Moving entire catalog to bigger external drive

...or any different drive external or internal...
A friend just had major problems moving his v3 files. He had one top folder for all Lightroom. He keeps his catalog and photos on an external and now needs to increase the capacity of the external. So he copied them over in Windows with the entire Lightroom folder remaining intact, and reassigned the old drive letter to the new external hard drive, so the path to all photos is preserved.
However, everyhting shows up Missing. "Find this folder" doesn't work. You navigate to the new location but it's not clear what exactly you "do" to relink. Clicking the name of the lost folder in the resulting dialog box (new-but-named-the-same-as-old-drive) didn't cange anthong back at the Library display of that folder..
I know I -- myself -- will be moving to a new internal drive from the one currently storing my photos in the near future. So his problem is relavant to the hassle i can expect.
What step was missing?
jonathan7007

A better way would have been:
Move the entire folder (you call it the Lightroom folder) with all sub-folders and all images to the new external drive. Do this move in your OS (Win Explorer / Mac Finder).
Do not change any folder names or the folder structure at this point. Do not assign a different drive letter at this point.
Open Lr, right-click the folder (i.e. the Lightroom folder) and select <Find Missing Folder>. Navigate to the folder on the new drive and select it.
You wrote: "You navigate to the new location but it's not clear what exactly you "do" to re-link. Clicking the name of the lost folder in the resulting dialog box (new-but-named-the-same-as-old-drive) didn't change anything back at the Library display of that folder.."
This should work - normally. I suspect that something went wrong when your friend assigned the old drive letter to the new external hard drive.
Check in Control Panel >System and Security >Administrative Tools >Computer Management >Disk Management what the actual situation regarding the drive letters is.

Similar Messages

  • Moving files/catalog to an external drive

    I have an iMac with a 1TB Time Capsule via ethernet and I am running out of room on my 320G HD in the iMac. I'd like to move my 100G of photos from the iMac to the Time Capsule and then point to them.
    Would this be better done via LR vice Finder?
    Can I then move the library to the external drive as well? I'd like to free up as much space as necessary. I've recently purchased a Canon 5D MKII and the RAW files are coming out in the 25Meg range and it won't be too many flash cards before I've filled up the 320 again.
    Sam

    My understanding of the time capsules is there plenty fast and server-grade. However to get the speed, you need to be directly connected. Who knows that the speed is via wireless, I'm guessing not so hot. I do know that you can add another USB external drive to TC. So while it 'may not' be possible to use TC directly for files (I don't think this is true though) you can still access another drive attached directly to it via wireless connection.
    My plans, unless I find otherwise, is to use one TC for a backup with a normal external HD connected to it for all my photographs. When I need a little more speed, I'll connect directly to it, but if I want to be mobile with a laptop, I can still access all my photographs.
    This is the plan mind you, unless someone says it's just not possible or there is faster method that lets me stay mobile.
    Hope this helps!

  • How do I have catalog on an external drive and update tags from multiple computers?

    I have catalog on an external drive but the tags are on the computer. Is there any way that tags can be placed on the external drive so that other computers can access and update?

    In case its just the tags that you want to have in one catalog that is easy.From multiple computers save the tags to the xml file.Copy the xml file to the external drive where the catalog resides.From there you can import the tags into the catalog.
    Command for exporting tags ->Save tags to file in the tags panel of the application
    Command for importing tags->From file

  • Moving Elements 5.0 catalog & images to external drive

    Due to capacity reasons, I needed to move my pictures to my external drive. I followed instructions on backing up my C drive catalog and images and then restored it to my intended external drive, with the file structure maintained. I confirmed that the catalog and images are all on the external drive now. And, I changed my Preferences so that the files, camera/card reader and scanner files would now also be saved to that drive.
    Unfortunately, now I can't seem to get the catalog to find the moved picture files. (and, I've deleted the pictures off my C drive) Any advice, anyone? Thanks in advance.

    What I have experienced (and I am not sure if it was PSE 4 or 5) is that as long as the photo files still existed in their previous location, the Restore process did NOT update the pointers in the Catalog to the new location.
    When did you delete the photo files off the C drive  - before or after you did the PSE Restore command?
    You can look at this FAQ
    http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshop-elements-faq.htm#_Quickly_reconnecting_large
    Your cause is not exactly the same as that writeup, but this solution may apply to your current dilemma.

  • Moving my entire library to an external drive

    What is the best way to move my enite itunes library to an external drive? I want to keep all my album covers/artwork and not lose anything. Thanks in advance

    You might find these articles useful:
    iLounge - Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive
    iTunes for Windows - Moving your iTunes Music Folder

  • HT1449 can i use this process for moving my library to an external drive?

