Lightroom Library Accessible across network?

Is there a way to have the library and all edits, etc. available to multiple users on a network? I work with four other photographers and a couple of art directors who all have access to a single server loaded up with tetrabytes of images sorted by assignments in respective folders. We've been using ACR and Bridge to view, assign metadata, and edit, duplicating RAW files for multiple processing interpretations, etc. I'm interested in seeing if Lightroom will help with our workflow, but a centralized library is absolutely necessary to start. Thanks for any help.

>As I understand it, the library itself won't be accessible on the network in v1.
johnbeardy, "Lightroom Library Accessible across network?" #1, 31 Jan 2007 7:24 am
That's what I heard as well. It's a shame as with the advent of cheap NAS storage, it is very common for photographers to have all their data on the network and only the applications on the computer.
I don't have a need for multiple users of the same library, but I do need to keep the library on NAS storage. That should be a simple fix for Adobe to implement. It's also an important fix as there have been several instances of people on the labs forums finding that they could not install Lightroom as they had redirected their "My Documents" directory (on Windows) onto a network mount.
Full multi-user support is more complex and probably does require a database transplant to something with a more advanced locking concept than SQLite.

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ITunes library synchronisation across network

Hi everyone
I am setting up my new Macbook Pro.
I have imported all of my music files to ~/Music and all my movies to ~/Movies. I changed the iTunes folder organisation to manually. So far so good.
Now I have bought an Apple TV and this Apple TV is reading the iTunes library of my Mac Mini Server. The problem now is that I want to keep the Macbook Itunes library in sync with the Mac Mini library. I found some software to keep this synchronised. But the only problem now is that I want the software to put the files in the same location as on my Macbook Pro. So music in ~/Music en movies in ~/Movies. I didn't found software that was capable of doing this. So I think I might have found a new solution.
Isn't it possible to have 2 folders in sync over the network? So if I am able to have the Music and Movie folders in sync across the network and then tell iTunes to stay in sync with the two folders, I am done.
Can someone help me a bit figuring out how this could be possible?
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: JoelCraenhals

Other options include:
syncOtunes
TuneRanger
SuperSync
Syncopation
Regards.

ITunes library on a networked external hard drive

Recently, I want to upgrade to snow leopard (finally) but was short on hard disk space on my MacBook Pro and lacking a consistent backup solution. I added a 1TB time machine to my network and mounted an external hard drive to the Time Machine for media. The goal was to have my media on the drive and then back up all hard drives to the Time Machine. I copied the iTunes library to the hard drive and pointed iTunes to the new folder location. (I also moved photos and other media.) The media has been accessible and iTunes works fine (with occasional network interference) but I was reluctant to immediately delete the old iTunes library.
Well, I've finally reached the hard disk point that I must delete the old library, but as I was about to, I noticed that my "iTunes Library" database file and "iTunes Music Library.xml" omni outliner file in the original MacBook Pro Hard Drive Location were updated yesterday, not the same files I copied to the new iTunes folder on the network. I thought if I moved the library and redirected iTunes, I'd be done, but I guess not.
Questions:
1. Can I point iTunes to search for its database and XML files in the new folder on the network, and how?
2. Is that advisable, or should I delete the other music files from the "Music" location on my MacBook Pro and leave the database files remaining on the hard drive?
3. Are there any other considerations I've overlooked in trying to store my media library on a network mounted EHD?
Thanks for your help.

kneedragger101 wrote:
Note this is an iTunes Library that was on a PC
you might want to read these articles: one and two.
why not move your media files using _*Home Sharing*_ ?

Lightroom Library on a server with external HD connected via FW400

I plan to set up a Lightroom library on a MacMini which I like to use as a file server and will be connected with an external harddrive like a drobo or any other storage box (several TB). Now in case the whole library including previews is sitting on a storage device connected to a MacMini which is again running as my server and connected with a fast 100MB network line, I am concerned that I open the library with a MacPro (very fast) but this will then take long (50MB Tiff files) to work on. How does LR handle the files, what will be loaded (just the preview-JPG)?
I would be interested to know this before I change it to such a setting.

