merging catalogs and preserving file structure

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reidthaler

reidthaler

Reid
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I'm sure this has been covered, so you can refer me to a thread.

I have two lightroom catalogs, my desktop and and on the laptop for when I travel. On my laptop, I have my lightning catalog and my photos stored on a USB drive, so I just need to grab it when I get home and imported to my desktop. I've created the same file structure of downloading images by year and month. I went to import the laptop catalog into the desktop catalog and have the images go right into my existing year and month structure.

I thought that you could select the parent folder, (ie Master Photos) and have everything go to where I want it. It seems like sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, which is awkward when I'm trying to teach a client.

Thought suggestions?

Thanks,

Reid
 
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reidthaler said:
I've created the same file structure of downloading images by year and month.
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The thing that you might be missing is that the same folder structure needs to be relative to the path of the catalog. If your master catalog and Picture folder is on C:\ and your travel catalog is on a USB volume labeled E:\ on one machine and F:\ on another, then the process will import the USB folder structure as a separate folder set relative to the Catalog file. The biggest problem to getting this right is the use of drive letters in Windows which appear in the catalog path of both catalogs.
It is easiest to get working if the LR Pictures are in a sub folder of the folder containing the LR master catalog. and the same structure is followed with the travel catalog and it LR Pictures folders.
 
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clee01l said:
The thing that you might be missing is that the same folder structure needs to be relative to the path of the catalog. If your master catalog and Picture folder is on C:\ and your travel catalog is on a USB volume labeled E:\ on one machine and F:\ on another, then the process will import the USB folder structure as a separate folder set relative to the Catalog file. The biggest problem to getting this right is the use of drive letters in Windows which appear in the catalog path of both catalogs.
It is easiest to get working if the LR Pictures are in a sub folder of the folds
Click to expand...

Thanks for this answer that I ALMOST understand! :). I am using one laptop and one backup drive where I wish to consolidate multiple catalogs on the laptop into a single new catalog on the backup drive, but it is important to preserve the folders that exist on the laptop. On the laptop I've always used this folder structure for each new catalog:
User/HomeFolder/Pictures/LR Catalogxxx/
So, per your answer, where/how can I add a subfolder that will preserve my folders when I consolidate? Thanks!
 
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If your Lightroom catalog is in the folder /Users/[Username]/Pictures/LR Catalogxxx/, then create a folder
/Users/[Username]/Pictures/LR Catalogxxx/Pictures to be the parent folder for your image folders. With a Mac, you do not have nearly the problem that Windows users have since all volume paths are resolvable back to the same Root.
 
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