Desktop - Notebook LR

[quita]

I have been using LR since 1.1 and love the sorting and rating capabilities. I recently purchased a notebook computer and installed LR on that too. I have the notebook and desktop computers linked by home network so I have access to the same photo files.

My question is: do I need to import the files again into the notebook LR?
Is there any way to import the files and retain the ratings and metadata that I set on the destop LR?

[jigamaree]

I would think that you would have to do an import. Just from reading a bit in the help files this seems like the way to go. One of the options during an import is to keep the files at their current location. This option would keep the files on the desktop PC and not clutter up the laptop. So when the laptop is on the network, you have access to the files. A problem with this method is that if you take the laptop off of your network, you won't have access to the files. If you add files to the laptop at a remote location and get back on the network, then you have to import them onto the desktop. During that import, you can move the files to the desktop. The catalog files on both computers will keep track of where the files are located.

I would suggest before you do any of this is to search the help files for importing and catalog. It is always best to get more knowledge before deciding on a course of action.

Greg

[Codebreaker]

If you're going to import all your images onto the other machine you will need to generate XMP files for them so that all your processing and keywords etc can get carried over.

Colin

[quita]

If you're going to import all your images onto the other machine you will need to generate XMP files for them so that all your processing and keywords etc can get carried over.

Colin
And how is this done?

[Codebreaker]

You may have LR set to automatically produce the XMP files. You can check under Files > Catalogue Settings and select the Metadata tab. You'll see an option to 'Automatically write changes into XMP'.

Some folks find this slows down LR so they turn it off. The XMPs are only needed if you want to share the image files with other applications and all the processing steps and other information are kept in the LR database anyway.

I have this option turned off which means that I don't generate loads of XMP files. If I do need to share the image file with another application then I generate the XMP on demand. Just select all the images you want to do this to and go to Metadata > Save Metadata to File (Ctrl+S)

Colin

[quita]

Thanks for the info on XMP files. I will try that.

Laurie