Thx John, I plan to use the library with min 2 people and min 2 computers. So I have the need to share it. To do that with the Macpro does not fully fit in my original network concept. I will try the speed with the current hardware in order to see the actual speed, but I know you are correct. Anyhow, I might look into it from a different perspective and use the server library on the macmini for archival purposes and have a frequently used library on the main working machine (macpro). This is unfortunatlly a bit more complicated and I am not knowledgable enough yet in LR to use it that way. I am sure I can create projects for each bigger fotoshoot which I then can move between LR libraries. This should give me the chance to store the work of a project between computers. Do you agree?

Can two computers use same iTunes library on a network drive?

Can two computers use directly (rather than share) the same iTunes library on a network drive?
My media library is on a network drive attached to my Airport Extreme. Right now I share the library with my desktop Mac. I can share fine, but I would like to be able to add, delete, and make other changes in the media library from both computers. The two computers would not be accessing the library at the same time as I am the sole user of both.

I appreciate your input and I think you're right about this being impossible. But just to clarify, you say I can't "have multiple machines accessing the same music files from a shared location." I can have multiple machines accessing the same music files from a shared location--I just can't have them accessing the same music files simultaneously--which may have been what you meant. For my situation, I think it will be less work to just quit iTunes on my server when I want to run it on my client (using Chicken of the VNC). It's not ideal, but it's less time-consuming than periodically syncing three computers.
Again, thanks for the input.

Can I put an aperture library on a network drive and edit from multiple computers?

I have an Imac desktop and a macbook pro. I want to be able to edit pictures from multiple computers. If I simply put the aperture library on a network server drive in my home, can I edit the same aperture library from both the Imac and the macbook? Rather than always having to sit in my office making changes to files I would love to also be able to do this with my laptop sitting ont the couch or in the kitchen. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Get yourself a small portable external drive for your Aperture library.
An Aperture library needs to be on directly connected drive formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). network access is not supported and can lead to data loss and library corruption.
See Apple's support document: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252

ITunes library stored on an external hard drive which is connected to my airport extreme, I wish to share my iTunes library over my network, I can do this with my laptop, but not with my iPad, can anyone tell me if it is possible

I have my iTunes library stored on an external hard drive which is connected to my airport extreme, I wish to share my iTunes library over my network, I can do this with my laptop, but not with my iPad, can anyone tell me if it is possible

You can't connect directly to the external drive, but should be able to use iTunes Home Sharing via the laptop.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH1453

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

dj_paige wrote:
however, I do point out that obtaining an additional hard drive and not throwing anything away seems a preferable solution to me.
heidie22, dj_paige has a very good point there. I would not through away the NEF files; I would archive them to a external drive.
By the way, I am assuming that converting RAW files to DNG is a decision you have made and not an accident.

How do I place the Lightroom Library on an External Drive?

Q: How do I change the location of the Lightroom Library on an external disk drive whilst also ensuring that lightroom maintains the connection with the new location?
A: The easiest way is to copy the folder containing the Lightroom Catalog and the Previews to the new disk drive, navigate to the new folder location, then double click on the Catalog file to relaunch.
Note: the Lightroom catalog and preview package use the
lrcat and
lrdata extension respectively.

1. Drag the library to the external drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and point it there.
2. Get a second. Having the backups on the same drive as the original data won't help when that drive fails.
(66929)

I use windows 7. Can I move my itunes library to a network hard drive? If so, how do I do this?

I use windows 7. Can I move my entire itunes library off my computer to my network hard drive?
if so, how do I do this?
Thanks

Hello dreid20,
Indeed, you can move your iTunes Library to a network volume. The only stipulation to keep in mind is that you'll need to be connected to this volume before launching iTunes for it to function properly.
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Cheers,
Allen

I have a macbook pro with only 128gb of hard drive. I have lightroom installed and all my photos on an external hard drive. Can I store my lightroom library on the external hard drive too?

I have a macbook pro with only 128gb of hard drive. I have lightroom installed and all my photos on an external hard drive. Can I store my lightroom library on the external hard drive too?

Yes. Find the LR catalog file by looking in Edit/Catalog Settings/General. Close LR and navigate to that spot. The catalog file is the one that ends in .lrcat - move it to wherever you want. Next to the .lrcat file is a subfolder called Previews.lrdata. You can move that over as well, but if you don't LR will generate new previews. Double-click on the .lrcat file in its new home and LR will open with that catalog. Set Preferences to When Starting Up Use Most Recent Catalog.

