How to move photos edited in Lightroom 2 from external hard drive to Lightroom 5 without losing changes/metadata made in Lightroom 2?

I had images processed in Lightroom 2 on an old PC that crashed, but were backed to external hard drive. I now have a Macbook Pro with Lightroom 5. When I import the photos from the hard drive the editing/metadata I added in Lightroom 2 are not there. Is there a way to bring the photos in with the changes made in Lightroom 2 or do I have re-edit the photos? The odd thing is when I go into the folders on the Lacie back-up and open a photo (that I know I edited) into Photoshop CS5 there are no changes.

Yes, that is a backup of your LR2 catalog file. You need to find the most recent one available (obviously, that backup was made on 2013-04-09), and then copy it to a hard drive on your computer (internal or external) but not a network drive, and then open it in Lightroom 5. You should see that all of your photos have a place in the grid, but won't have a thumbnail and there may be a question mark icon on each folder.
To fix the question mark on each folder, please read: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders and then the thumbnails will appear as well

Similar Messages

How to move an uncompleted iMovie project from one hard drive to another?

I want to move an uncompleted iMovie project form one hard drive to another. What do I move to make sure that all of parts of the project: movies, photos, sound, are moved?
Thanks, Bruce

Hi,
You can deploy the ADF Project as an ADF Library Jar file and reuse the taskflow from that jar file in another BPM Application.

How to move media and librar[ies] to external hard drive, when 'Keep organized' de-selcted

Newbie to mac, sorry for being so dense. I am nervous about my understanding of iTunes and from the many posts I’ve read realize how easily I could screw this up. Can someone point me to step by step directions for moving the actual media ‘files’, ie the mp3s, as well as the necessary library files, to an external drive, when ‘keep media organized’ and ‘copy files to media folder’ are NOT SELECTED?
I am running OS X 10.6.8 and iTunes 10 [and prefer a solution which does not require updating software …so far that never goes well for me. (:
For myriad reasons, I prefer to maintain my own customized folder and file structure for my mp3s; and have therefore de-selected
1] Keep iTUnes Media folder organized and 2] Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.
All the directions in the various posts seem to require selecting these options. Is this critical for success?
From the many posts I have read, it seems there’s more to it than just drag and drop, that I need to ensure that iTunes is ‘pointed’ to somewhere? Not the mp3s themselves, but to a ‘library” [is that yet another copy of the mp3s? somewhere on my hard drive?].
Additionally, over the years I have moved about 45GB of mp3s to ‘storage’ external hard drives to create more space on my laptop. Not ideal interim solution. I am again low on space and have decided to buy new external drive for holding all of my mp3s, ie the 45 GB in ‘storage’ and the remaining 75 GB from my laptop. Ideally, I would like to also keep all my artwork, playlists and ratings and the like [which I guess are in the ‘libraries’???]
Am I correct, that I will need to also move to the new external hard drive that folder which holds the .itl and .xml files and which is named ‘iTunes’??? and then there is another step to link the ‘media’ to the ‘library’ to ‘itunes’????
Again, any clarification is greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.

Unfortunately you have the worst possible situation for doing this. If you let iTunes organize files you could simply let iTunes relocate them by consolidating in advanced preferences and it would all be done with a few minutes effort on your part with nothing getting lost. Organizing your own media means when you move things to a different drive iTunes will lose track of many if not all the links.
First, try simply dragging the whole iTunes folder to the external drive and start iTunes with the option/alt key held down. Guide it to the iTunes Library.itl file on the external drive. If you are lucky it will move as a package. If you are not, the link locations will all be bad because it will still be looking for the files on the internal drive. It may look like it is working but get info on a file or two and see if it is still referencing the file on the internal drive or if it is really using the external drive.
When you move the files from the third drive to the new external I can almost guarantee you every single link will break. Again because you do not let iTunes organize media you can't use iTunes' own repair link feature. One solution will be to take the old .xml file and open it in a text editor. Do a global replace of the old drive path with the path to the location of the files on the new drive. Now if all your old links broke for the main library you will have to do this for both the main library on the new drive as well as the relocated files from the main drive. Now this is really starting to get messy and I am going to fade at any minute now because it is getting late. If you needed to do this for all files go ahead and create a new library using the option key method mentioned earlier, then import the .xml into the new library. If you only need to edit the third drive files then remove any references to the old main library files in this edited .xml and import just the edited third drive file references. See? Isn't that all nice and clear? Oh, realize that the .xml does not contain 100% of the information in the .itl (you cannot edit the .itl). You will lose ratings, play count, date added. Ratings and play count can be saved using other tricks which would take about as much typing as I have done already so I won't go there unless they are absolutely critical to you.

