ADOBE® PHOTOSHOP®

LIGHTROOM®
MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

2022 RELEASE
Lightroom 1-6 & Lightroom Classic

Victoria Bampton & Paul McFarlane

 ii ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

LEGAL NOTICE:

© 2019 Victoria Bampton. All rights reserved.

Released 3 April 2019

Updated 7 March 2022

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written
permission of the publisher,

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Lightroom, and Photoshop are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States
and/or other countries.

THIS PRODUCT IS NOT ENDORSED OR SPONSORED BY ADOBE SYSTEMS

INCORPORATED, PUBLISHER OF ADOBE PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM.

Adobe product screenshot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems

Incorporated.

Cover photo © byheaven (Marina Pissarova)

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The information contained within this ebook is given in good faith and is believed
to be accurate, appropriate and reliable at the time it is given, but is provided
without any warranty of accuracy, appropriateness or reliability. The author
does not accept any liability or responsibility for any loss suffered from the
reader’s use of the advice, recommendation, information, assistance or service,
to the extent available by law.
 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents   iii

Introduction  1

Search for Missing Photos   3

Prepare Your Folders   6

Move Your Mobile Photos   9

Backup & Transfer   11

Install Lightroom   14

Open on the New Computer   16

Check Your Preferences   17

You’re Off to a Great Start!   18

 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Moving Lightroom to a new computer (or rest.
1
reinstalling the operating system) can be a
scary prospect, especially if your computer
skills are limited, but there’s nothing to WHAT NOT TO DO!
worry about if you follow the simple steps in
this eBook. You’ve probably already searched the web
for instructions. There’s plenty of bad advice
You will need a basic understanding of your out there, so before we get started on the
computer’s filing system, so if you’re not safe instructions, we should discuss the
comfortable moving files using Explorer main things to avoid, and why:
(Windows) / Finder (Mac), then you might
want to get a local computer technician (or Import the Photos. Some people will tell
teenager!) to help. Make sure they follow you to copy the photos to the new computer
the instructions in this eBook, as many won’t and then import them into Lightroom. This
be familiar with Lightroom’s quirks. is a bad idea because you’ll lose all of the
metadata and edits.
If possible, don’t wipe or dispose of the old
computer until you’re happy that everything Write the Metadata to the Files (XMP).
is running well on your new computer, and Others will tell you to write the metadata
you didn’t forget anything along the way. to the files before importing them into a
new catalog. Writing the metadata can be
a good additional backup, but it’s a bad way
LIGHTROOM VERSIONS of moving to a new computer. It doesn’t
include some important data, such as flags,
We’ll use Lightroom Classic for collection memberships, virtual copies,
the screenshots in this eBook, stacks, Develop history states, and more.
but the same principles apply to
Lightroom 6 and earlier too. Synchronize Folder. While the Synchronize
Folder command sounds like an easy way
If you’re using the new to match up Lightroom’s catalog with the
Lightroom cloud-based filing system on the new computer, it simply
ecosystem, which stores the removes the “missing” photo records from
photos in the cloud, then you the catalog and imports the photos at their
only need to install Lightroom new location as brand new photos, losing
on the new computer (page your metadata and edits in the process.
14), sign in, and it will do the
 2 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

Export as Catalog. Many people always worth updating your backups just
recommend using the File menu > Export as before doing any significant changes on your
Catalog command to copy the photos and computer, and this is no exception. We’ll use
their metadata/edits to another hard drive, a checklist to ensure that we don’t miss any
ready to move to the new computer. This important files.
isn’t terrible advice, but again, it loses some
metadata in the process. Most notably, it Transfer everything. Whether you’re
loses Publish Services, cloud sync data and restoring the new computer from your
doesn’t transfer your presets and templates. backup drive, using a spare external drive to
copy the files, or copying files across a local
network, this is the most time consuming
THE RIGHT WAY TO MOVE part of the job.

