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LR - Merge catalogs
geralds34
Registered Users Posts: 42 Big grins
Argh!
Better half and I share a PC, and use the same LR Catalog. While I was away, she lost some images, so she opened one of the LR backup catalogs, saw what went missing, and kept using that catalog; importing new images and editing. Now - 6 weeks later, she realizes that we are not using the same catalog, and we want to merge them.
Importing the new images into the master catalog is easy, but is there a way to find the images that have recent edits? Some of the images were taken 3 years ago, so I'd need to search by edit date, not capture date.
Better half and I share a PC, and use the same LR Catalog. While I was away, she lost some images, so she opened one of the LR backup catalogs, saw what went missing, and kept using that catalog; importing new images and editing. Now - 6 weeks later, she realizes that we are not using the same catalog, and we want to merge them.
Importing the new images into the master catalog is easy, but is there a way to find the images that have recent edits? Some of the images were taken 3 years ago, so I'd need to search by edit date, not capture date.
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Well, you know, I've got 2 computers and the photos are stored on a network drive. Each computer has its own cataloge.
Are you putting the photos on one drive? If so, or even if you guys are using mutliple drives, as long as both cataloges can see all of the drives and photos, I think it should be really easy.
I'd suggest importing one of two things. Import all of the files on your drive, but check "Do NOT import suspected duplicates" and this will avoid you creating duplicates in you new cataloge, which ever you decide to make your "master." Only photos that were not added in your master will be added. I beleive, but I may be wrong, that you'll have all of your edits as well. I've moved photographs around quite easily, and created a lots of new cataloges with the old cataloges. I think that all of my edits show up in my new cataloge.
Now, another option, especially if you both have your photos on the same drive, is select the folder or drive they are on (in LR) and then click syncronize. LR2 will search your photos, looking for whatever is not in your catalogue, as well as looking for photos that aren't there anymore. It will resync edits as well. After it finds new photos, it will import them for you.
Note: When importing photos, make sure that you chose the option to leave photos in their current location without moving them (unless you have reason to create a copy in a new location.)
Now, others might chime in with why these won't work, but I've done both of these things, and they both seem to work equally well. I use the first option when I need to create a new cataloge, such as when I wanted to have my latop LR installation build a cataloge of the shared drive photos (since I couldn't get 1 LR catalogue to run on both computers a the same time.)
I use the second option when I've got a 2 seperate cataloges on both computers, and edit or import photos with one, and want the changes to show up in the other.
I really think that either option will work for you. Perhaps try the second option since you've got a built cataloge already.