Using mac os and windows 10

[Roobro]

Lightroom Version Number

8.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10
2. macOS 10.15 Catalina

If I want to use my pc and my mac book pro to run Lightroom, whats the best way to set it up. Right now I use Dropbox for the pictures and catalogues but things get occasionally mixed up. Is an external drive for both a better solution?

 

[clee01l]

You have a subscription to LR Classic and LR (cloudy) Choose your computer for your master catalog and run Lightroom Classic on that .

Sync the collections that you want to work with to the Adobe cloud. Install Lightroom (cloudy) on the other computer. It will recognize all of the sync'd collections as Lightroom (cloudy) albums and you can work in Lightroom (cloudy) knowing that all of your changes will be reflected back to your master Lightroom Classic Catalog on the Primary computer. If you import any new images into Lightroom (cloudy), originals copies will be sent to the cloud and on to Lightroom Classic. These images are subject to the storage limitations of your subscription (20GB or 1TB). So, you will need to monitor and manage your cloud storage to stay in your storage limits AND still flow through full size images to the Lightroom Classic catalog and computer.

 

[Califdan]

If you are talking about Lightroom Classic (as opposed to the cloud based Lightroom), and want to run LR Classic on both computers (albeit not at the same time) and have all Classic features and tools available on both and have all work performed on one be available on the other, then Clee was answering a slightly different question.

I would opt to skip the LR Cloudy option (unless there are other reasons for using it) and would place both the LR Catalog (actually the entire folder containing the LR catalog) and all the images referenced by that catalog on an external hard drive and move that drive between the two computers. Make sure the drive is compatible with both operating systems and can handle files as large as your catalog is and is expected to become. If you do a lot of work with presets and are changing them often, setup LR Classic to store presets with the catalog. You'll also have to have your preferences on both as well as plugins. You will have a bit of performance degradation with the catalog on an external hard drive. I work this way swapping an external hard drive between a Windows desktop machine and a Windows laptop machine. I find the performance degradation a bit annoying but manageable (2.95gb catalog file). I don't store presets with the catalog as I don't change them all that often - I just added them to both computers.

However, based on comments in various forums, many seem content using cloud sync tools such as DropBox as long as they are set up such that LR perceives the catalog folder as being on a local drive and you assure that cloud sync completes before you swap to the other machine. As I don't do this, I can't offer any configuration advice or first hand experience.

 

[clee01l]

I would opt to skip the LR Cloudy option (unless there are other reasons for using it) and would place both the LR Catalog (actually the entire folder containing the LR catalog) and all the images referenced by that catalog on an external hard drive and move that drive between the two computers.

If you really want a simple "fire and forget" solution the CloudyClassic combination can't be beat.

Trying to run Classic on a Windows machine AND a Mac machine with the same physical catalog is a constant headache and probably beyond the scope to the light technical user. Windows uses drive letters and there are embedded in the path field in the catalog for every image manages by that catalog. Move that catalog over to a machine running MacOS and the catalog losses reference to every that has a drive letter in the path because MacOS is Posix compliant and does not need or use drive letters. If you fix all of the "missing files" in the Catalog when it is connected to the Mac. The same images show up missing when you move back to Windows because Windows is expecting to see a Drive letter in the Absolute path field.

Actually there is a way to run the same catalog and image folders on both Windows and MacOS but I am reluctant to recommend it because everything relies on the integrity of the one portable disk AND a good system back up

Dropbox and any other file syncing option has the same shortcomings when it comes to sharing the same sync'd catalog file on computers with different operating systems The is the problem of Windows Drive letters being stored in the Path field needed to run on the Windows machine Even with two Windows machines, you need insure that the SAME drive letter is used to mount the. volume containing the image files referenced by the catalog.

At some point in my LR experience, I have attempted to manage Lightroom on multiple computers and until Adobe developed the Adobe cloud scheme and Lightroom (cloudy) every method that I tried has had some major shortcoming that needed to be overcome to make this multiple computer workflow work

 

[Califdan]

Trying to run Classic on a Windows machine AND a Mac machine with the same physical catalog is a constant headache and probably beyond the scope to the light technical user. Windows uses drive letters and there are embedded in the path field in the catalog for every image manages by that catalog. Move that catalog over to a machine running MacOS and the catalog losses reference to every that has a drive letter in the path because MacOS is Posix compliant and does not need or use drive letters. If you fix all of the "missing files" in the Catalog when it is connected to the Mac. The same images show up missing when you move back to Windows because Windows is expecting to see a Drive letter in the Absolute path field.

Good point. However, only some of the work you do while in LR/Cloudy is not synced back to LR/Classic (e.g. Keywords). In addition LR/Cloudy is a mere subset of LR/Classic and is missing many features found in LR/Classic such as hierarchical keywords, smart collections, publish services, Book module, Print module, etc. So, it all depends on what sort of things you need to do on each computer and if you have a need for that to replicate to the other.

Not having a Mac to play with, is it not true that if you move the drive across OS type that if you then relink (i.e. find missing) the top level parent folder that all the subordinate folders and image files automatically relink - the same as if a Windows Drive letter changed on the images disk?

