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.
Here's what I'd LIKE to do.   I'd like to install a shared NAS drive (perhaps an Apple Time Capsule drive) on my central hub in my house (my whole house is wired for Ethernet so that's not a problem), then put all photos on that single hub, thereby using a single Lightroom catalog and with it's images from either computer. If I have to travel somewhere and take some photos with me, I can deal with that because that it is typically the exception, not the rule.
Has anyone tried to do this?   I don't need to nor expect to hit the shared catalog from both computers at the same time. I'll be using one or the other, but not both. But I'd like to bring these two environments together.
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:
1)     create a large shared NAS drive.
2)     copy all images to that drive.
3)     pick one of the two Lightroom catalogs and make that the master and somehow point it to the NAS drive.
4)     import the remainder of the photos on the NAS drive to Lightroom.
5)     make sure that both computers reference the Lightroom catalog on the NAS drive.
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.
Thanks in advance.
Dennis

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.
It is Networked drives where one can't put a Catalog, as John says.
Don

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Shared Lightroom catalog with Mac OS X Lion

I keep my Lightroom catalog on my Macbook Pro so I have access to my pictures while travelling. But for editing, I use a desktop PC running Lightroom on Windows 7 on the same catalog. My process for doing this is:
On the Mac, enable SMB sharing.
On Windows, mount the SMB share.
On Windows, use "subst" to map the SMB share to a new drive root.
(This avoids Lightroom's spurious error about not supporting network volumes.)
On Windows, launch Lightroom and open the catalog on the mapped drive.
This worked in Snow Leopard. But after upgrading to Lion, Step 4 gives me an error:
Lightroom cannot use the catalog named "Lightroom 3 catalog" because it is not writable and cannot be opened.
This could be caused by incorrect permissions or because another Lightroom application is using the catalog. You may try to correct the problem or you may select a different catalog.
Permissions seem OK: I can edit the catalog and the Previews.lrdata folder in Windows Explorer. And I see no stray .lrcat.lock file that might prevent it from opening the catalog.
The Mac version of Lightroom can open the catalog just fine, so I suspect Lion's new SMB implementation broke this somehow.
Has anyone got a shared Lion -> Windows catalog to work?

OK, I found a solution. The following page describes how to manually install an SMB implementation (Samba) that actually works. It requires installing Xcode from the App Store, installing MacPorts, and some command-line tinkering to configure Samba:
http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?t=24022
Once you've done that , follow the instructions in this post to create launchd entries that will start Samba at boot time:
http://forums.boxee.tv/showpost.php?p=205428&postcount=48
More details are here if you run into trouble:
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=38629
While I can now access my LR library again from Windows, this is just the latest in a series of annoying bugs with OS X Lion. I am not a happy camper— but I'll save that for the Apple forums.

Sharing Lightroom catalog/database between Mac an PC

I have Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 for Windows. All my photos and Ligthroom catalog/database are located on a networked external drive. I am thinking about getting Lightroom for my new MacBook Pro, however I need to know first if I can access and modify Lightroom catalog/database located on that drive from both Mac and PC.
In other words, say, I am working in Lightroom on PC, adding and editing pictures one day. Then the next day I want to continue the work from my Mac. Can this be done? Do both operating systems use the same Lightroom catalog/database format?
Cheers,
RJ Czajkowski

John,
Thank you for your reply.
When I said networked drive, I meant a 1TB WD MyBook external drive, formatted to FAT32 and attached through a USB hub to 1TB Time Capsule. It is accessible from both my desktop PC (through Ethernet cable) and from my MacBook Pro (through Wi-Fi). All Lightroom data (catalog, previews, etc.) and all photos are on that drive.
Since both systems can access this drive, I assume this arrangement should work with what I want to do.
Cheers,
RJ Czajkowski

Files missing in Lightroom catalog after import?

I've got an external HD that has 7712 pictures in a single folder. All the files are either .JPG or .CR2 files taken from the same camera, a Canon EOS 5D. After importing the pictures into Lightroom the catalog only shows that 6712 pictures were imported. So there is a difference of 1000 pictures between what is in the folder on my external HD and what was put in the Lightroom catalog. Is there an easy way to determine which of the 1000 files did not get imported into Lightroom?

It might be that some Raws and Jpegs shared the same base filename, and Lightroom treated them as one Raw+Jpeg.
Check if your "treat jpegs and raws as separate files" option is selected in Preferences. If it is not, select it, and reimport your folder. Synchronize folder might work too.