    My iMac is dying a slow death and I want to run itunes and iphoto off my external drive as the data may get corrupted if it stays on the computer hard drive.
    If I designate a folder on my external drive and then cosolidate will that allow me to run itunes from the external drive?
    When My iMac fails will I be able to take the data from that folder for the new iMac?
    Thanks,

    I'd suggest you just drag the entire iTunes folder (the _entire_ folder, _not_ just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Option key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your content is contained in the iTunes Media/Music folder. If things are scattered around your drive, moving them becomes much more complex.
    As to moving iPhoto, you may want to confirm the correct procedure for your version of iPhoto in the iPhoto forums.
    Your iMac cannot be running Mac OS 9.2.x, by the way. It will help people offer advice if you'll correct that.
    Regards.

  • Moving LR files from one external drive to another

    How do I move LR image files from one external drive to another external drive?

    Move the photos using your operating system and then re-connect in Lightroom following these instructions: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders
    Do not use this as an opportunity to re-arrange folders or move photos from folder to folder. Just move the entire "tree" of folders.

  • Moving iTunes Library to an external drive.  My itunes cant connect to the library

    I have tried to move my iTunes Library to an external drive.  When I open the iTunes app i can not get the app to read the library on the external drive.  I have gone into iTunes preferences and redirected the app to read the external file and I still look as though I have a "New iTunes program" with no music, apps, videos etc.
    Thanks all!

    If you moved the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder, hold "Option" and launch iTunes.
    Select "Choose library" then select the iTunes folder you moved.
    You do not need to change the iTunes media folder location in iTunes prefs > Advanced.

  • Moving iTunes library to an external drive converting to different format

    I want to move entire iTunes library to an external drive. I've found several Mac 101's to help but those helps makes no sense. I should be able to move music to another drive and give iTunes the path to find it but that does not work.
    All files are iTunes Plus including everything from Amazon but I want to convert everything to a mp3 or other format so all files are independent of iTunes. Lots of old music from CDs I imported and lots from iTunes as well as Amazon. I guess i could sit and burn everything to a physical cd but that would take months and hundreds and hundreds of cds. Can someone advise how I can convert these files and then move to an external drive?
    I'm running mountain lion and version 10.7 of iTunes. Two external drives and 145 gigs of music. Any guidance will be most appreciated.
    Thanks.

    HI Limnos,
    Thanks for the reply. Something I forgot (age) to mention, this quest to move the library is precipitated by the Mac drive is running out of space. While I still have about 50 gigs of room left, I was thinking I should just plan on opening up the space by moving the iTunes library.
    The other reason is, I read an article about how upon ones death one can not bequeath ones digital music or book files to loved ones.  IE; If all of the music was on LP's, tapes, cd's then this physical format can be left in ones final will. But according to what I read and trying to read the user policy by Apple, Amazon etc when one downloads music or a book or whatever that use policy says we don't own the material we only can read it or listen to it. When we die it dies with us. Several people in the article as well as myself believe this is crap. At one time I was purchasing content and then burning it. I stopped because I thought how silly to burn it, I have back ups on an external drive. Man was I wrong. If I have to I'll sit here in my last days and burn hundreds of cd's.
    So realizing this, I want to take all my music files and save them to another drive as though this drive was hundreds of cd's. That way all those files in some other format can be played independent of iTunes or transfered to one of my kids PC's or a Mac if they get with the program.  If the conversion process destroys the integrity of the file then I have no choice but to burn cd's.
    In my estimation, I'm doing nothing wrong. I bought downloadable music just as if I'd bought cd's. I should be able to throw it away or give to my kids upon my death. The kids can decide what they want to do with it once I'm gone. I now no longer buy any music or books in a digital download. All content is purchased with a physical copy. That said, more content providers are moving towards downloads only or like Amazon and Apple towards the cloud and streaming. I realize all this gets into the fair use act but I think most people are unaware of this issue.

  • Moving iPhoto to external drive; have formatted external disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), moved the iPhoto library to external drive; when trying to change the library, the iPhoto file on new external is greyed out   can't be selected.What went wrong?

