Questions about using an external hard drive to connect Lightroom between a desktop and a laptop computer.

[graceh60015488]

Hi everyone,

I have already looked at quite a few similar questions asked in this forum, and they were helpful to an extent but didn't address my specific query.

I have been using Lightroom (CC) on a desktop Mac for about a year, and have been loving it so far. A couple of days ago I got a laptop, also an Apple, for university. I would like to be able to use Lightroom on both computers, and after some research I decided I would like to use an external hard drive to do this. My understanding of this technique is that you need to keep the photos and Lightroom catalogue on the external hard drive, and plug it in to the computer that you want to use.

My query is this: I would like to keep a copy of my Lightroom catalogue and photos on my desktop computer too, so that I have another copy of it. Do I need to make a copy of the photos and catalogue onto the desktop computer, and then remove it from Lightroom to enable me to use the Lightroom photos and catalogue on the external hard drive in the desktop Lightroom? In other words, will it cause problems if I use the external hard drive copy of the photos and catalogue in the desktop Lightroom, if the original copy of the photos and catalogue are still there (in Lightroom)? If so, I'm not sure how to remove the original photos and catalogue from the desktop Lightroom.

Also, I understand how to copy the photos and catalogue onto the external hard drive and open them in my laptop Lightroom, but I'm not quite sure what I do after that (in terms of keeping the desktop and the laptop synchronised). When I have edited some of my photos on my laptop and want to continue where I left off on the desktop, do I just copy the updated catalogue onto the external hard drive and then copy that onto the desktop Lightroom? If so, how exactly do I do this?

I'm sorry if my questions are a bit long and detailed, I just really want to make sure I do this properly.

I would really appreciate it if anyone could help.

Thanks in advance.

[ManiacJoe · Accepted solution]

Using an external hard drive is the recommended approach to using LR on multiple computers. Keep the images and the catalog on the external drive; move the drive to other computer as needed.

There is no need to copy the files to the internal drives of the computers; use the files on the external drive.

You do need to be making read-only backups of your catalog and images; you could use your desktop computer's drive for this purpose but you would never open these files in LR directly.

Your images are not "in" Lightroom; they are on the hard drive, just like all your documents and spreadsheets. The catalog (database) just references your images by path and file name on the hard drive.

LR is a single-computer system. If you are going to try to use multiple instances of a catalog on different computers, which is VERY MUCH not recommended, you need to choose one instance of the catalog as the master and then manually sync from and to it:

- Call the catalog on the external drive the master.

- Copy the master to the internal drive of the desktop.

- Open the local copy on the desktop.

- Do your edits.

- Close LR.

- Copy the local catalog back to the external drive to update the master catalog.

If you are going to do this, a shell script is the best way to do it while minimizing the user errors.

[graceh60015488]

Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.

If using multiple instances of a catalogue on different computers is not recommended, then what is the best/recommended way to do it?  I'm not fussed as to how I "sync" the two computers, I just want to do it the way that is the best.

Thanks again.

[Just Shoot Me]

I would not try Syncing the 2 computers. If you store the REAL Catalog file, IE the one you use to make all changes and imports to, on the external drive there is no reason to sync the 2 computers. You use the desktop system as a Backup  of the images and catalog file.

You never Access that Backup from LR installed on the desktop. It is just a ​Backup!!!!!!​ .

[graceh60015488]

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you so much for your help.

[JoeKostoss]

All good advice here. 

I would suggest that you do not use the Internal Hard Drive of the computer as a backup as it will very quickly become filled.  Instead, get a second identical External Hard Drive and use an app such as SuperDuper - Shirt Pocket - to keep the 2 discs synchronized.

Alternatively, you can backup to the cloud with one of the backup services available.  This avoids the confusion and problems of keeping computers synchronized.

[graceh60015488]

Thank you for your advice and help, I really appreciate it.

[Just Shoot Me]

I suggest you always use the External drive for LR access to the catalog file and all your images. If you want a second copy of both your images and the catalog on the internal drive of the Mac desktop system as a backup then just Copy them from the external to the internal drive of the desktop using Finder, the Mac OS X File Manager program, but do not access the catalog file from that copy.

[graceh60015488]

Thank you, I really appreciate your help.