Imported Photos Missing Names/People

[rafaeld40474899]

I need help importing a LR catalog/folder from an external hard drive into my desktop computer (Mac Pro). The first time, I imported the images,it worked, but I discovered that none of the data (face/names) copied over. Several months ago, I had this same issue. I spoke to an Adobe technical rep and they walked me through the process. I took notes, but as we were going through the process, there were several points where the instructions changed or we had to go back to undo a setting. By the time we got through it all, my notes didn't make sense - thus finding myself in the same (confused) place.

(1) All of the photos are on an external hard drive. I created the project while using a laptop, and placed and worked from the hard drive.

(2) I want to import all of the photos into a current Catalog (desktop). I want the Folder to appear exactly the same as on the laptop (edits, names, keywords, people).

(3) Could someone please provide step-by-step instructions?

(4) System Specifications: Lightroom (2015.7) & Apple Yosemite (10.10.5)

NOTE: I did see a tutorial on how to merge Catalogs, but I'm not sure if this is the best method. If this proves to be the way to go, I've already performed a  <File, Export as Catalog> and selected the boxes for Export Negative Files & Include Available Previews. This is also on an external hard drive.

Thank you for your assistance.

R

[rafaeld40474899]

OK, it appears exporting it as a Catalog was the way to go. Here are the steps I performed.

(1) Copied the photos (including Irdata & Ircat) to desktop hard drive.

(2) Performed <File, Export as Catalog>

(3) Merged the new Catalog with an existing Catalog (did not move files since they are already where I want them to be).

Now here's the strange part. Even though I pointed to the photos on the desktop hard drive, it referenced the external hard drive. I only realized this when I disconnected the external HD. It was an easy fix as I pointed it to the correct location.

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

rafaeld40474899 wrote:
(1) Copied the photos (including Irdata & Ircat) to desktop hard drive.
Now here's the strange part. Even though I pointed to the photos on the desktop hard drive, it referenced the external hard drive. I only realized this when I disconnected the external HD. It was an easy fix as I pointed it to the correct location.

The culprit seems to be point 1 and absolute paths. When merging my mobile DB with my Lightroom-DB on my workstation, I "import from another catalog"! That lets me copy the pictures to my Workstation and exclude duplicates.