from pc to mac, LR help

mrfizzed

i am about to go from my pc to finally a mac laptop. my question is this, what happens to my LR catalogs? can they be brought over as is or do i lose all my work? can they be converted in some way? can someone help?

cmason

mrfizzed wrote:

i am about to go from my pc to finally a mac laptop. my question is this, what happens to my LR catalogs? can they be brought over as is or do i lose all my work? can they be converted in some way? can someone help?

yes they come over very simply. I actually just copied the catalog file over, and then opened LR, then File>Open Catalog. Worked perfectly. I had to tell it where the photos were, since they were in a different location.

My understanding is there is a much better way to do this: connect your PC to the network and make sure the Mac can see it (sometimes you have to choose Finder>Go>Connect to server), then open Lightroom, choose File>Import from Catalog, and navigate to the catalog on your PC.

jfriend

cmason wrote:

yes they come over very simply. I actually just copied the catalog file over, and then opened LR, then File>Open Catalog. Worked perfectly. I had to tell it where the photos were, since they were in a different location.

My understanding is there is a much better way to do this: connect your PC to the network and make sure the Mac can see it (sometimes you have to choose Finder>Go>Connect to server), then open Lightroom, choose File>Import from Catalog, and navigate to the catalog on your PC.

I've used Import from Catalog to move images from one catalog to another and it is a magic feature. Not only will it move images from one to another, but it will update images that have been modified elsewhere and you want back into your main catalog.

When I go on a trip, I sometimes export part of my catalog to a new catalog on my laptop (for editing on a plane). I edit images while on my trip and then when I come back, I connect them to the network and do Import from catalog from my main desktop PC. It pulls all the recent edits from the other catalog right into my main catalog, even when the images already exist. Very cool.