So having learned what not to do, let’s Install Lightroom. The Lightroom
briefly summarize the right way to move application is easy to install on the new
Lightroom, before we then take a much computer, but the process varies slightly,
closer look at each step. depending on whether you have a monthly
subscription or an older perpetual license.
Track down missing photos. Lightroom
keeps a record of where you stored Open Lightroom. A simple double-click
the photos, but if you’ve moved them, opens your transferred Lightroom catalog
deleted them, or renamed them outside of on the new computer, complete with all of
Lightroom, or the computer has changed your metadata and edits, and then it’s just a
the drive letter, these links can get broken. case of updating the folder locations if any
It’s best to fix these broken links before you are marked as missing.
start moving, as they can be harder to track
down when everything’s moved around. Personalize Lightroom. Finally, it’s time
to check the presets and templates are all
Set up a folder hierarchy. If the location available, update any preferences and install
of the photos changes during the move, third-party plug-ins.
you’ll need to tell Lightroom where they’re
now stored. You could do this one photo at Ready to get started...?
a time, or even one folder at a time, but it’s
far easier to relink a single parent folder,
especially if you’re moving cross platform
(e.g. Windows to Mac, or vice versa). A little
preparation can save a lot of time later.

Move mobile photos into normal folders.

By default, Lightroom stores photos
downloaded from the cloud in a special
folder, which is easily forgotten when
moving to a new computer, so it’s best to
drag the photos into your normal photo
storage folders.

Update backups. For peace of mind, it’s

 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 3

SEARCH FOR
MISSING PHOTOS
When you import photos, Lightroom creates
2
a record in the catalog of where the photos
are stored, along with all of the photo’s
metadata and your edits.

If you later move, rename or delete the

photos or folders outside of Lightroom,
these links can get broken. Photos can also Figure 2.1 The temporary
go missing because Windows has changed Missing Photographs collection
the drive letter, or simply because the drive appears in the Catalog panel.
containing the photos is unplugged.

You could hunt down these missing photos RECONNECT MISSING DRIVES
after you’ve moved to the new computer,
but it’s generally simpler to do it in advance. First, look in the Folders panel. Is the whole
drive offline, shown by dark gray text and a
gray rectangle on the left? (Figure 2.2)
CHECK FOR MISSING PHOTOS

To check whether you have any missing

photos in your catalog, go to Library menu >
Find Missing Photos. This groups the missing
photos together in a temporary collection in
the Catalog panel. The collection doesn’t
update live when you fix the links, but you
can update it by running the Find Missing
Photos command. (Figure 2.1)
Figure 2.2 If the whole volume’s
How many of your photos are marked as offline, the drive goes gray.
missing? Do you know why they’re missing?
If the answer’s no, skip on to the next
To fix the broken links, follow these subheading.
instructions in order. If you start relinking
individual photos before you relink their If the answer’s yes, why is the drive offline?
folders, you’ll create a bigger job. Is it disconnected? If you’re on Windows,
has the drive letter changed? If you’re on a
 4 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

Mac, has the drive name changed? FIND MISSING FOLDERS

If the drive is disconnected, plug it back in or Once you’ve reconnected missing hard
reconnect to the network storage. drives, look in the Folders panel. Are any of
the folders marked as missing, with gray
If the drive letter/name has changed, you text and a question mark on the folder icon?
can change it back, or you can move on to (Figure 2.3)
the next subheading and reconnect the
individual folders.

How do I change drive letters on

Windows?

