in your opening post, I would suggest you start all over again, like this:
Just open Lightroom normally, then go to menu File-New catalog, specify your own meaningful name (e.g. "birdgeek LR master catalog") and point to where you want the new catalog to be saved. LR will relaunch with this new catalog.
Then you can specify basic catalog settings in the menu Edit-Catalog settings.
Then you import all your images ("Add") by pointing to the root folder where all your pictures to include are stored. On a PC this might be C:\Users\[your windows user name]\Pictures.
Then leave LR alone for quite a while, depending on the number of files.
LR will leave your images where they are, but create the thumbnails inside its database and render the previews.

Catalog backup (only catalog) question

I have been using PSE 9 on Win7 64-bit for more than a year, but just recently I have started using Organizer. Actually, I haven't started using it, but I have been experimenting with it using a test catalog that only has about 25 photos in it. Before I start really using Organizer for all my photos and spend lots of time adding keywords and assigning star ratings to my photos going back years I want to make sure that I will be able to keep all of this work in the future when I change computers or buy a newer version of PSE/Organizer.
Organizer has a catalog backup/restore function, but it also backs up all the photos, not just the catalog so I won't use it. I currently have about 500gb of photos (raw from various cameras, jpegs from various cameras, and film scans). I have 3 complete copies of the photos on 3 1tb external hard disks. Of course, when I back up the catalog I do not want to also back up all my photos since I carefully back those up already and have 3 copies so I want to only backup the catalog. The Organizer catalog is stored here:
All Users: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\Catalog Name
Current User: C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Elements Organizer\Catalogs\Catalog Name
If I back up the Organizer catalog (the above folder) myself (without using the Organizer backup function) is that all that needs to be done? For example, I have my photos on an external hard disk and those photos have been imported into Organizer, I add keywords/star ratings, and then I copy the Organizer catalog to a folder on the external hard disk to back it up. I then replace my computer with a new one. I install PSE 9/Organizer on the new computer. I connect the external hard disk and copy the catalog from there to the proper folder on my new conputer. When I start Organizer on the new computer will it use the catalog and everything will be as it was on the old computer? I just want to make sure that copying that catalog is all that is required (along with having the photos in the same place on the same external hard disk -- same drive letter as when photos were imported).
By the way, if I had an extra computer I would try this myself, but I only have the one I am using right now. I hope someone knows the answer. Thanks!

Yes that should work provided you get the files all back in the same structure. People trying that method have had problems with differing file structures e.g. moving from XP (Documents & Settings/My Picture/Folder) compared with Windows 7 (User/Pictures/Folder) but if you are always using an external hard drive, you simply have to make sure the port on the new computer uses the exact same file path.
If you right click on any thumbnail in organizer and choose show properties you can see the file path for each individual file.
It could be something like F:\Vacation Photos\IMG_1234.jpg
So you need to maintain consistency and always keep the external hard drive connected to the same port that corresponds with the drive letter F. Never swap the USB or connector around.
The file you need to back up is catalog.pse9db
If you buy a new version of PSE at the same time as a new computer you would need to install PSE9 first, then install the new version and upgrade the catalog.
P.S. if you are gradually building your organizer catalog it will help in the future if you embed metadata as you go along. I suggest when you import a batch of photos that you tag them and create your albums etc. Then press Ctrl+A to select all and on the top menu click File à Write Keyword & Photo information to files. If for any reason your backup fails you can still import again with all your tags etc intact. it’s a good housekeeping habit to get into.

BE 9.1 for Netware catalog question

Hi all,
Anyone know of a way to view/print catalogs outside of BE? What I'm after is creating a file with the entire directory structure from a catalog. There is the catdump utility, but it looks like it is for the Windows version only. Or can I run that against a BE for Netware catalog?
Thank you
Len Bonk
Network Analyst
Community Unit School District 200

Originally Posted by lbonk
Hi all,
Anyone know of a way to view/print catalogs outside of BE? What I'm after is creating a file with the entire directory structure from a catalog. There is the catdump utility, but it looks like it is for the Windows version only. Or can I run that against a BE for Netware catalog?
Thank you
Len Bonk
Network Analyst
Community Unit School District 200
OK, found in the documentation that catdump can read any versionk's catalogs. I just have to find an eval copy of BE for NT 8.5 or 8.6.

Lightroom catalog question

hi,
i need advice on the issue i encountered with importing a catalog into LR 2.5 and LR 2.6.
i recently deleted a catalog file from a laptop hard drive. i used laptop on my recent trip and upon return transferred all the photos to my desktop machine where i run LR2.6. i forgot to transfer catalog file from the laptop. later i cleaned up laptop hard drive. when i realised what happened (about 3 months of hard labor of processing pictures) i used a recovery software (iCare Data Recovery) to recover deleted catalog.
catalog file was found and supposedly recovered to hard drive.
however, when i try to open this catalog (file-->open catalog) i get an error message "The Lightroom catalog "catalog name" is corrupt and cannot be used or backed up until it is repaired".
i am given an option to Repair Catalog and upon selecting this option an error message comes up "The Lightroom catalog "catalog name" is corrupt and cannot be repaired at this time".
any thoughts on this issue?
thank you

nop, did not work.
i guess there is one positive consolation out of this disaster - i get to relive the wonderful holiday experience once again, although only in pictures
thank you Victoria

Catalog Question

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