Had LR5, updated to LRCC, 2 catalogs?

[_JT_]

i had LR 5 with my master catalog. I recently upgraded to the CC plan for photography. It created a new master catalog. Should i use the original catalog or work with this new one? Is this new one for CC only and thus if my membership ends i go back to my other catalog? Help!

thanks

[Per Berntsen]

Lightroom CC upgraded a copy of your LR 5 catalog, and you should work with this upgraded catalog.

If you open the LR 5 catalog again, it will create another upgraded copy.

Catalogs are not backwards compatible, so you won't be able to open a CC catalog in LR 5.

If you still want to go back to LR 5, you should save metadata to the files in LR CC first.

This will make the edits you do in CC visible, but new features in CC will not carry over.

Also, not all metadata will be saved to the files, including flags, collections, develop history, and probably some other things.

[_JT_]

When you said if i open LR5 again, it will create another upgraded copy, what did you mean?

And how do i save the metadata files in CC?

thanks for all your help!

[ManiacJoe · Accepted solution]

When you upgraded from LR5 to LR 6/2015 your old LR5 catalog was migrated to a new LR6 format catalog.

LR 6 cannot use the LR 5 catalog, nor LR 5 use the LR 6 catalog.

Your LR 5 catalog will remain unchanged while you are using LR 6/2015. However, if you decide to go back to LR 5, there is no way to get the edits from LR 6 back into LR 5. The best you could hope for would be to save your LR 6 edits in the XMP files and import the new photos into the LR 5 catalog.

That said, the easier thing to do if you wanted to continue using LR 6/2015 after stopping your CC subscription would be to purchase the standalone version of LR 6, which uses the same catalog as LR 2015 subscription.

[_JT_]

"Your LR 5 catalog will remain unchanged while you are using LR 6/2015. However, if you decide to go back to LR 5, there is no way to get the edits from LR 6 back into LR 5. The best you could hope for would be to save your LR 6 edits in the XMP files and import the new photos into the LR 5 catalog."

is this the same as another poster's comments regarding saving the metadata to the files in CC (regarding saving the edits in XMP files?) Does this have to be done to each photo individually or is there a setting for this? I assume there is, but I'm not quite sure how to do it. I will try to dig through the settings to find it/google it but if you know, that would be helpful!

Also, when you say importing the new photos into the LR5 catalog, that would be any 'new' photos imported with the new CC catalog, correct? How would one re-import them into the LR5 catalog?

Sorry for all the questions. I have some experience with LR5 (developing, etc) but i am not too familiar with the under-the-hood goings on of things. I hope to get better though.

thanks again!

[Per Berntsen]

When you said if i open LR5 again, it will create another upgraded copy, what did you mean?

Maybe I misunderstood your post.

What I meant was that if you open the old LR 5 catalog in the new LR CC a second time, a second upgraded catalog will be created, which is not something you want or need to do.

And how do i save the metadata files in CC?

In the Catalog panel on the left in Library, click All Photoghraphs.

Then select all the thumbnails, (Ctrl+A) and go to Metadata > Save metadata to files (Ctrl+S).

For proprietary raw files (NEF, CR2, etc) the metadata will be saved to XMP sidecar files - text files that will be created in the same folder as your photos. If you have a file named  _DSC3654.nef, a file named _DSC3654.xmp will be created nex to it.

For any other file type (DNG, jpg, tiff, psd) the metadata will be written to the header of the files, and no xmp files are created.

Also, when you say importing the new photos into the LR5 catalog, that would be any 'new' photos imported with the new CC catalog, correct? How would one re-import them into the LR5 catalog?

You would re-import them by doing a normal import.

But like I said, not all metadata is carried over, and you will lose edits done with features in CC that aren't in LR 5.

Be aware that if you in the meantime have got a new camera that isn't supported by LR 5, the files from that camera can not be imported, unless you convert them to DNG with the (free) DNG converter.

So going back to LR 5 is far from ideal, and I would recommend that you stick with LR CC.

You will then always have the latest features, and support for new cameras.