Problem splitting catalog in Lightroom 2.1

I am using Windows XP w/sp2 and have migrated to Lightroom 2.1. There are two people sharing one catalog each with one master folder in the catalog and a hierarchy of sub folders. I have tried to set up a second catalog for the second user. Wanting to be cautious, rather than trying to export the entire second user's master folder at one time I exported a bottom level folder with a few picture files (CR2 & JPG) into a new catalog. This worked fine. I then tried to export more folders to this new catalog, but each time Lightroom created another new catalog for the folder. I now seem to have several catalogs where I only wanted one more. If I try and import to the new catalog I get messages which say the images are allready in the catalog.
I have been unable to find this problem discussed in any of the forums etc. which I have come across. I did see a comment in an older discussion thread that Lightroom 1.x would not accept folders into a folder which contained images. Does this still apply?
I am now in the situation where I need to export a block of folders from the origional catalog to a new or recently created catalog, and add to it the sub folders which inadvertently reside in their own new catalogs. Once everything for second user is in a new consolidated catalog I should be able to drag and drop in order to organize properly. Can anyone help before I make it worse that it is? I do not want to lose adjustment data.
Additionaly is there anywhere in Lightroom that will list all of the catalogs which have been created? The only list I can find seems to be in file > open recent, which does not distinguish between catalogs and folders within a catalog. File > open catalog, just gives access to everything on the C (main hard) drive.
Thanks in advance to anyone who has the solution or can point me in the right direction.

I don't think you are describing anything that is a bug or problem, just a misunderstanding: you just cannot export TO an existing catalog, which you already discovered.
Whatever it is you want to do, you need to either export an entire set of images at once, or import into another catalog that does not have the images already in it.
Maybe you can export the images you didn't, already, to a new catalog, then import those individual catalogs into it. It's a bit unclear what your exact situation is so it is hard to describe in detail, what to do.
One thing that might help you is that you can right-click on a folder in the catalog's folder list and say "Add Parent" and it'll move that folder and all it's peers down one level so you can then synchronize that parent folder and get to the other folders that are peers to the ones already in the catalog.
The only way to find all your catalog files is to do a file search for *.lrcat files.

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Hi Alan,
I think you are mislead by the semantic of "catalog". Read "database" instead - Adobe marketing may have just voted for a non-tekkie name.... source of a lot of issues...
Large catalogs=databases create problems on old hardware of low specs. If you have a fairly contemporary hardware set-up with 2 GB of RAM I would definitely try with 1 catalog-database only, until you might really run into problems.
It is easy to split catalogs should the need arise, which I second Pete Marshall to doubt.
Whenever you want to see two images together, to compare them, to assign the same keyword to find them together again etc. they need to be in the same database.
Only if you should have worlds totally split apart you could consider multiple catalogs.
There are ways to get pieces across from one to the other(s), but that requires conscious acts best carefully planned.
Your initial post does not strike me as if that should suit your personality?
In order to gain quick and good understanding of the basic principles I'd suggest you invest 15 British Pounds in Victoria Bampton's "The missing FAQs" online http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lrqebook3.php
or read at least http://www.lightroomqueen.com/blog/2009/03/24/lightroom-top-10-gotchas/.
I have no relationship to that lady other than her book was my primary source of my current LR knowledge and I enjoyed it very much.

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Yes: when doing whole catalog metadata operations, like displaying consolidated metadata, and lib filtering, and updating smart collections.
No: when editing in develop module, or displaying thumbs or loupe view in library module.
Why?
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However some things do require Lightroom to read or write *all* records of the database, and process the data - those things take longer when the catalog is bigger.
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PS - Catalogs don't suck photo file data into themselves, they reference it from where it sits, in "independent" files on the disk, *but* you can duplicate physical photo files into the same directory as the catalog when you export a catalog - so be careful: it's worth knowing exactly where your photo files really are... - and whether you've inadvertently created duplicates... - I help way too many people recover previews who've inadvertently deleted photo files.
PS - I wish Lightroom had a checkbox you had to check: "I swear I understand the basics of catalog/photo-files and importing, non-destructive editng/xmp, and embedded-previews vs. rendered raw data" before it would allow you to open Lightroom - until then, it just presented the basic tutorial... (joking, but you get the idea - right?).
Rob

How do you move one (1) Photo Folder from one Catalog to another Catalog in Lightroom 5?

