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Merging Lightroom 4 catalog and Lightroom Classic catalog

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michael_2

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Jun 20, 2019
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Lightroom Classic CC
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Hi,

I'm sure this question has been asked and answered, so I apologize. I have, on the same Mac, Lightroom 4 and Lightroom Classic CC. I'd like to bring the work from Lightroom 4 into Lightroom Classic CC. Is the possible, and will my collections from Lightroom 4 show up in Lightroom Classic CC?

Thanks in advance -
Michael
 
Yes.
Note: as with all upgrades and file management you should make sure you have a current back up of both the LR4 and Classic catalogs before starting.

In Lightroom Classic go
File > Import from Another Catalog and then navigate to the LR 4 catalog and select it.
Classic will then inform you that it needs to upgrade the LR4 catalog (it leaves the original LR4 catalog intact, creates a new copy that is updated to work in LR Classic and then merges/imports that new copy into your existing LR Classic catalog). The dialogue box It will offer two options
  • Save upgraded catalog
  • Discard upgraded catalog - I would select this option
Make a note of the destination that this catalog will be saved to and it's exact name.
Click the Start Background upgrade button. - LR Classic will now read/examine your LR4 catalog, for a few moments and create an upgraded copy.
It will then proceed to merge this new catalog with your existing/original Classic catalog.
It will display a dialogue box listing the files that will be imported - Click the Import button
and wait..... and wait..... it may take some time for LR to work through this depending on the size of your catalogs.

I believe that once complete it may relaunch again in order to open the new merged catalog..... then you are done.
 
Just curious. While installing Classic wouldnl't it have created a new catalogue and merged LR4's catalogue into it? Maybe I'm missing something about collections.
 
Hoping to clear up some confusion introduced here by others. When you first install Lightroom Classic, your next step will be to simply open the LR4 catalog file with LightroomClassic. Lightroom Classic will recognize that as a LR4 catalog file and offer to convert it to the new Lightroom Classic structure. Lightroom will then read all of your data from the LR4 catalog file and write out a new LR Classic catalog file containing this data.
 
I don't remember it asking me when I went from LR6 to 7 but I believe it. We don't do major upgrades every week. I do remember I didn't have to do anything. It just did it's thing and it worked without issues.

I moved my old LR6 catalogue to another location just in case but after using Classic for 18 months I don't ever seeing myself going back to LR6.
 
Just curious. While installing Classic wouldnl't it have created a new catalogue and merged LR4's catalogue into it? Maybe I'm missing something about collections.
It would. But some users who are new to upgrading might be a little nervous and select not to upgrade (I know I did back in the day).
Hoping to clear up some confusion introduced here by others. When you first install Lightroom Classic, your next step will be to simply open the LR4 catalog file with LightroomClassic.
Your assuming that this is a first install situation. It may be, but then again the OP may have an existing CC catalog and actually wants to merge the two.
 
It would. But some users who are new to upgrading might be a little nervous and select not to upgrade (I know I did back in the day).

Your assuming that this is a first install situation. It may be, but then again the OP may have an existing CC catalog and actually wants to merge the two.
The OP is installing LR Classic and wanting to use a LR4 catalog It does not matter how many catalogs are on the computer or what versions they might be. The same process applies:
  1. Lightroom Classic installs and creates an empty catalog file. Ignore it, Don't use it. Don't need it.
  2. Open your master catalog with Lightroom Classic. It does not matter what version of LR created the master catalog.
  3. Lightroom Classic will detect the catalog file version and if not the current LR Classic structure offer to convert it to the current structure.
  4. Lightroom will then read all of your data from the old master catalog file and write out a new LR Classic master catalog file containing this data.
  5. You are done with the upgrade.
  6. You can delete the empty LR Classic catalog created on install in step 1.
If you have multiple catalogs in one or more structural versions, you will want to merge catalogs. Then the Lightroom "Import from another catalog" function will apply. The OP does not have multiple catalogs, only one LR4 master catalog. The process outlined above is the only one necessary to move from LR4 to LR Classic. Everything else is redundant and overly complicated.
 
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