HOW TO MOVE YOUR ITUNES LIBRARY TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

Read these directions before actually doing anything, just so you can do this right. I've messed things up before, it can get ugly...
That being said, here's what you've gotta do if you're running on a Mac:
Have all your music on the external hard drive. It should be organized in folders the way iTunes set it up
The folders should be organized something like this:iTunes Media (Top folder, everything is inside of this folder)
Audiobooks
Automatically Add To iTunes
Books
Downloads
iPod Games
iTunes U
Mobile Applications
Music
Podcasts
Ringtones
TV Shows
Voice Memos
Those folders are what I have in my 'iTunes Media' folder on my external hard drive. You don't necessarily need to have all of these folders. (I happen to just have a lot of things in my iTunes.)
Finding your iTunes Library Files
The way iTunes works is there are two parts to make what you see in iTunes work right. There's your media (songs, video, iPod games and Apps, etc) and there are your library files. They tell iTunes what your playlists are, where your 'iTunes Media' folder is located, and a lot of other important things. Here is how to find the iTunes Library files (there will probably be more than one!)
Look in (yourusername)/Music/iTunes
There will be a few things in here:
Album Artwork (It's a folder)
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
Itunes Library.itl
iTunes Media (a folder)
iTunes Music Library Backup.xml (this file might or might not be here. If there is no file with this name, it's okay.)
iTunes Music Library.xml
Some "temp" files (maybe, maybe not -- they are not important for this)
Anything in the list that is BOLDED needs to be placed in (yourusername)/Music/iTunesIf you copied these files to your external hard drive, you will need to copy them back onto your internal hard drive. These library files do not need to be in the same place as your iTunes Media folder.
Telling iTunes Where Your Music Is
Now that your iTunes Media folder is on your external drive, and your Library Files are in place in "(yourusername)/Music/iTunes", we need to open iTunes.
On the top bar of the screen, go to iTunes>Preferences.
In preferences, go to the farthest right tab, titled "Advanced" with a picture of a gear.
The top section says "iTunes Media Folder location" and underneath that you see a filepath ending in the 'iTunes Media" folder.
This path is probably wrong, not leading you through the external hard drive.
If it is incorrect:
Click "change" on the right and then locate the folder in the prompt that shows up. Once the "iTunes Media" folder on your external hard drive is highlighted blue, click "Open" in the bottom right corner of the window.
Give iTunes a moment or two (depending on the size of your library) to re-locate all of your songs. Voila!
If it is correct:Do nothing!
While you're in the advanced section, let's check to make sure you have a few important 'housekeeping' things checked off:
"Keep iTunes Media folder organized" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
"Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
At this point, iTunes should be all ready to go. Before I get into any troubleshooting, note a few things:
If you ever unplug/disconnect the external hard drive from the computer, you must first make sure that iTunes is NOT running.
Also, if the hard drive is unplugged and you open up iTunes, all of your songs will have little symbols next to them. Until you plug/reconnect the hard drive, the songs will stay like this and will be missing.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Not having permission to access the external hard drive:
In Finder (or on your desktop), right-click the external hard drive (if you don't have right-click, control-click will also work).
Click on "Get Info"
A thin, tall window will appear on the screen.
Part One:In the "General" section, make sure that "Locked" is unchecked. If it IS checked, uncheck it.
Part Two:
We are now focusing on the very bottom of the window, where it says "Sharing & Permissions"/
In the bottom right corner of the window there is a small padlock icon. Click it. When asked for an administrator password, type it in, and click "Ok".
You will now notice that the bottom section of the 'get info' window is not greyed out anymore. Make sure your user name (it says in parentheses "(Me)" so there is no going wrong here) has "Read & Write" privileges.If not, click on whichever privilege you currently have, and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on "Read & Write".
If you have any other issues, I will add them to the troubleshooting list to help you out. Hope this was helpful!