When using external drives, Lightroom

doesn’t change the drive letters, but
Windows often does. That can confuse
Lightroom, requiring you to relink missing
files on a regular basis. Leaving the drives Figure 2.3 Missing folders
plugged in to your computer, or always have question mark icons.
reattaching them in the same order can help
avoid the drive letter changing. If the answer’s no, skip on to the next
subheading.
To set the drive letter a little more
permanently, or reset them if they change, If the answer’s yes, why are entire folders
you can go into Windows Disk Management missing? Did you delete, rename or move a
and assign a specific drive letter. You’ll need folder?
to be logged in as an Administrator. On
Windows 7/10, go to Start menu > Control If you deleted the folders, restore from the
Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Recycle Bin/Trash or from a backup.
Management or use the Search charm on
Windows 8. Disk Management is listed in If you renamed or moved the folder, you
the left-hand panel under Storage. Selecting could move/rename it back and then redo
this connects to the Virtual Disk Service and the move/rename within Lightroom.
displays the drives seen in the main panel.
If you can’t put them back as they were,
Find the relevant drive in the list, right-click you can link Lightroom to the new name/
and there’s an option to Change Drive Letter location. That’s the next step…
and Paths. Be careful to ensure you have the
correct drive! Selecting Change displays a list Is a whole folder hierarchy of parent/child
of available letters to select from. Selecting folders marked as missing? Or is it a single
a letter outside the range Windows would folder (or a few folders) that’s marked as
usually assign automatically helps to reduce missing?
the possibility of it changing, so a letter
from the latter half of the alphabet is a good If it’s a whole folder hierarchy that’s missing,
choice. When you’ve finished, press OK, and right-click on the parent folder (rather than
select Yes when prompted to confirm the the individual subfolders) and select Find
drive letter change. Missing Folder from the context-sensitive
 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 5

menu, then navigate to the new location of

that parent folder. As long as the names and
structure of the subfolders hasn’t changed,
all of the subfolders are reconnected at the
same time.

If it’s a single missing folder, right-click on

the missing folder and select Find Missing
Folder from the context-sensitive menu, then
navigate to the new location of that single
folder. Lightroom then updates its records Figure 2.4 Missing photos have
to the new location and the question marks an icon in the top right corner.
disappear.

Repeat the process for each missing folder. Lightroom displays the last known location
of the photo. (Figure 2.5)

FIND MISSING PHOTOS

Once you’ve reconnected all of the missing

folders, go to Library menu > Find Missing
Photos again, to see whether any individual
photos are still missing.

You’ll need to find these files on your hard Figure 2.5 Click on the icon and
drive or restore them from your backups. then click Locate and navigate to
Lightroom can’t tell you where you’ve put the new location of the photo.
the files, so you first need to locate the
missing files on your hard drives. If you get Click Locate and navigate to the new
stuck, try using Windows Search or Mac location of that photo. Lightroom updates
Spotlight to search for the filenames. its records to the new location and the
rectangular icon disappears.
To link Lightroom to the new name/
location, click on the icon in the corner of Lightroom checks the selected folder
the thumbnail. (Figure 2.4) The missing for other nearby missing photos and
photo icon varies slightly by Lightroom automatically reconnects them if they have
version, so here are the icons to look out for: the same name, so it’s worth running Library
menu > Find Missing Photos every so often.
Lightroom 1-4

Lightroom 5, 6, Classic (completely

missing)

Lightroom 5, 6, CC2015, Classic

(original missing, smart preview
available)
 6 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

PREPARE YOUR
FOLDERS
Once the photos have been moved to the
3
new computer (in the next chapter), there’s a
good chance they’ll be in a slightly different
location, and we may need to reconnect all
of the photos. This is especially important
if you’re moving to a different operating
system.

As we’ve seen in the previous chapter, it’s

far easier to reconnect one or more parent
folders and leave Lightroom to fix the
subfolders, rather than reconnecting them
all individually. (Figure 3.1)

Displaying a folder hierarchy instead of a

flat list of folders also makes it easier to
understand how the folders in Lightroom
relate to folders on your hard drive.

ELEMENTS OF A FOLDER HIERARCHY

We’re going to talk about three levels of

folders—top-level folders, parent folders
and subfolders:

Subfolders are folders that are inside

another folder in the Folders panel.

Parent folders are folders that have other

folders inside them, shown by a solid
triangle instead of a dotted one.

