Copying LR Cat betwween Computers

<p>I'm Using LR4 and I do my initial editing on my mac for speed and then need to move the files to a separate Western Digital (WD) FW800 drives later; where I link my LR Catalog to.<br>

I used to work from the LR Cat on the WD drive as I was running LR on MacBook Pro and Windows 7 PC. I've now sold my PC and using a Mac Mini with Fusion drive; so doing my edits and having the LR Cat on that is a lot faster.<br>

I am still unsure of the best procedure to copy the LR cat and data (not the images) to My MacBook Pro so that I can use The MBP if I need to; so have LR Link to the WD Drive.<br>

Copying the LR Cat etc to a USB stick and copying this to my Macbook Pro works, that would be fine :but Will it?</p>

<p>You can copy the .lrcat and preview folder (.lrdata ?) anywhere you want on the Mac but usually/default is inside your Pictures folder. When you start LR, you can tell it to use a different catalog than what it currently wants to by changing a preference or there is a key combo you can use.</p>

<p>From the online Adobe docs:</p>

 

<h2 >Copy or move a catalog</h2>

 

 

 

Important: Before copying or moving a catalog and preview files, back them up.

 

 

<ol>

<li>Locate the folder that contains the catalog and preview files. In Lightroom, choose Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom > Catalog Settings (Mac OS).</li>

<li>In the Information area of the General panel, click Show to go to the catalog in the Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac OS).</li>

<li>Copy or move the catalog.lrcat and Previews.lrdata files to the new location.</li>

<li>(Optional) Copy or move your image files to the new location.</li>

<li>Double-click the .lrcat file in the new location to open it in Lightroom.</li>

<li>(Optional) If Lightroom cannot find folders or photos in the copied or moved catalog, a question mark appears by folder names in the Folders panel or in photo thumbnails in the Grid view. To restore folder links, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a folder with a question-mark icon and choose Find Missing Folder. To relink individual photos, see <a href="http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS3BC0B0A1-D48C-4271-891D-DA04EF388E29.html">Locate missing photos</a>.</li>

</ol>

<p>That's pretty much all there is to it, Dave. There is a LR option to store your presets with the catalog and I do this so everything is the same between machines. I found it helpful to make a master-folder and called it "LR4.2 2013-01-05" and in it, is a few sub folders; one for catalog, one for plugins and one for keywords. This one master-folder makes it handy for backing up your LR essentials as well.</p>