Merge lightroom catalogs

I'm wondering how i can merge Lightroom catalogs?   I have a laptop that I carry around and I used lightroom on that to initial capture and keyword (and categorize) my photos.  When I get home, I want to merge those results with my main computer (both are Macs).
Is there a way to do this? Either merge (it would be nice if there was simply a merge command which did the right thing, but I don't have my hopes up), or do i need to export from one and import into another?  If it's the latter, then do I lose all of my keywords and categorizations when i do that?
thanks
d

See this section of the Help: Lightroom Help | Import photos from other catalogs

Similar Messages

  • Lightroom catalog/preview multiple folder merging

    I have had Lightroom since version 2, have upgraded all along and now have Version 4.2. I noticed as I ugradeed to Version 3, the catalog was still named Lightroom 2 catalog-2. Somehow, along the way, this is now Lightroom 2 Catalog -2-2. This is the catalog Lightroom defaults to. With Lightroom 4 I decided to rename these to: Mark's Lightroom 4 catalog and Mark's Lightroom 4 previews. Well, all I suceeded in doing is I now have 5 folders.
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    I have searched the website and watched Julianne Kost's video on merging but am needing a little more specific guidance to not mess this up!
    Thanks for any help you can give.

    It seems to me that you do not see the file endings since you say "I presume these are catalogs".
    The catalog is a file, not a folder, and - on Windows - does not have a yellow folder icon - although it can be (and usually is) within a folder. Open the folder - what do you see then?
    The previews on the other hand are in a folder.
    If you don't see the file endings go >My Computer >the drive where the catalog is on, select  >Tools >Folder Options >View tab.
    Make sure that the box that reads "Hide extensions for known file types" is not checked. If it is checked you won't see the file ending <  .lrcat> because it will be hidden.
    BTW that's on Windows but there must be something similar on Mac.
    RE: Previews folders: You just merge the catalogs. You don't have to do anything with the previews.
    I would suggest that you merge all of the catalogs you can find.You might have created the 1 GB catalogs inadvertyently.
    You could check though by going >File >Catalog, then navigate to the 1 GB catalog and click on it. Lr will open with it (afterclosing down the present catalog) and you'll see what it contains.
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    Here's the address for Lr Help that shows you all the options available in <Import from Another Catalog:
    http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS9616DD60-0C3A-484b-8413-053347F21456.html

  • LR3 - Merging Individual Lightroom Catalogs into a "Master" Catalog | The Complete Picture with Julieanne Kost | Adobe TV

    In this Episode of The Complete Picture Julieanne demonstrates how to combine individual Lightroom catalogs into a single, “Master” Lightroom catalog to simplify a photographers workflow and enable multi-shoot searching.
    http://adobe.ly/ytQLSL

    What if I'm one of those disorganized folks who made the mistake of having the same images in multiple catalogs, some with and some without edits? How would I fix that mess?

  • Shared Lightroom Catalog???

    I use Lightroom exclusively for my photos.   I initially used it with my desktop Mac (PowerPC G5) and then started using it also on my laptop (Macbook Pro).  Both computers have all photos on external drives.  There is a separate Lightroom catalog on each computer corresponding to each computer with it's individual external drive.   You can imagine my problem now, I'm sure.  I have, effectively, TWO Lightroom catalogs, each with unique images, but also I've copied some photos over between them.  The problem is growing exponentially.
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    I'd love some insight from forum members who've attacked this problem and solved it.  I just don't know if Lightroom will allow the catalog to be on a shared drive, thus accessed by either computer.    If it will, then I imagine the work I need to do is:
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    or maybe not.  Maybe there's a better way.  I'd like your input.
    if this won't work, then has anyone successfully merged two Lightroom catalogs together.   One of my catalogs has about 80,000 images, and the other about 35,000 images.   At least 50% of all images are keyworded and I'd really hate to lose my keywords and collections that I've created.
    anyway, insight is welcome.  Tell me if I'm nuts too.
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    The closest think to this that will work is to put all the images on a large Firewire 800 drive with the LR catalog on the same drive, possibly in another partition. And alternately plug the drive into one machin or the other.
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  • Lightroom catalog in Creative Cloud

    Does anyone have experience with putting a Lightroom catalog in the Creative Cloud folder to use for multiple computers?  It seems like it should work well for photographers who are on the road a lot and would like to avoid merging catalogs after each trip. 

    well it does not even work in a local network....
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  • Which options for moving a lightroom Catalog??

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    Yep, that's exactly right Ray.  You can set which word label is represented by which colour.
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  • How do I merge overlapping catalogs??

    Julieanne Kost tutorial mentions that when you have overlapping catalogs there is a different problem. Unfortunately, she doesn't tell how to deal with that. When I merged my catalogs with LR4 (they were created in LR3), I got the new catalog with new folders but no photos available. I am trying to consolidate several overlapping catalogs (don't ask how that happened.) onto a new external hard drive where most of my folders now reside. I moved the foldes to the new drive with LR3, not by dragging the folders themselves. I also want to transfer some photos from a pocket drive usedn ona trip to the new 2TB external drive.

    When you import a catalog into another, Lightroom is supposed to recognize whicf file is new and which file is already in the catalog.

  • Technical question:  Is it possible to work on the same Lightroom catalog across two computers and have the catalog sync? If so, how??

    Technical question:
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  • Feature Request: merging multiple Catalogs

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    slau104 wrote:
    It is so nice to be able to search for specific images using the Filters on a BIG Catalog that includes ALL my images. But, when the Catalog gets big (i.e. 500,000+ images), it slows down my computer (Mac Pro 3.1 with 14 GB RAM and tons of spare storage) significantly.
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