Top-level folders, otherwise known as root Figure 3.1 A flat folder list (top) is
folders, are folders displayed without a much harder to reconnect compared
parent folder. They’re closest to the left of with a folder hierarchy (bottom).
 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 7

the panel. You may want to repeat this step on the new
top-level folders until you can visualize the
whole tree. The aim is to end up showing
SET UP THE HIERARCHY only a few parent folders (perhaps one for
each hard drive), such as your My Photos, My
Find a top-level folder. In Figure 3.2, this is Lightroom Photos or Pictures folder.
any of the folders starting with 2013.
For example, in Figure 3.4, we’re still missing
some parent folders, so we’ll right-click on
the 2013-07 folder and choose Show Parent
Folder and then right-click on the 2013 or
2014 folder to show the My Photos folder
that contains all of the Lightroom photos.

Figure 3.2 The initial view of the

Folders panel may not be easy to relate
to the folders on the hard drive.

Right-click on this folder and choose

Show Parent Folder. (Figure 3.3) (If this
option doesn’t appear in the menu, you’ve
right-clicked on the wrong folder.) This Figure 3.4 In some cases, you’ll need to use
doesn’t import new photos. It just shows Show Parent Folder on multiple folders.
an additional hierarchy level in the Folders
panel.

Figure 3.3 Using Show Parent Folder to

add additional parent folders to the Folders
panel view makes it easier to visualize how
Lightroom relates to the hard drive.
 8 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

Once you’ve finished, you can see a

hierarchy of folders that looks much more
like the Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac)
view. (Figures 3.5 & 3.6)

Figure 3.5 The end result of the

process is a familiar folder hierarchy.

Figure 3.6 The same folder hierarchy shown in Windows Explorer and Finder.
There are more folders here than those showing in Lightroom’s folder panel,
as some of the folders haven’t been imported into Lightroom.
 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 9

MOVE YOUR
MOBILE PHOTOS
When you add photos to the Lightroom
4
photos into normal folders. You could put
Cloud (perhaps using Lightroom on your them in a separate Mobile Photos folder, or
phone), they’re downloaded to your drag them into your normal photo storage
Lightroom Classic catalog. By default, folders.
Lightroom puts them in a special folder
(Windows) / package file (Mac) on your
computer. The full folder path is: CREATE A FOLDER

Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \ My To create a brand new folder to store your
Pictures \ Lightroom \ Mobile Downloads. downloaded photos, go to Library menu
lrdata > New Folder, or press the + button on
the Folders panel and select Add Folder.
Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your Navigate to the location of your choice.
username] / Pictures / Lightroom / Mobile
Downloads.lrdata On Windows, right-click and select New
then Folder and type the name of the folder,
This is a fixed location, regardless of where then press the Enter key and select the new
you store your catalog. They show up in folder, then press Select Folder.
the Folders panel as an additional drive, for
example, Victoria’s iPhone. (Figure 4.1) On a Mac, press the New Folder button in the
operating system dialog. Give it a name and
press Create. Your new folder is created on
the hard drive and automatically selected in
the operating system dialog, so press Choose
to add it to Lightroom.

DRAG THE PHOTOS

If you select the photos in the Grid view,

you can drag and drop them onto a normal
Figure 4.1 The Mobile Downloads folder folder of your choice.
shows as a separate drive in the Folders panel.
Select the photos you want to move, then
It’s difficult to reconnect missing photos in click on the thumbnail of one of the photos
these special folders, so it’s best to drag the (not the surrounding border) and drag it to
 10 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

the new folder location in the Folders panel,

before releasing them. (Figure 4.2)

Figure 4.2 Drag photos from the Grid

view onto the Folders panel, then drop
them when the folder turns blue.

If you don’t like to drag and drop, you can

select the photos, then right-click on your
chosen folder in the Folders panel and select
Move Selected Photos to this Folder to get the
same result.

