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Just set up a new computer. My LR6 catalog and pics live and play on its own ext drive. When I first launched LR6 on the new computer it made me set up a new catalog which I did thinking I could just link the old catalog. Then I got nervous because I don't want to import the catalog or pics onto my boot drive. So I quit LR6 and trashed the new LR6 catalog.
I then relaunched LR6 and asked if I wanted to import a catalog. This is where my question comes in. If I click on my LR6 catalog here will LR6 simply link the catalog location and done or is it going to try and import everything to my boot drive? I don't want to copy anything from any drive to any drive. I just want to tell LR6 where my catalog and pics live.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Are there question mark icons on your folders or exclamation point icons on the photos (as shown here: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders )
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spec2 wrote
I then relaunched LR6 and asked if I wanted to import a catalog. This is where my question comes in. If I click on my LR6 catalog here will LR6 simply link the catalog location and done or is it going to try and import everything to my boot drive? I don't want to copy anything from any drive to any drive. I just want to tell LR6 where my catalog and pics live.
Don't launch LR 6 from the normal LR icon.
In your operating system, find the catalog file on the external HD and then double-click on it to open it in LR.
No importing needed, in fact it would be the wrong thing to do.
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Thanks so much! I opened the "Library 6 Catalog.ircat" file, and LR6 opened and did the rest. All is good there. But a good bit of the pictures displayed are just the low-res thumbnails not the full res master. Is there another step I need to take?
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Are there question mark icons on your folders or exclamation point icons on the photos (as shown here: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders )
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Thanks so much. The process is a little Byzantine but was able to re link the collections that mattered and trashed the rest.
I think the lesson learned here is never change the name of the drive or any other part of the namin path your catalog and masters are stored on.
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No, the lesson is that you can store your photos anywhere you want them to be stored, and if you do need to move the photos that they can be relinked easily (if you do it right, it shouldn't take even 2 minutes) so that Lightroom knows the new location.