My iTunes library is set up the way I said in the top post and works totally fine.
Yes, and that is the default structure to which I was referring. iTunes will organize it that way automatically unless people do start changing settings (in which case they should know what they are doing and how iTunes works with library files and media structure.)
Both ways work, the advantages of mine would be that should iTunes try looking fo a library, it will always be in the default location.
It makes people think they have to change media location in preferences. They do not unless they want to relocate media only and leave other things on their internal drive (in which case there is no point in copying library files to the external, and you certainly wouldn't want to then delete them from your internal).
Downside is that then should someone move their iTunes library to anther computer they need to remember to get those library files on the external hard drive.
Just copy the whole iTunes folder and it will get the library files to the other drive in one step, along with all the other files.
Your post has good stuff but it makes a move appear intimidating and look like people have to do a lot of organizing to move the collection. It also throws in extra steps (namely altering preference settings) that could cause confusion or even make a mess of things. If people leave iTunes to default preference settings (which most people do) the move summarizes into a short line: Copy a folder and hold an extra button the next time you start iTunes.
Note that the instructions in the link I provided earlier do also include many steps, but those are to ensure that everybody does have it all organized correctly before simply copying the iTunes folder. In the end it is just a simple action.

How to move huge HD video files between external hard drives and defrag ext drive?

I have huge high definition video files on a 2TB external hard drive (and its clone). The external hard drive is maxed out. I would like to move many of the video files to a new 3TB external hard drive (G-drive, and a clone) and leave a sub-group of video files (1+ TB) on the original external hard drive (and its clone).
I am copying files from original external drive ("ext drive A") to new external drive ("ext drive B") via Carbon Copy Cloner (selecting iMovie event by event that I want to transfer). Just a note: I do not know how to partition or make bootable drives, I see suggestions with these steps in them.
My questions:
1.) I assume this transfer of files will create extreme fragmentation on drive A. Should I reformat/re-initialize ext drive A after moving the files I want? If so, how best to do this? Do I use "Erase" within Disk Utilities? Do I need to do anything else before transfering files back onto ext drive A from its clone?
2.) Do I also need to defrag if I reformat ext drive A? Do I defrag instead of or in addition to reformating? If so, how to do this? I've read on these forums so many warnings and heard too many stories of this going awry. Which 3rd party software to use?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions, tips, advice. This whole process makes me SO nervous.