CHANGE THE DEFAULT LOCATION

To avoid having to manually move the mobile

photos again in future, you can change the
default location and folder structure by
going to Lightroom’s Preferences dialog >
Lightroom Sync tab. (Figure 4.3)

Figure 4.3 The location and folder structure for mobile/web uploads can be selected in Preferences.
 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 11

BACKUP & TRANSFER

Before you start moving, you need to make
5
you’ve done on the photos within Lightroom.
sure that all of Lightroom’s files are backed Make sure you quit Lightroom before you
up—the catalogs, photos, preferences, copy the catalog.
presets, profiles, defaults, plug-ins and any
other related files. On the following pages is ¶ Windows Default—C: \ Users \ [your
a full list of all the Lightroom files you need username] \ My Pictures \ Lightroom \
to include in your backups. If you’re wiping Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
the hard drive in the process, rather than
running both machines at the same time, it’s ¶ Mac Default—Macintosh HD / Users /
even more important to make sure that you [your username] / Pictures / Lightroom /
don’t miss anything. Lightroom Catalog.lrcat

In an ideal world, you’d be running backup You may have chosen a different location or
software that automatically backs up all of catalog name, so go to Edit menu (Windows)
these different files and folders on a regular / Lightroom menu (Mac) > Catalog Settings to
basis, but if you don’t have such a system confirm the location of your catalog. You
yet, you can just use Explorer (Windows) / may have created more than one catalog.
Finder (Mac) to copy them to another hard
drive and/or your new computer. p The other catalog files—other files
associated with the catalog. These are
If you’re moving cross-platform, you’ll need stored next to the catalog file..
to consider the drive format. macOS can
read Windows NTFS formatted drives, but ¶ *.lrcat-shm
can’t write to them. Windows can’t read or
write to Mac HFS/APFS formatted drives. ¶ *.lrcat-wal
Both can read and write FAT32 and exFAT,
which makes it a good drive format for ¶ *.lrcat-data
transferring the files, but it’s slower than
the native formats, so just use it to copy the ¶ *Helper.lrdata
files to the new/reformatted drives.
¶ *Sync.lrdata

BACKUP CHECKLIST p The catalog backups—just in case your

working catalog gets corrupted.
p The catalog(s)—holds all the information
about your photos, including all the work ¶ By default, the backups are stored in a
 12 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

Backups folder next to the catalog, but you \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom \
may have selected a different location in the
Backup dialog. ¶ Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your
username] / Library / Application Support /
p The previews—standard and smart Adobe / Lightroom /
previews.
If Preferences > Presets tab > Store presets
¶ Previews are stored next to the catalog with this catalog is checked, most presets
as folders (Windows) or files (Mac) with a and templates are stored in a Lightroom
*.lrdata extension. Settings folder next to your catalog, but
back up this Lightroom folder too. However
These will be rebuilt on demand as long presets shared with Camera Raw remain in
as you have the original photos, but you the following location...
can save time by copying them to the new
computer. p Shared Camera Raw settings—includes
Develop presets (xmp format), Develop
p The photos—in their current folder default settings, Lens Profile defaults and
structure, in case you ever have to restore a camera-specific profiles (dcp format), etc.
backup.
¶ Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] \
These are stored in the location of your AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ CameraRaw \
choice. To locate a specific folder, go to the
Folders panel, right-click and select Show in ¶ Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your
Explorer (Windows) / Show in Finder (Mac). username] / Library / Application Support /
Adobe / CameraRaw /
p Mobile uploads—photos uploaded from
your phone or tablet using the Lightroom p Plug-ins—includes export plug-ins, web
mobile app (subscription only). galleries and any other extensions that you
may have downloaded for Lightroom. Don’t
¶ Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] forget to keep their serial numbers safe too.
\ My Pictures \ Lightroom \ Mobile These are stored in your choice of location.
Downloads.lrdata Check File menu > Plug-in Manager for the
location of each plug-in.
¶ Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your
username] / Pictures / Lightroom / Mobile p Preferences—includes last used settings,
Downloads.lrdata view options, FTP settings for uploading
web galleries, some plug-in settings, etc. The
We’ve already moved these photos in the preferences could be rebuilt if necessary,
previous chapter, but back up this folder/file but you may save yourself a little time by
anyway. backing them up and restoring them.

p Lightroom-Specific Presets & ¶ Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username]

Templates—includes Slideshow, Print and \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom
Web templates, Metadata presets, Export \ Preferences \ Lightroom Classic CC 7
presets, etc.. Preferences.agprefs

¶ Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] p Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your