    Must have done something wrong..
    1.  formatted external disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - required a partition, but that went fine.  Entire new external disk was included in the partition formatted to Mac OS Extneded (journaled).
    2.  moved iPhoto library to new external disk
    3.  Holding Option key down, opened iPhoto
    4.  Choose library feature appeared, however when new library function option appeared and "choose library" selected, the iPhoto folder appearing in the new external drive was greyed out and not able to be selected.  Therefore the default library remains the original iphoto library on the Mac. 
    I've moved the original iphoto library to the trash and then tried to start iPhoto.  A message comes up that the iPhoto is in the trash and needs to be pulled out before iPhoto can start (clearly the new iphoto library on the external drive is not being seen.
    Can anyone suggest where I went awry?  Thanks!

    Try trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder.
    (On 10.7 or later: Hold the option (or alt) key while clicking on the Go menu in Finder to access the User Library)
    (Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
    What's the plist file?
    For new users: Every application on your Mac has an accompanying plist file. It records certain User choices. For instance, in your favourite Word Processor it remembers your choice of Default Font, on your Web Browser is remembers things like your choice of Home Page. It even recalls what windows you had open last if your app allows you to pick up from where you left off last. The iPhoto plist file remembers things like the location of the Library, your choice of background colour, whether you are running a Referenced or Managed Library, what preferences you have for autosplitting events and so on. Trashing the plist file forces the app to generate a new one on the next launch, and this restores things to the Factory Defaults. Hence, if you've changed any of these things you'll need to reset them. If you haven't, then no bother. Trashing the plist file is Mac troubleshooting 101.
    Then try select it again.

  • When backing up LR catalog to an external drive, what do I copy?

    Hi,
    Let me explain what I'm doing with back ups for the LR catalog.  First I backup the catalog to the same drive my photos are on, simply to allow LR to access the catalog without having to power up an external drive.  That LR folder contains 1.) the LR catalog, 2.) a previews file (lrdata), and a backup labeled with the date of the backup.   At least once a week, however, I copy the LR file to an external hard drive, to another LR folder.  I notice when doing this that the entire catalog is transferred to the external drive each time I do the copy.
    Question 1:  When doing a catalog backup to the photos folder, should I delete the previous backup?  I.e., I did a back up today;  on Saturday I'll probably do another.  Should I just save the last dated backup and delete the earlier dates?
    Question 2:  Should I just copy the updates to the external drive?  Or is it more appropriate to copy the catalog, previews, and latest update?  It seems to me the latter is the best alternative, but perhaps it's not necessary.
    Thanks much in advance,
    BAB

    there's really no right answer, but these are my recommendations
    Do not make a backup of your catalog file to the same folder as the photos unless it is on a different physical hard disk than your working catalog. You can save as many backups as you want, the amount of insurance that you take out (the number of backups) is entirely up to you. I keep at least one month, and then some older catalogs as well.
    I don't know what updates you are referring to, but there is no reason or benefit to copy/backup previews
    Additional comments ... I strongly prefer an automated backup approach, that doesn't rely on a human being remembering and having the time to make a manual backup. Thus, I would recommend you have Lightroom automatically place the catalog backup on the external drive. I don't really know why you are opposed to powering up your external HD, that's what it was made for, to be used! Mine is powered on 100% of the time. Furthermore, if your backup to the photos folder is on the same hard drive as your working catalog, I would strongly recommend you not do this ... because the day that this disk fails (and it is 100% sure it will fail at some time in the future), you have lost your working catalog AND most recent backup and thus it is possible that you could lose nearly two weeks of work when this disk fails (and more if you just so happen to have forgotten to manually make copies to the external HD).
    Additional comments 2 ... Nowhere have you mentioned making backups of all of your photos. I assume you are doing that, and if you're not, stop what you are doing, do not celebrate Hanuka or Thanksgiving, and make backups of all of your photos immediately. Of course, you might have been asking only about the catalog backups and you have done a thorough job of making backups of your photos, in which case ignore this paragraph

  • I just reorganized my lightroom catalogs in my external drives.

    Strangely enough Lightroom is not recognizing my external drives in lightroom. i can open up the catalog by launching  open catalog. Yet when I do
    this my other external drives do not show up in lightroom even through all of my external drivcs are mounter on my desktop Imac intel dual

    If you moved files outside of Lightroom, it has no way of keeping track of this.
    If a folder is missing, you can right click (ctrl click if it's a one button Mac) on the folder and choose Find Missing Folder. Select where the folder is now and Lightroom will reconnect it.