Lightroom catalog together with network

Hello, i have a home network with Lightroom on my base computer. The Lightroom catalog is also stored here. The pictures are on a central server, connected to the network. This works fine. But: i want to use a second computer in another room with Lightroom installed to see the pictures by using the Lightroom catalog. But this is not possible, because the catalog is not allowed to stay on a network server!!! It should be there so that it can be used within a network (therefore i have one!) Does Adobe or anybody has a solution? Thank you very much

To: Bill
thanks for the tip on substitutiary locomotion for LR using a catalog across a network (obscure kid's movie reference there!). I tried it, and it works. On WinXP, that is.
For everyone viewing this, the process is as follows:
You have an LR catalog on another computer in your local network, that you want to access from your computer.
In Window's Explorer on your computer, "map" the network drive (on the other computer) that holds the folder with the catalog, or perhaps even specifically that folder, to a virtual or single-letter drive on your computer, say "x". (And note, the quotes I place around things are there by me to delineate exactly what you type, do not type them in yourself. Only type what is BETWEEN the quotation marks.)
Then access the command-line (DOS level) editor on your computer through the menu system, "Start | Programs | Accesories | Command Prompt".
Type "cd\c:\"
(The above step may not be needed, but I was taught to make my commands from a main-drive location, not a subfolder. Back to the little routine.)
At the prompt, "c:\ ",
type "subst p: x:\"
where "p" stands for any free local drive letter on your computer, and "x" is the local drive letter you mapped the other computer's LR catalog drive or folder to. NOTE THE CLEAR SPACE BETWEEN P: AND X.
Now, open LR on your computer, tell it you want to open a new catalog, and choose the drive-letter that you typed where I use "p" as the drive to find it on, navigate to the folder that has the ".Ircat" folder on it, select it, click on "open".
If you get a message that it cannot access files across a network, simply click on the drop-down box to the right titled "choose" and select the folder-path on the "p" drive and it will now load.
It takes half the time to do this that it does to read it!
I tested this by exporting a small folder as a catalog, copying that folder to another machine, doing the mapping\substitutiary routine above, and accessing it (only from one computer at a time) sequentially from both computers, changing a couple things each time, without saving back to the XMP either manually or automatically.
After doing several changes I then closed the catalog without saving either manually or automatically to xmp. All changes were there immediately on opening the catalog with the other computer. Virtual copies, exposure changes, ratings, labels, keywords ... all saved from both computers to a local drive on the one computer, and readable and useable from the other computer.
You do need to keep from using both at the same time, like duh, but then, we've managed to use file-sharing across our network here for several years with up to 5 people accessing files without both being on the same file at the same time in ANY program, CS, word processing, whatever.
Of course, anything one EVER does it always at your own risk.
Neil

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:
Is it possible to work on the same Lightroom catalog across two computers and have the catalog sync? If so, how??
Here's a little more information on what I am trying to do.
I have a desktop computer with 4tb worth of pictures that has Lightroom and Photoshop on it. I also have a laptop with Photoshop and Lightroom. I would like to be able to edit those same pictures with their current edits that are currently on my desktop on my laptop. If this can be done, I'm sure I need to be on the same wifi network for my laptop to be able to access my desktop's photo library. I am technically savvy enough to map a network drive, but how do I get my two Lightroom catalogs to sync when I make a change on one of my computers? Would i be working only on one catalog? Or two separate catalogs that would need to be manually synced to the other computer? Would it be beneficial to put my lightroom catalog on something like dropbox?
I'd appreciate any information or tutorials if someone knows how to do this.

I do this by having my LR catalog and photos on an external drive that I swap between the two computers. I am on Windows and have the same drive letter assigned to the drive on both computers.
Because the photos are on a portable drive I back up the portable drive to another hard-drive every night or after important work, because portable drives are susceptible to damage or loss.

Can I move the Lightroom Catalog from one location to another?

Lightroom by default, places the Lightroom Catalog in the Pictures folder on my PC. My image library though, is located on an external hard drive. I've read that it is better to have the Catalog at the same location to avoid disconnected images, which sounds reasonable. Is it feasable to move the Catalog over to the same drive as my image library, or will that cause a problem? In other words would I need to start over again and create a new Catalog on the external drive? I know this sounds like a dumb question, but I've learnt to my cost that the obvious solution isn't necessary the correct one.

For better performance it is preferable to have the catalog located on an internal hard drive. By default the catalog and the preview files have to be located in the same folder since there is continual read/write taking place while working in Lightroom. Lightroom does not make any changes to the original files so its fine for them to be located on another hard drive internal or external. Lightroom loves lots of hard disk space to operate so if your catalog is on an internal drive make sure it not starved for disk space.
However its ok for your catalog/previews files to reside on an external HDD with your original photo files.
Your photo files can reside on a HDD conected to a network but your catalog and preview files cannot be located on a network.
e.g I have my catalog / previews on the main HDD with my operating system with over 50% free disk space. My Photo files are on a secondary internal HDD with over 75% free disk space. I back up to external HDD.

