Copying Lightroom Classic CC catalog for editing work off-site?

[adriant12105070]

I have a 2Big Dock LaCie mirrored  RAID external drive with just under 2TB of images in one catalog. I also back iup the RAID weekly to a 4TB LaCie Rugged external drive. Additionally, I use Apple’s Time machine to back up my MacBook .  The MacBook has the latest Mojave loaded.

I am going to be  out of country for a period when I must continue to have access to my images using  my laptop, so as to continue editing . How can I  take the images from my RAID drive and continue to work on my files. Where I will be located, internet  speed is is about 10Mbps. Clearly my computer drive will not accommodate  the images.  If necessary, I have no problem purchasing an additional one or two portable external drives.

Any step by step pointers would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Adrian

[GoldingD]

Buy the new external hard drive, biggest and fastest you can afford, copy the folder your catalog is in, complete with catalog, and images (assuming you keep them in one folder, alter that approach if not), the preview folders is optional, LR will re-create them if missing.

Pay attention to the ports, do you need to connect the drive to multiple computers? Perhaps both Apple specific and USB ports (for example for my 2015 Retina 15" MAC Book Pro, Firewire and USB)

Note: if you only run Apple computers, then an external hard drive pre partitioned for MAC is fine, if you run MAC and Windows OS (some of us have MAC Books for on the road, big honking Windows workstations for home) then partition the drive as xFat so it will work on both OS (do this from the MAC)

When you first launch the catalog on the new external hard drive, you may need to correct the folder location, no big deal.

NOT A MOJAVE USER, can a Mojave user provide feedback, eXFat still viable?

[adriant12105070]

Thanks for your reply.

Perhaps I did not provide sufficient information.

My images are stored on a RAID drive, my only catalog is on my MacBook laptop. I cannot take the RAID drive with me, but will take the laptop. At home, I do not share with other computers.

I can certainly buy a Thunderbolt external travelling drive for speed. I will need the entire catalog, as I will be away for an extended period, and need to add metadata to “Rated” images as I intend to publish on SmugMug. However every retained DNG image is duplicated with a rated DXO image, as I run the images through DXO PhotoLab for initial auto editing. I am not sure how to copy only DXO images from the RAID.

There is probably insufficient space on my existing laptop to load previews for half of the 21,000 images in the catalog, assuming I can segregate the DNG’s from the DXO’s

Lastly, when I reach my destination, I will take delivery of a new MacBook Pro with significant capacity and speed. Then, I will want to duplicate the catalog to the new laptop, and maintain integrity and connectivity. Maybe, in this, I may be ahead of the first issue.

Thanks for any further advice you can provide.

Adrian

Sent from my iPad

[dj_paige]

Your title says you want to copy the catalog file.

I don't think you have given enough information. Where is the catalog file now? On the MacBook? If so, no copying of the catalog file is needed.

You have 2TB of images. Do you need to have ALLLLLLLL of them available on your trip? Or just some (the most recent ones or the unedited ones)? If you copy them on an newly purchased external drive, you can easily access them from the catalog file via right-clicking on the folder and select Find Missing Folder and then select the new location on the external drive of this folder.

OR

You could create smart previews of your photos (some or ALLLLLLL?) and then you can continue editing without having the actual photos available. You will need some space on your MacBook internal drive to accomodate the smart previews, but they don't take up a lot of space and you can do your editing on the smart previews instead of the original images.

[adriant12105070]

Wow! Thanks for the quick reply.

The catalog is on the laptop, the images are on the external RAID drive. The 2TB of images comprise the original imported Dng file, and a partially edited DXO file run through the Plugin, where I finish the editing in LR.

I need all the folders as I am adding metadata before uploading to SmugMug, and will be away for four months. Perhaps I could select only the DXO images(which are rated),but not sure how to segregate them if copying the RAID drive. Of course, I know how to select “Rated” on the laptop, but I assume that’s different.

Lastly, to complicate matters, I have a new MacBook Pro on order which will arrive where we we are going to be. It will have 512 of storage, and 16 GB of Ram. I will need to move the catalog to the new laptop without compromising the data. But that’s perhaps getting ahead of ourselves.

Thanks an d appreciate your help.

Adrian

Sent from my iPad

[dj_paige]

So, no copying of the Lightroom catalog file is necessary.

Copying of the photos is necessary to an external drive. Once you do that, you ccan reconnect LR to the photos on the external drive via right-clicking on the parent (top-level) folder in the Lightroom Folder Panel and select Update Folder Location and point to the correcponding folder on the external drive.

Smart Previews won't work in this situation.

[adriant12105070]

Thanks so much, I will try this.

Best regards,

Adrian

Sent from my iPad

[adriant12105070]

Ok, so I disconnected my RAID drive, and connected my 4TB backup to my laptop. Then I launchedLightroom. The message is “Lightroom Catalog was not found, with choices Use default catalog, or choose a different catalog, or quit. Is copying different from backing up? If so, how does one copy the RAiID drive vs backing it up?

Thanks, Adrian

Sent from my iPad

[dj_paige]

I thought your catalog file was on your MacBook, and you were not going to move it. So where was your catalog file before all this happened?

[adriant12105070]

Sorry if there was a misunderstanding, my catalog file is on my laptop. The photos are on the RAID drive.

Doing a little research, I learned that by cloning a new drive with the same name as the RAID, Lightroom will not be able to distinguish between the two drives. So I have renamed and formatted a spare drive, and will use my backup of the RAID to load this renamed and formatted drive. Then I will see if the catalog recognizes it.

Hopefully this will work. If it does, I can then buy a travelling Thunderbolt 3 drive and set it up.

If you have further thoughts, they would be welcome. I will also confirm if this works.

Thanks and regards,

Adrian

Sent from my iPad

[dj_paige]

I'm afraid you haven't addressed the issue, where you get the message:

“Lightroom Catalog was not found"

So, did you or did you not move the catalog file, or rename/change the drive letter of the disk it was on?

[adriant12105070]

Hi,

Sorry to take awhile to respond. I did not take any action, so no worries. Further, I had a long session with Adobe Support, and they strongly advised not to clone a drive due to the possibility of data loss.

They also confirmed that both my images and catalog are on my external drive. The support person suggested a procedure for working remotely is as follows:

From: Adobe Customer Care <adobecustomercare@adobe.com>

Subject: Copying the data to a new drive

As per your request here are the steps:

1. Copy the root folder from your existing external drive from the finder and paste it in your new external drive.

2. Remove the existing drive from your computer, make sure the LR Application is closed at this time.

3. Plug in the new drive and launch LR Application, locate the missing folder and you will be able to use the folders.

4. Make sure you launch the LR Application by opening the catalog from your new drive.