More and more creative hobbyists and professionals are making the move from Windows to a Mac. One of the migration duties is moving Lightroom catalog and photos… fortunately this is a pretty simple task. Here are the steps to do it:
Moving the Lightroom Catalog and Photos
- Download Lightroom from Adobe. The Lightroom license allows for installation on two computers, so my existing license key for Windows works just fine on the Mac.
- Install Lightroom on the Mac.
- Locate your Lightroom catalog and preview cache files. The catalog (filename ends in .lrcat) is the Lightroom database containing all of your edits and metadata. The cache file (same name as your catalog, plus the word Previews, and ending in .lrdata) contains the image thumbnails for your photos. It’s not necessary to move this file, but if you do, you’ll save a bit of time because Lightroom won’t have to rebuild all of your thumbnails.
- Take a look at where your photos are stored. After moving Lightroom, you’ll need to update the file locations so that it can find your files. Hopefully you have your images in some sort of logical storage locations.
- Move your Lightroom catalog and cache files to the Mac. When I made the move, I used an external (firewire) hard drive but you could also use any other file transfer method. I created a “Lightroom” folder within the “Pictures” folder for my Lightroom files and put them inside.
- If you’re moving your photo files, move them at this point. If they’re on a external drive or another storage location that isn’t changing, continue along…
- Open Lightroom on the Mac and open up your catalog. You should see thumbnails but if you look in the Folders panel, you’ll see that the names are grayed out because Lightroom can’t find the files.
- The final step is to help Lightroom find your photo files. Right-click on a grayed-out folder location and choose “Find Missing Folder” and browse to the correct location.
That’s it! You’ve moved Lightroom and all of your data is intact. You can also move plugins and presets which are as straightforward as moving them from the PC file location to the Mac file location.
Moving Lightroom Plugins and Presets
Since Lightroom lets you choose your own plugin location, you will simply move files from your plugin location on your PC to a location on your Mac, then reinstall the plugin via Lightroom’s Plugin Manager (on the File menu).
Presets might be a little more hidden. On Windows Vista, they’re stored in folders under C:\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\. On Windows XP, they’ll be in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom. Move your custom presets to the Mac. On the Mac, you’ll want to store them inside ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom.
Overall it’s a fairly simple process given the complexity of the program.
Hi;
I am looknig into changing from PC to MAC ~ can my ligthroom 2 PC files be transferred into MAC ligthroom 3?
thanks
Hi Laura, yes you should be able to do the PC to Mac switch and then open the Lightroom 2 catalog into Lightroom 3. You’ll need to update the catalog the first time it’s opened in Lightroom 3, but the fact it came from a PC shouldn’t be a problem.
Incredibly simple instructions. Clear and well thought out; Easy to follow. Thank you!
The Mac is so much nicer on my eyes when adjusting photos!
You are a life saver, every other website i look at made this seem so confusing. I was almost considering just exporting all my photos and keeping those and not even moving my catalogs and everything over, so you saved me a lot of heartbreak. Thanks
I already have Lightroom on two computers – a desktop pc and a laptop. I’m switching from my laptop to a Macbook Pro – will I have to buy a new copy of Lightroom?
The license for Lightroom 3 can be found on Adobe’s site, and the relevant language is:
As I read that, it only allows for two computers, but if you’re switching so you’ll still only have it on two total computers I would guess that you’ll be okay. If the software complains when it tries to activate, you might have to chat with Adobe on the phone.
i have migrated from PC to Mac Book Pro and brought my LR catalog over without any problem. I keep my images on an external drive, so I just pointed LR on the Mac to the folders on the external hard drive. The problem is this: When I try to edit my images in a plug-in (Nik Software, OnOne Software, etc.), I get an error message that says something like: “Image cannot be prepared for editing and will not be opened”. This doesn’t happen if I want to edit the image in Photoshop, just the plug-ins. Also, I cannot save the metadata to the file either.
Any ideas about these problems? I called Adobe, and they told me they couldn’t help me because it was the problem of the plug-ins (not their product).
What version of Lightroom are you using? When you say you can’t save the metadata to the file, what are you doing and what happens?
I’m using Lightroom 4. To save the metadata, I go into the Metadata dropdown menu and select Save Metadata to File.
If you’re getting the error above (Image cannot be prepared for editing and will not be opened) when you try to save metadata, that doesn’t sound like a plugin problem at all and Adobe should be able to provide support.
Lightroom 4.0 had some bugs with external editing plugins (I ran into problems myself with Nik’s Silver Efex Pro and Athentec’s Perfectly Clear) – you’ll want to grab the 4.1 release candidate from Adobe Labs which takes care of these issues: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4-1/
I agree about it being Adobe’s issue, not the plug-in company’s, but I’m dealing with offshore support, and they don’ t have a clue. I just tried downloading 4.1, and it didn’t change anything.
Hi, I have around 1000 folders… Of course LR will not find them on Mac. So how to proceed? Clicking madness? Or some smarter way?
How about from Mac to PC? Or setting it up in a network server and allowing for cooperative editing? Any tips?
I haven’t done the Mac to PC switch myself, but I suspect it would be similar.
Lightroom isn’t supported for network/shared use, although there are some folks who have come up with solutions for it.