 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 13

username] / Library / Preferences / com. the Go menu, and hold down the Opt key,
adobe.LightroomClassicCC7.plist you’ll see Library appear in the menu, and
then you can navigate to the Preferences
p Startup Preferences—includes the last or Application Support folder. We drag that
used catalog path, the recent catalog list, Library folder to the sidebar so that it’s
which catalog to load on startup and the always easily accessible.
catalog upgrade history. The preferences
could be rebuilt if necessary, but you may
save yourself a little time by backing them TRANSFER THE FILES
up and restoring them.
Transfer all of the files to the new
¶ Windows—C: \ Users \ [your username] computer—the catalog, the photos,
\ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom preferences and so forth—and if possible,
\ Preferences \ Lightroom Classic CC 7 place them in the same locations as they
Startup Preferences.agprefs were on the old computer (or the equivalent
location, if you’re moving cross-platform).
¶ Mac—Macintosh HD / Users / [your
username] / Library / Preferences / com. Most people copy the files to an external
adobe. LightroomClassicCC7.plist hard drive for the transfer, or copy them
over a wired network connection.
The file path is identical for earlier
Lightroom versions, but the preferences file If the photos are already stored on an
name differs according to version number. external hard drive or NAS (network
storage), they can stay in their current
The Windows and Mac preferences location. Simply connect the drive to the
file formats differ by operating system, new computer.
so you can’t copy the preferences files
when moving cross-platform. Some Don’t forget to set up your backup software
photographers therefore like to create on the new computer!
screenshots of the Preferences and View
Options dialogs, to help them remember
how they like their preferences set.

SHOWING HIDDEN FILES TO FIND

PREFERENCES AND PRESETS?

Some folders are hidden by default by the

Operating System. To show them:

• On Windows, you can open the Start

menu search box and type %appdata%\
Adobe\Lightroom, and you’ll be taken
directly to the Lightroom user folder.

• On macOS, the user Library folder is

hidden by default. If you go to Finder, select
 14 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

INSTALL LIGHTROOM
With all of the files copied, it’s time to
6
installations, log in to your account at
install the Lightroom app. The process https://www.adobe.com and visit the Apps
varies depending on whether you have a page at https://creativecloud.adobe.com/
subscription or an older perpetual licensed apps/
version.
Find Lightroom Classic and click the Install
button. It prompts you to install the Creative
CREATIVE CLOUD SUBSCRIPTION Cloud desktop app.

To install the Creative Cloud app, If you already have the CC app installed
which manages all of the individual app in the System Tray (Windows) / Menubar

Apps tabs View available updates Creative Cloud app Preferences

Sign In/Out

Open app

Show app menu

incl. install
older versions
and uninstall

Install app

Update app

Figure 6.1 The Creative Cloud Desktop app allows you to easily install and update Adobe software.
 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 15

(Mac), select the Apps tab, scroll down and Mac.

to Lightroom Classic and press Install.
(Figure 6.1) Lightroom (cloud-based) is the
new ecosystem of apps for
Windows, Mac, iOS, Android,
LIGHTROOM 1-6 ChromeOS, Apple TV and Web.
It stores your photos in the
If you own an older version, you’ll need to cloud.
install from your DVD or from the following
links: If you’re not sure which version will suit you
best, here’s a comparison: https://www.Lrq.
LR5: https://Lrq.me/lr5download me/lightroom-cc-vs-classic-features/

LR6: https://Lrq.me/lr6download

You’ll need your serial number, and if

you purchased an upgrade, you’ll also
need a serial number from a previous
version. If you registered your software
when you installed it, your serial number
may be recorded on the Adobe website
under My Account > Plans > Products at
https://account.adobe.com/products

OPERATING SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY

If you’re moving to a new computer, you

probably also have the latest operating
system.