Here is a very good writeup on de-fragging in the OS environment that I borrowed
From Klaus1:
Defragmentation in OS X:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1375 which states:
You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X. Here's why:
Hard disk capacity is generally much greater now than a few years ago. With more free space available, the file system doesn't need to fill up every "nook and cranny." Mac OS Extended formatting (HFS Plus) avoids reusing space from deleted files as much as possible, to avoid prematurely filling small areas of recently-freed space.
Mac OS X 10.2 and later includes delayed allocation for Mac OS X Extended-formatted volumes. This allows a number of small allocations to be combined into a single large allocation in one area of the disk.
Fragmentation was often caused by continually appending data to existing files, especially with resource forks. With faster hard drives and better caching, as well as the new application packaging format, many applications simply rewrite the entire file each time. Mac OS X 10.3 onwards can also automatically defragment such slow-growing files. This process is sometimes known as "Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering."
Aggressive read-ahead and write-behind caching means that minor fragmentation has less effect on perceived system performance.
Whilst 'defragging' OS X is rarely necessary, Rod Hagen has produced this excellent analysis of the situation which is worth reading:
Most users, as long as they leave plenty of free space available , and don't work regularly in situations where very large files are written and rewritten, are unlikely to notice the effects of fragmentation on either their files or on the drives free space much.
As the drive fills the situations becomes progressively more significant, however.
Some people will tell you that "OSX defrags your files anyway". This is only partly true. It defrags files that are less than 20 MB in size. It doesn't defrag larger files and it doesn't defrag the free space on the drive. In fact the method it uses to defrag the smaller files actually increases the extent of free space fragmentation. Eventually, in fact, once the largest free space fragments are down to less than 20 MB (not uncommon on a drive that has , say only 10% free space left) it begins to give up trying to defrag altogether. Despite this, the system copes very well without defragging as long as you have plenty of room.
Again, this doesn't matter much when the drive is half empty or better, but it does when it gets fullish, and it does especially when it gets fullish if you are regularly dealing with large files , like video or serious audio stuff.
If you look through this discussion board you will see quite a few complaints from people who find that their drive gets "slow". Often you will see that say that "still have 10 or 20 gigs free" or the like. On modern large drives by this stage they are usually in fact down to the point where the internal defragmentation routines can no longer operate , where their drives are working like navvies to keep up with finding space for any larger files, together with room for "scratch files", virtual memory, directories etc etc etc. Such users are operating in a zone where they put a lot more stress on their drives as a result, often start complaining of increased "heat", etc etc. Most obviously, though, the computer slows down to a speed not much better than that of molasses. Eventually the directories and other related files may collapse altogether and they find themselves with a next to unrecoverable disk problems.
By this time, of course, defragging itself has already become just about impossible. The amount of work required to shift the data into contiguous blocks is immense, puts additional stress on the drive, takes forever, etc etc. The extent of fragmentation of free space at this stage can be simply staggering, and any large files you subsequently write are likely to be divided into many , many tens of thousands of fragments scattered across the drive. Not only this, but things like the "extents files", which record where all the bits are located, will begin to grow astronomically as a result, putting even more pressure on your already stressed drive, and increasing the risk of major failures.
Ultimately this adds up to a situation where you can identify maybe three "phases" of mac life when it comes to the need for defragmentation.
In the "first phase" (with your drive less than half full), it doesn't matter much at all - probably not enough to even make it worth doing.
In the "second phase" (between , say 50% free space and 20% free space remaining) it becomes progressively more useful, but , depending on the use you put your computer to you won't see much difference at the higher levels of free space unless you are serious video buff who needs to keep their drives operating as efficiently and fast as possible - chances are they will be using fast external drives over FW800 or eSata to compliment their internal HD anyway.
At the lower end though (when boot drives get down around the 20% mark on , say, a 250 or 500 Gig drive) I certainly begin to see an impact on performance and stability when working with large image files, mapping software, and the like, especially those which rely on the use of their own "scratch" files, and especially in situations where I am using multiple applications simultaneously, if I haven't defragmented the drive for a while. For me, defragmenting (I use iDefrag too - it is the only third party app I trust for this after seeing people with problems using TechToolPro and Drive Genius for such things) gives a substantial performance boost in this sort of situation and improves operational stability. I usually try to get in first these days and defrag more regularly (about once a month) when the drive is down to 30% free space or lower.
Between 20% and 10% free space is a bit of a "doubtful region". Most people will still be able to defrag successfully in this sort of area, though the time taken and the risks associated increase as the free space declines. My own advice to people in this sort of area is that they start choosing their new , bigger HD, because they obviously are going to need one very soon, and try to "clear the decks" so that they maintain that 20% free buffer until they do. Defragging regularly (perhaps even once a fortnight) will actually benefit them substantially during this "phase", but maybe doing so will lull them into a false sense of security and keep them from seriously recognising that they need to be moving to a bigger HD!
Once they are down to that last ten per cent of free space, though, they are treading on glass. Free space fragmentation at least will already be a serious issue on their computers but if they try to defrag with a utility without first making substantially more space available then they may find it runs into problems or is so slow that they give up half way through and do the damage themselves, especially if they are using one of the less "forgiving" utilities!
In this case I think the best way to proceed is to clone the internal drive to a larger external with SuperDuper, replace the internal drive with a larger one and then clone back to it. No-one down to the last ten percent of their drive really has enough room to move. Defragging it will certainly speed it up, and may even save them from major problems briefly, but we all know that before too long they are going to be in the same situation again. Better to deal with the matter properly and replace the drive with something more akin to their real needs once this point is reached. Heck, big HDs are as cheap as chips these days! It is mad to struggle on with sluggish performance, instability, and the possible risk of losing the lot, in such a situation.