  • Success: moving bootcamp partition to an external drive

    Background
    Due to the relatively small, non-exchangable SSD on my Mac, I'd limited the bootcamp partition to 50GB when installing Windows. I needed to install new software in Windows, but was running out of space fast and didn't have the necessary space on the Windows side. I don't use Windows that often and for that reason, I wanted to move the Bootcamp partition to an external hard drive, freeing up space for the Mac side on the internal SSD. I'd read many conflicting reports on the web, some claiming they'd done it successfully, while others said it would be impossible, because Windows 7 wouldn't run from an external drive. I had a HDD in a USB 3 enclosure, and first tried to install Windows to this (using various guides on the web). I was very close to success with this USB 3 drive, but Windows would fail during start-up. Most reports claiming to have successfully been able to run Windows 7 from an external drive, had used Thunderbolt drives, so I decided to get myself a Lacie Rugged USB 3/Thunderbolt series Solid State Drive.
    Hardware used
    MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display (mid 2012), 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 250GB SSD
    Lacie Rugged USB 3/Thunderbolt series, 120GB Solid State Drive
    Software used
    Mac OS X Mavericks, 10.9.2
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Plus several free downloads from the internet, see description below.
    Procedure
    Step 1: Get the Thunderbolt drive to work under your Bootcamp Windows 7 installation.
    This should be simple enough, but proved to be a little tricky. Here’s what I did (assumes you are running Mac OS X before you begin):
    1. Make sure your Thunderbolt drive is disconnected before proceeding.
    2. Restart your Mac and hold down the option key (alt key on some keyboards) during startup.
    3. Choose the Windows drive to start up Windows 7 on your Bootcamp partition.
    4. After log in to Windows 7, download the necessary driver software for your Thunderbolt drive (find it at the manufacturer’s homepage of your Thunderbolt drive - in my case lacie.com).
    5. If the downloaded driver installer is in a compressed format (like zip for example) be sure to decompress it before running the driver installer.
    6. Shut down your computer.
    7. Connect your Thunderbolt drive to your computer.
    8. Start up in Windows 7 (see items 2 & 3 above) and if it all went well, you should now be able to see your Thunderbolt drive under Start>Computer.
    Step 2: Format your Thunderbolt drive in NTFS-format.
    Still running Windows 7 with your Thunderbolt drive connected and visible to the system, it is now time to format your external Thunderbolt drive in NTFS-format. There are several ways of doing this. I used the procedure described here at tedhhack.co.uk.
    Step 3: Follow the directions at intowindows.com to clean install Windows 7 onto your external Thunderbolt drive.
    As described at intowindows.com, this involves downloading Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) and running command line tools. At step 9 in the described process at intowindows.com, at the point where the installer asks if the drive you are installing to is a USB hard disk, the correct input is Y for yes, even if your external drive is a Thunderbolt drive (and obviously not a USB hard disk).
    At step 10 in the described process at intowindows.com (Reboot your PC), remember to hold down the option (or alt) key at every restart in the installation process, so as not to start up in Mac OS X. Also, since your machine now has two Windows 7 installations, Windows Boot Manager will appear and ask you to “Choose an operating system to start” and there is a list of two Windows.
    I don’t know how to tell which one is on the external drive and which one is on the internal drive at this point, but I started with the top one on the list and this turned out to be the one I wanted (the newly installed one on the external drive). If you pick the wrong one (on the internal drive) at first, simply restart the computer and choose the other one. You know you got the right one when the installation process continues and asks for further input.
    After the Windows installation is complete (there will be at least one other restart required - remember to hold down the option (alt) key to start up in Windows, and choose the same Windows on the list in the Windows Boot Manager), you’ll be running a freshly installed, but crippled Windows 7, as you still haven’t installed the specific drivers for your hardware. But don’t worry, that will be fixed in the next step.
    Step 4: Clone your Bootcamp partition from your internal drive to the external Thunderbolt drive.
    In this step you will copy all the software, drivers, settings and other files from your Bootcamp partition on your internal drive to your external Thunderbolt drive. The easiest way to do that is to clone your Windows partition - and to that end you’ll need to download some free software: AOMEI Backupper Standard 2.0 fits the bill perfectly, as it will let you clone at the same time as resizing the partition to fit your external Thunderbolt drive (I went from a 50GB internal Bootcamp partition to a 120GB external Thunderbolt SSD).
    1. Download  AOMEI Backupper Standard 2.0 (I used the 17MB download for Windows 7), install it, and run it.
    2. In the left column choose “Clone” and in the right column choose “Partition Clone”. By choosing Partition Clone instead of Disk clone, you won’t ruin the newly created (but invisible) boot partition on the external Thunderbolt drive.
    3. Press Next and choose your internal Bootcamp partition as the Source Disk.
    4. Press Next again and choose your external Thunderbolt drive (your newly installed Windows 7) as the Destination Disk.
    5. Press Next again and you’ll get a warning that you will erase the contents of the destination partition and it asks if this is what you really want to do. Press Yes to this question.
    6. Next screen is an Operation Summery. Toward the bottom of the Operation Summery screen there are a few interesting options: Edit Size of Partition, Clone Sector by Sector and Align Partition to Optimize for SSD.
    7. If your destination partition is larger than your source destination like mine was, press Edit Size of Partition. This will take you to another screen, where you can drag to resize the partition. I dragged this all the way to the right to give Windows 7 the full size of my external Thunderbolt drive.
    8. Leave the checkbox Clone Sector by Sector unchecked.
    9. If your external Thunderbolt drive is an SSD, put a check in the checkbox entitled Align Partition to Optimize for SSD.
    10. Now press the Start Clone button.
    11. When the cloning process is done, exit AOMEI Backupper and restart your computer (holding down the option or alt key) to start up in your new clone of your old Windows 7 with all the same software, drivers, settings and files.
    Step 5: Enjoy running all your Windows 7 applications from your external Thunderbolt drive!
    Step 6: Here is where I need help/advice – can I remove the Bootcamp partition on my internal drive now?
    I am reluctant to entirely remove the Bootcamp partition from my internal drive, as I am unsure whether this will disable me from starting up in Windows. I would love to hear from anyone here with insight on the matter.