Lightroom 6 and earlier are no longer

supported, so they haven’t been tested
on the latest operating systems. As a
result, they may not work correctly
(especially on macOS), so you may
want to considering upgrading to the
Creative Cloud Photography Plan from
https://www.Lrq.me/ccphoto

There are now two versions of Lightroom

available, which are fully updated for the
current operating systems:

Lightroom Classic is the latest

version of “traditional” folder-
based Lightroom for Windows
 16 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

OPEN ON THE NEW

COMPUTER
You’re nearly there! Now you get to find
7
photos and re-import, or try to synchronize
out whether you followed the instructions a folder, and don’t try to relocate individual
accurately... files by clicking on a thumbnail icon, as you’ll
create a bigger job.
Double-click on the *.lrcat catalog file to
open it. It should look exactly the same as it Refer back to the Search for Missing Photos
did on your old computer, complete with all chapter on page 3 to reconnect the files
of your collections, flags, keywords, and all with the new location. You should only need
of your edits. If it doesn’t, you’ve copied or to reconnect a few parent folders, one for
opened the wrong catalog. each drive.

There may still be missing files, so we’ll fix

these next....

RELINK ANY MISSING FILES

If the folder locations have changed even

slightly, the photos may be marked as
missing. This is nothing to worry about, as
we’re already prepared.

Figure 7.1 The hard drive or photos

may be marked as missing.

Don’t be tempted to remove the missing

 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER 17

CHECK YOUR
PREFERENCES
Finally, you can set Lightroom up just the UPDATE YOUR WATERMARKS
8
way you like it.
Graphical watermarks may break when
moving to a new computer, because the
CHECK YOUR PREFERENCES location of the watermark image changes.
AND PRESETS
To update them, go to Edit menu (Windows)
If you’ve copied the preferences file / Lightroom menu (Mac) > Edit Watermarks.
over, you may not need to change any Select the watermark from the pop-up, then
preferences. The main places to look are: drag the watermark image back into the
Image Options section. Select Update Preset
• Edit menu > Preferences (Windows) / from the pop-up to save the changes, and
Lightroom menu > Preferences (Mac) repeat for each watermark preset.

• View menu > View Options

INSTALL THIRD-PARTY PLUG-INS
• If your color labels are all white, check
the values in Metadata menu > Color Label Set Go to File menu > Plug-in Manager and
match the old computer. check whether all the plug-ins have green
circles. If any plug-ins are incorrectly loaded
or missing, add them again at their new
CHECK YOUR PRESETS locations.

Double check that all of your Develop

presets are available in the Develop module.
Also check that other presets and templates,
such as Metadata presets (Metadata panel)
and External Editor presets (right-click on a
photo > Edit In...), are still available.

If they don’t show up, try toggling the

Preferences > Presets > Store presets with this
catalog checkbox. Some External Editor
presets, such as Nik Software, are installed
by the other software.
 18 ADOBE LIGHTROOM - MOVING TO A NEW COMPUTER

YOU’RE OFF TO A
GREAT START!
That’s it! You’re done! Lightroom should
9
There’s additional information on how to
now be back to normal. If you get stuck, optimize Lightroom’s performance, and how
post on the forum at https://www. to sync with the Lightroom CC cloud.
lightroomqueen.com/community/ and we’ll
be pleased to help. The book’s available in PDF, ePub,
Kindle and paperback formats from
Lightroom is a vast program, with lots to https://www.lightroomqueen.com/shop,
learn. All of the information you’ll ever and the paperback is also available from
need can be found in my main book, Adobe bookstores such as Amazon.
Photoshop Lightroom Classic - The Missing
FAQ, which is available in eBook and
paperback formats.

If you’re just getting started, the Fast Track

weaves its way through the book, with short
tutorials that guide you through a simple
workflow, allowing you to gain confidence
before diving into the more advanced
questions.

The rest of the book is designed as a

conversational FAQ-style reference book,
giving you the detailed information you need
to make informed choices, whether you’ve
been using Lightroom for a few months
or a few years. No more pressing buttons
without understanding the repercussions!

Unlike most other Lightroom books, my

book doesn’t just talk about the theory of
how Lightroom’s supposed to work, but
also the workarounds and solutions for the
times when it doesn’t behave the way you’d
expect, and how to fix problems when you
make mistakes.