Lightroom library is almost 5gb after importing photos

I am new to Lightroom 5 and just imported about 4000 photographs. I just added them to Lightroom since they were already on my hard drive. I was amazed an confused why the Lightroom library file is almost 5 gb. I have yet to do anything else except import. I didn't think the library file would start to get large until I started processing and editing the files. What can I do to not have my library file get so huge, or is this what I can expect with Lightroom?

Minimal means a thumbnail-sized preview, so anything larger than that would be recomputed at the time you first view the photo. If you feel you'll be scrolling through all 4000 photos in Library Grid view at some point then compute Minimal previews.
I'd compute standard monitor-sized previews the first time you import a new folder of photos so you can do your tagging and flagging and rating and rejecting using the Fit or Fill zoom levels without waiting too long. If you find yourself needing to zoom in to check focus on many of the images then maybe computer 1:1 previews for the newly imported folder, otherwise zooming into 1:1 will require a preview to be computed rather than looked up from the previews folder.
Once you go to Develop the previews aren't used except as a placeholder until the on-the-fly rendering has occurred as you zoom in or out or flip to the next image in Develop.
You'll figure out what you want to do after working on a few folders of images, the tradeoff between getting started on any of the photos in the folder vs waiting longer as you move to each one for the first time.

Moving lightroom library onto new PC

Hi there
I have an extensive lightroom library on my laptop and have just bought a new PC operating Windows Vista as my laptop was out of hard disk. I have installed Lightroom 1.3 onto the new PC and now want to move my existing library in. I have backed up my existing library onto a separate external hard drive, and then connected this to the new PC. For some reason although my laptop runs the old library off the external hard drive with no problem the new PC will not do this and says there are no photos in the library when I open lightroom off the external hard drive.
Any ideas how to get my pictures onto the new machine? I don't want 2 libraries! Both machines are running 1.3.
Thanks!
Jenni

The new PC is probably opening a default library. Look at the Preferences and set them so you're asked to choose which library to open.
John

Moving Lightroom Library & database

I have been using Lightroom 1.0 on my laptop, with the library & ldrb file held on an external hard drive. The external drive was set as drive I on the laptop.
I now want to use that library on my pc, have added the external HD to pc & configed as drive I. When trying to open that library from Lightroom on the pc I am getting the following error message:
Runtime Error:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Lightroom\Lightroom.exe
Abnormal Program Error
If I open an existing Lightroom library on the pc it opens OK.
Advice on how to be able to use the Library on the external hard drive on the pc would be apperciated.
Both Laptop & pc Are using WinXP Pro.
Many thanks
Tom

Tom - sorry to read that you are still having difficulties. As I said previously, this is exactly the same setup that I have and with me it runs perfectly. I would possibly suggest that you plug-in your EHD to the PC but DO NOT open LR. Then via explorer locate the EHD's lrdb file. By double-clicking on this LR should open - if not then it could be that the file is corrupt. I can't think of anything else to suggest - sorry.
Edit: Should just add that I can't help feeling that your problem is somehow related to you having re-assigned the drive letter as otherwise our setup is the same as previously mentioned.

TV Show download problem with library on a network share

My local drive has 100GB disk space available. I have my iTunes library configured to be on a network share which happens to be on a NAS (network attached storage) drive. My NAS drive has over 600GB disk space available. When I try to download a TV Show (Battlestar Galactica) I get an error which says that:
"The disk you are attempting to use is full"
This is nowhere near true. I tried several times, then switched my iTunes library to point to my local drive, and the download worked. Does iTunes have a problem with a library on a network share?
Help!
Thanks,
Brad

Not easy because in order to open just one library file you would have to be running the same version of iTunes on all computers which would be limited to the lowest version supported by your computers (the G3). Try to open a iTunes 10 library with 9.2.1 and it will refuse. This in turn might not support your equipment. Even if you can do this you would have to make sure only one copy of iTunes was running because the library file cannot be opened by multiple copies of iTunes at the same time.

Lightroom Library Accessible across network?

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