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.
Make sure that , they are not inside Pictures folder any more and try to open backup from Lighrtroom and check..
Any LRcat file with .lock extension , move it to Desktop.

I went to download the new lightroom update but my computer went dead at 51 percent. I got back on and it was gone so i reinstalled now when i click to open it sats the lightroom catalog named lightroom 5 catalog cannot be opened because another applicati

please help I need to open my my lightroom to edit and it says lightroom catalog cannot be opened bc another application already has it opened.... I went to download the update but computer went dead when came back on it was gone so I reinstalled. now wont open but ps will help birth session to edit

Make sure you don't have another copy of Lightroom actively running on your computer. If not, find your catalog file in Finder/Explorer. Look for a file with the same name, but with a .lock extension. delete that file. Now Lightroom should open the catalog again.

I have a new Mac Pro computer and have migrated my files from my older computer to the new computer. In trying to open a Lightroom catalog on an external hard drive I keep on getting the message "lightroom cannot use the catalog named " " because it is

I have a new Mac Pro computer and have migrated my files from my older computer to the new computer. In trying to open a Lightroom catalog on an external hard drive I keep on getting the message "lightroom cannot use the catalog named " " because it is not writable and cannot be opened. I have fixed all the "permissions" and yet it will still not open. How do I fix this?

Hello Forum Members,
I figured it out. You have to select the actual logo of the Lightroom catalog and then click on "get info" and allow what ever your new user name to "read and write". That worked!
Henri Silberman

I have a new computer. I wish to uninstall Lightroom5 and photoshopCC on old computer and re-install on new computer. How do I do this. Also, Lightroom catalog is currently on external drive. Will Lightroom recognize it on new computer

I have a new computer. I wish to uninstall Lightroom5 and photoshopCC on old computer and re-install on new computer. How do I do this. Also, Lightroom catalog is currently on external drive. Will Lightroom recognize it on new computer

Hello Francinera,
please have a first look here: Activation & deactivation help >>> http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-deactivation-products.html.
Please come back if necessary.
Good luck!
Hans-Günter

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?

Wish List Item: Adobe Lightroom Catalog Reader (free)

Adobe Acrobat Reader is the reason for Adobe Acrobat (the creator) success.
A Lightroom Catalog Reader would enable me to take a catalog of images stored on an external drive to some other location, plug it into some other computer, and view the images. The reader would apply the fixed held in the catalog database, on the fly, just as Lightroom does. It should allow for thumbnail browsing, single image view, and full screen, plus a very basic slide show. Nothing more; no exporting, no printing, no rating, no developing... just viewing with fixed applied, without a need to export the images. ...Ok, maybe allow for flagging.
Why not just export? Because that takes time, creates another copy, and is inconvenient.
How about this scenario: I've got a catalog of images from a shoot. I want to present them to someone for him/her to choose some picks. My catalog resides on a little USB drive. If I could put Adobe Lightroom Catalog Reader on my USB drive, I could take the drive to this person, review the images, make a few picks, and then bring the drive back home to work on within the full version of LR. I should just haul a laptop right? A little USB drive is a lot more portable.

I'd like to see a reader as in Expressions (formerlly iView). I can give a client a catalog. She can browse & make selections, E-mail those to me in their notepad function. When I get that E-mail, I can load it into my catalog and see those picks as a collection. I can then tweek those originals and get them ready for printing. Great feature for client relations. Lets have it in LightRoom!

Is it possible to access my lightroom catalog on my iMac from my macbook air ?

I was just given a yr old macbook air and want to access my lightroom catalog on my I mac ? possible or do I just use the mobile and set up a share folder ?
thanks in advance for any info

During a call, press the home button (note the green bar at the top of the screen). Navigate to your Calendar app and open it.
The Calendar app won't be able to update OTA during the call but you should be able to see everything that was there before the call.

Combine Lightroom catalogs with the same name.

Newbie, be easy on me. This will probably end up being a dumb question, but here goes anyway. I have 2 lightroom catalogs named (Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat) What is the easiest way to combine those 2 into 1 catalog (Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrcat). Thank you in advance!
Scott

Hi Scott
I'd open one of the libraries, and rename it "catalogue2" and then open the other one and import the "catalogue2" into the 1st one
alternatively, find where one of the catalogues is and rename is thru explorer or finder, and open that one and then import the other catalogue.
All the import is in File Import
import from catalogue,
from chip from disk etc
Hope that helps
Cheers
Hamish
hamishNIVEN Photography

Shared Lightroom Catalog???

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