I want to move one (1) Photo Folder from one Catalog to another Catalog in Lightroom 5 and my laptop (no external hard drive involved). I have already started the editing process in Catalog #1, but due to the size of the Catalog #1, I want to move the current job and future work to a new Catalog.
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I am going to create a second new catalog and try your option #2 now.
Thanks

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1. The Basic Problem: In Lightroom 3.2 and now 3.3, when new images are downloaded, the folders appear in the list of folders (in the left-hand panel) and the same folders appear in the Lightroom_Library folder on my N drive. However, when Lightroom is closed and reopened, these folders no longer appear in the list of folders in the left-hand panel of Lightroom. The folders and their images are still on the N drive and can be accessed with Photoshop.
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5. I spoke with an Adobe customer support representative, and as a last resort, he created a test catalog into which he imported new images. The images appeared in the list of folders. Lightroom was then shut down and reopened, and the folder was still in the list of folders in the left-hand panel. Based on this experiment, the Adobe representative concluded that my catalog was corrupt, and that I would need to import my current catalog into a new catalog to solve this problem.
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7. The support representatives that I spoke with gave me somewhat different recommendations for transferring this catalog to a new catalog. One suggested that I create a new empty catalog and then combine the corrupt catalog with the new one. In this case wouldn’t the new catalog be corrupted too?
If I have to accept that the problematic catalog is corrupt, how exactly do I transfer the contents of the corrupt catalog to a new catalog without losing anything?
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Roger

Create a brand-new test catalog and try importing the two folders into it. If they still disappear it is something to do with those folders or their contents. If they seem ok, then it could be something wrong with your catalog. When importing make sure you've done right-click Include Parent Folder enough times to make it the same relative depth of folders as your regular catalog.
I assume you've done an optimize catalog with test-integrity enabled.
I have seen problems in the past with folders that had some weird character or were longer than the rest so see if that is the case for these two. When the folders do happen to be visible, you might try renaming them (within LR) to something much shorter and see if they work, then.
Before messing around too much, I'd write XMP files (select all / Metadata / Write Metadata for Files) for all the photos in these two folders, so at some point if things go completely haywire, you can at least reimport the photos with their current set of adjustments applied although linkages to them in collections and keywords and such may not be as lucky.
You can also use File / Import from Catalog... and File / Export to Catalog... to create working copies of just those two folders in another catalog but if the catalog, itself, is corrupted, that may only propagate the corruption.

A Peculiar Problem: Corrupt catalog?

1. The basic problem: In Lightroom 3.2 and now 3.3, when new images are downloaded, the folders appear in the list of folders (in the left-hand panel) and the same folders appear in the Lightroom_Library folder on my N drive. However, when Lightroom is closed and reopened, these folders no longer appear in the list of folders in the left-hand panel of Lightroom. The folders and their images are still on the N drive and can be accessed with Photoshop.
2. The two sets of imported images that have been a problem were shot in late October and late November. I had not taken any photos prior to that since August. I made three backups of my catalog in August long before I began to have the current problem.
3. I have synchronized my 2010 folder (which contains the two problematic folders) in the list of folders in the left-hand panel. This action replaced the two missing folders shot in October and November in the list of folders; however, they both disappeared again when Lightroom was shut down and reopened.
4. I noticed that when I import test images and the folder name appears correctly in the list of folders in the left-hand panel and then turn Lightroom off and then on again, even though the folder disappears from the list of folders, the images themselves still appear on the screen, which means, does it not, that the images are in the catalog even though they are not showing in the folders list.
Following up on this, I imported some test images and gave them a unique keyword. I then shut Lightroom down and reopened it and that folder was missing from the list of folders in the left-hand column, but I was able to bring the images up by searching for the photos using the unique keyword that I had given them, which, I think, is more evidence that the images are in the catalog.
5. I spoke with an Adobe customer support representative, and as a last resort, he created a test catalog into which he imported new images. The images appeared in the list of folders. Lightroom was then shut down and reopened, and the folder was still in the list of folders in the left-hand panel. Based on this experiment, the Adobe representative concluded that my catalog was corrupt, and that I would need to import my current catalog into a new catalog to solve this problem.
6. Except for this one problem, the catalog seems to function normally, and I have checked the integrity of the catalog and this has turned up no problems. I have not received any warnings from Lightroom 3 to indicate that the catalog is corrupted.
6. Since I thought I was dealing with a corrupt catalog, I substituted one of my backups from August, which was made at a time when I was having no problems with the catalog; however, I am having the same problem with this backup catalog. Does this suggest that the problem may not be that the catalog which first showed the problem is corrupt?
7. The support representatives that I spoke with gave me somewhat different recommendations for transferring this catalog to a new catalog. One suggested that I create a new empty catalog and then combine the corrupt catalog with the new one. In this case wouldn’t the new catalog be corrupted too?
If I have to accept that the problematic catalog is corrupt, how exactly do I transfer the contents of the corrupt catalog to a new catalog?
Thanks.
Roger