MOV. files will not import from external hard drive to iMac.

Do I have to convert MOV files somehow to be able to import them into an iMac from an external hard drive?
The files were moved from MacBookPro to hard drive. They play fine on external hard drive but won't import into iMac which says file format not recognised.

The file plays on my desktop and from the external hard drive, but I converted one file to an MP4 which then imported to iPhoto. Any recommendations on how to convert to MP4 files in bulk?

Editing Old Project from External Hard Drive

Last year my G5 developed an incurable Kernel error issue. I decided to buy a new iMac and have been very pleased. I backed up my system to an external hard drive and now I would like to access an old project from the external drive.
I selected the external drive and went to the last date of my backup. However, this is where I have no idea how to complete this task. Can I simply open FCE and import the project from the drive? Will all of the media transfer over?
Would really like to know the ins and outs before I begin and paint myself into a corner. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Tom:
Not sure what you mean by "restore". I am assuming I will need to do the following:
1. Open FCE
2. Import the old project from my external drive
3. This is where I get lost. Can you please fill in the blanks from her for me. I cannot seem to find the instructions to do this anywhere.
Thanks!

How to send files back to TC from external hard drive quickly?

Hi,
I have just archived 500gb of my TC to external hard drive which was directly connected to TC. I have replaced failing hard drive in TC on 2GB (£50) and reformated gain. Now is ready to be used. Then I wanted to put archive files back onto TC from that external hard drive which is directly connected to TC. The problem is that when I was archiving it files where send directly from TC to external hard drive and it took approximately 5 hours to do it. Now to reverse all that taking about 5 days because for some stupid reason hard drive is sending all that files through my desktop and back to TC again.
Is there any faster way to do it?

A: you DONT modify your TM backup, youd just add files into the same HD, however thats no good because........
Youre trying to create a nasty choke point for data failure by putting time machine AND your files on ONE DRIVE,
very bad idea, hard drives are cheap as dirt, buy another, 2 MINIMUM external redundant backups of your vital data, period.
also, cloud isnt a place for data archives, and not safe, not secure.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

How to move photos from one hard drive to another without losing data?

I have lightroom latest version. I have an in-computer hard drive full of photos. It is clogging the machine and I am running out of storage space. To make room, I would like to transfer most photos to an outboard portable hard drive. How do I do that without losing all the hard earned flags, stars, tweaks, and other data currently stored regarding those moved photos and confirm I can still locate them again when using Lightroom (which will remain on the main hard drve)?

This describes the procedure: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

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So I have only a quarter or so of my songs in my iTunes library, but I have a large enough iPod where all of my songs can easily fit on it. I want to upload new songs and albums to my iPod, but without deleting all the thousands of songs that are on it, but not on my iTunes library, if that makes sense at all.
Is there any possible way to do this? I was fiddling around with my smaller iPod to see if I dragged the folder onto the iPod whether that would work, but so far as I could tell it didn't.
Anyone have any suggestions? or Help? Or at least a definite answer that it just can't be done?