    Step 6: Here is where I need help/advice – can I remove the Bootcamp partition on my internal drive now?
    To answer my own question in Step 6 above, no, or at least I haven't found a way yet...
    Here's what I've done so far:
    Used the Bootcamp Assistant to remove the bootcamp partition on my internal drive.
    Booted the system with the option (alt) key pressed down and now there was NO Windows drive to choose.
    Therefore I used the Bootcamp Assistant to install Windows back onto my internal drive (including installing Bootcamp drivers in the Windows environment). This time I chose the minimum partition of 20GB for the Windows installation on the internal drive.
    Booted into the new Windows on the internal drive and installed the drivers for my Thunderbolt drive.
    Restarted with the option (alt) key pressed down, chose the Windows drive, but Windows Boot Manager still didn't pop up to allow me to choose the Windows installation on the external Thunderbolt drive.
    Booted from the Windows DVD and chose Repair.
    Restarted with the option (alt) key pressed down, chose the Windows drive, and now Windows Boot Manager finally popped up, which allowed me to choose the Windows installation on the external Thunderbolt drive again, phew!
    So, I can run Windows 7 from the external Thunderbolt drive, but I have to use 20GB of my internal drive for a Windows installation I'll never use. Not the best solution, but at least I've saved 30GB of space compared to my previous Bootcamp partition - and I now have enough space to install the Windows 7 software I need on the external Thunderbolt drive...

  • How to stop Time Machine from creating entirely new backup of external drive?

    I've included an external drive to be backed up into Time Machine. For a few days, the drive was disconnected, however, so only Macintosh HD was getting backed up. I recently re-added the external drive. However, now it appears that since the external wasn't included in the most recent backups, it's decided to re-backup the entire drive.
    Is there any way to prevent it from backing up the entire external drive and instead just backup the changes made, or is that not possible because there is a gap in the backups made for the external?

    First, the amount that TM says it's going to back up is not necessarily the amount it will back up. You'll only know that when the backup finishes.
    I haven't tried this myself, but it may be that after you exclude a volume, TM loses continuity with the previous snapshot. In that case, future backups should be incremental, as long as you don't exclude the volume again.

  • How do i move time machine backup to a new, bigger external drive in lion?

    i did some research and cma across severla different ways to transfer my time mashine backup from an old hd to a bigger one. i dont want to lose my backup and i just want to make sure im doing the right thing. also there were different ways of doing it in leopard and snow leopard so now im wonderign if there is another way of doing it in lion, which im usung.
    any help is appreciated.
    thank you

    I would suggest you partition your new external drive and create a 2nd partition that's large enough to hold files you want to off load so you can free up space.
    Or if you're using Time Machine, each backup is suppose to allow you to go back in time and restore files that have been deleted or modified since the last backup. So, if you were to start using your new external drive and performed an initial full backup in Time Machine; then delete your iPhoto file and do another backup, you should be able to go into Time Machine and restore your iPhoto file from your first backup. I would still off load the files to a 2nd partition just to be on the safe side and if Time Machine backups were to somehow become corrupted. Any important files, in my opinion, should be backed up in more than one place... just in case.

Maybe you are looking for