Create a brand-new test catalog and try importing the two folders into it. If they still disappear it is something to do with those folders or their contents. If they seem ok, then it could be something wrong with your catalog. When importing make sure you've done right-click Include Parent Folder enough times to make it the same relative depth of folders as your regular catalog.
I assume you've done an optimize catalog with test-integrity enabled.
I have seen problems in the past with folders that had some weird character or were longer than the rest so see if that is the case for these two. When the folders do happen to be visible, you might try renaming them (within LR) to something much shorter and see if they work, then.
Before messing around too much, I'd write XMP files (select all / Metadata / Write Metadata for Files) for all the photos in these two folders, so at some point if things go completely haywire, you can at least reimport the photos with their current set of adjustments applied although linkages to them in collections and keywords and such may not be as lucky.
You can also use File / Import from Catalog... and File / Export to Catalog... to create working copies of just those two folders in another catalog but if the catalog, itself, is corrupted, that may only propagate the corruption.

When importing from an old Lightroom 2 catalog into Lightroom 4 (also from Windows to Mac) I seem to have lost all the development history of my photos. Is there any way to retain that?

I finally managed to get through the process of moving files and catalog from Lightroom 2.7 on a PC to Lightroom 4 on my Mac. I think I did it all correctly and all my file and previews and some tagging seems to be there. Two things are lost
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2 - The collection names seem to have come over, but they are all empty. This is also a lot of work lost, though not as important as #1
Is there any recourse?

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Why do i get the following message when i attempt to open my backup file for lightroom cc? "Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom Catalog" because it is not writable and cannot be opened". This message just started coming up after downloadi

why do i get the following message when i attempt to open my backup file for lightroom cc? "Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom Catalog" because it is not writable and cannot be opened". This message just started coming up after downloading lightroom cc (previously using lightroom 5)...am i backing up properly or not???

Open Pictures folder and move the files named lrcat-journal and lrcat.lock to Desktop.
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Okay Lightroom Gurus ...
On my old computer (Windows XP), I had several Photoshop Elements 5 catalogs, one of which was my main catalog, and the others were photos I hardly ever used. I imported the main catalog into Lightroom 2 just fine and have been running with it ever since.
Then, my old computer crapped out, I bought a new Windows Vista 64 computer, installed Lightroom 2.1, transferred the Lightroom catalog and continued along just fine.
But now, on my new computer, I want to import one of the other Photoshop Elements 5 catalogs (which still exists and still runs in PSE5 on the Vista 64 computer), but the command in Lightroom to do the import seems to have disappeared! I can't find it! Where did it go and how can I get it back? Is this a Vista 64 or Lightroom 2.1 issue (or is it me)?

Roy, I am 99% certain that importing PSE 7 catalog to LR 2 is not possible at this time. The release cycles of the products did not coincide for that to happen. However you can import from PSE 6 I believe.
I feel sure that this will be addressed soon........... but don't know when.

Cannot open my catalog in lightroom (2,7)

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Thanks so much!!! I really learned something and many hours of work
were not spoiled.
maidi
25 jul 2011 kl. 15.33 skrev Pete Marshall:
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http://forums.adobe.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/76881/
Capture.JPG
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sometimes it doesn't. LR can have only one catalog opened at a time
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>

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Arthur,
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