You can't add playable songs to an iPod except through iTunes. Dragging songs from Finder to the iPod simply adds the audio files as it would to an ordinary flash drive, it'll store them but not play them.

How can I move my project from external hard drive to my macbook pro?

How can I move my project from external hard drive to my macbook pro? every time I try to do some editing, the sequence is very slow, thanks in advance

Try here...
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC

I just bought a MBA and I need to move my photos and itunes to an external hard drive (from my old MacBook Pro) because they won't fit on the Air. I got the photos moved fine and I followed an online tutorial to move the necessary files for itunes, but i

I just bought a MBA and I need to move my photos and itunes to an external hard drive (from my old MacBook Pro) because they won't fit on the Air. I got the photos moved fine and I followed an online tutorial to move the necessary files for itunes, but it didn't work. The files copied fine, but when I tell iTunes on the Air to look at the external drive for the library, it doesn't find anything. What I copied was the entire iTunes Media folder. So, how do I move the necessary iTunes files from my old Pro to a external drive so I can access them from my new Air? Whew!

iTunes- How to move the library to an EHD
After you move the library you need to open iTunes by first depressing the OPTION key then launching iTunes. You will be given a choice of which library to use. This can then be made a permanent change, if you wish, in the Advanced section of iTunes preferences.

How to import photos from external hard drive and exclude duplicate images

Hi,
I apologize if this is easy, but I can't seem to find out how to do it. I have an external hard drive that I used to back up my photos when I was in the Windows environment. I want to import these into iPhoto and/or Aperture, but how do I exclude duplicates that I may already have in iPhoto?? Also....should I import them into BOTH programs, or just bring them into iPhoto and selectively bring them into Aperture when I want to edit?
Thanks,
Ron

You really should choose between Aperture and iPhoto. Both are Photo organisers, both manage your photos. You need to decide which one is primary. Then only import to that one.
Aperture is the more powerful of the two. If you’re shooting RAW then deciding on Aperture is a no-brainer. It’s easier to have files in Aperture and share them with iPhoto than the other way around.
If you’re not shooting RAW, if the volume of photos is small, then stick with iPhoto.
just bring them into iPhoto and selectively bring them into Aperture when I want to edit?
Aperture is not an editor, like Photoshop. Like iPhoto it’s a database application.
Regards
TD

How do I Play videos from external hard drive on Apple TV2? Can I just move the iTunes Library to the External Hard Drive?

I have several HD videos stored on an external hard drive and would like to bring them into iTunes and play them via iTunes on my Apple TV2, but I am not sure how to go about it. I don't want to store the movies on my iMac hard drive because it would eat up to much space...so do I just move the iTunes Library to the external hard drive? And, if so...will the Apple TV2 find the iTunes Library on the external hard drive? Thanks for any help anyone can suggest.

iTunes content on an external drive isn't a problem.
The simplest method is to just move your library to an external drive.
If you wanted to keep just movies on an external drive, that's a little more difficult. You'd need to put the movies where you want them to reside on the external drive and add drag and drop them onto iTunes while holding down the option key. Obviously any movies already in iTunes would need moving from their current location and removing from iTunes first.

How do I import photos from external hard drive to iCloud library?

I have saved many photos to an external hard drive for security. I would like to store at least some of them in iCloud so I have direct access from Photos. Is this possible please?

how do I import photos from external hard drive to iCloud library?
Just like you'd do it with iPhoto. Drag the photos or folder of photos into the open Photos Library window or onto the Photos icon in the Dock.
If you have the iCloud Photo Library activated in Photos the new photos will be copied to the online iCloud Photo Library along with the rest of the photos in your library. Remember, with the iCloud Photo Liberty it's all the photos or none. You may have to purchase additional iCloud space to store all of your photos.

How to move photos edited in Lightroom 2 from external hard drive to Lightroom 5 without losing changes/metadata made in Lightroom 2?

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