 

[clee01l]

Good point. However, only some of the work you do while in LR/Cloudy is not synced back to LR/Classic (e.g. Keywords). In addition LR/Cloudy is a mere subset of LR/Classic and is missing many features found in LR/Classic such as hierarchical keywords, smart collections, publish services, Book module, Print module, etc. So, it all depends on what sort of things you need to do on each computer and if you have a need for that to replicate to the other.

Not having a Mac to play with, is it not true that if you move the drive across OS type that if you then relink (i.e. find missing) the top level parent folder that all the subordinate folders and image files automatically relink - the same as if a Windows Drive letter changed on the images disk?

Keywords sync back to Classic, just not Hierarchal keywords. For this reason I am considering converting my Classical keyword structure to a flat keyword structure. The functionality not present in Lightroom (cloudy) is not critical to the basic workflow. You can still rate flag and cull images. All of the develop functionality is in cloudy. All of the images end up back in the master classic catalog with all of their Lightroom (cloudy) applied metadata and adjustments.

Relinking the "missing" images each time you open the catalog file on a different platform is not the problem. The problem is that you need to relink EVERY TIME you open the catalog on a different OS.

I used to use a laptop and a travel catalog to sync back to my master catalog using the import from another catalog. When I added cloudy to my travel workflow, I was able to replace the laptop with an iPadPro

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Keywords sync back to Classic, just not Hierarchal keywords.

No, they do not. Keywords sync up once, but only if you save metadata to files before Lightroom Classic syncs the files. You also must not already have smart previews for these images yet. But after that there is no more syncing. Keywords added in Lightroom Classic won't sync up, keywords added in Lightroom cloud won't sync down.

 

[clee01l]

No, they do not. Keywords sync up once, but only if you save metadata to files before Lightroom Classic syncs the files. You also must not already have smart previews for these images yet. But after that there is no more syncing. Keywords added in Lightroom Classic won't sync up, keywords added in Lightroom cloud won't sync down.

Well that is disappointing. I have not added keywords in Lightroom cloudy so that was an assumption on my part. My Hierarchal keyword list in Classic has been filing up with non hierarchal duplicates which I assume are coming from the sync with cloudy. As such, my keyword list in Classic has become a mess and I was considering going to a flat keyword list to accommodate images coming back from cloudy. More work is needed here on my part. And from your statement, it is an area that needs lots of attention from Adobe.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Well that is disappointing. I have not added keywords in Lightroom cloudy so that was an assumption on my part. My Hierarchal keyword list in Classic has been filing up with non hierarchal duplicates which I assume are coming from the sync with cloudy. As such, my keyword list in Classic has become a mess and I was considering going to a flat keyword list to accommodate images coming back from cloudy. More work is needed here on my part. And from your statement, it is an area that needs lots of attention from Adobe.

It is one of the most requested things for Lightroom Classic syncing, but as Adobe has said there won't be any new sync features in Lightroom Classic, it probably will never be fixed. Non-hierarchical duplicates are usually caused by importing images you exported, so you export a TIFF from a raw file in Classic and import that TIFF again in Classic. Depending on how the keywords are exported (withor without the hierarchy), that can cause the duplicates to be occur.

 

[Roobro]

You have a subscription to LR Classic and LR (cloudy) Choose your computer for your master catalog and run Lightroom Classic on that .

Sync the collections that you want to work with to the Adobe cloud. Install Lightroom (cloudy) on the other computer. It will recognize all of the sync'd collections as Lightroom (cloudy) albums and you can work in Lightroom (cloudy) knowing that all of your changes will be reflected back to your master Lightroom Classic Catalog on the Primary computer. If you import any new images into Lightroom (cloudy), originals copies will be sent to the cloud and on to Lightroom Classic. These images are subject to the storage limitations of your subscription (20GB or 1TB). So, you will need to monitor and manage your cloud storage to stay in your storage limits AND still flow through full size images to the Lightroom Classic catalog and computer.

Thank you all for taking the time to help me with this. It'll take some experimentation but I think it will work for me.

 

[Califdan]

Clee, When you import an image that already has KW's in its metadata, those keywords will many times come into LR Classic at the root level (non hierarchical). As far as I have determined to date, this happens when a) the keyword does not already exist in LR Classic, and b) if the keyword is duplicated in more than one KW hierarchy. However, I have not done rigorous testing of my theory as to when the keyword on the imported image will link up to an existing hierarhcical KW vs add a new one at the root of the KW structure. However, I have noted that most of the KW's that show up at the root level are due to me importing images that I had previously exported (e.g. I want two copies of the same image in two folders both known to LR and VC's won't fit the bill) and when I import images from others who have keywords different than in my catalog.

My KW hierarchy structure is designed to make this easy to spot as 100% of my level 1 KW's start with a number and all have sub keywords so will have a white triangle in the KW List panel. This makes "spontaneous" ones easy to spot

 

[Roobro]

If you are talking about Lightroom Classic (as opposed to the cloud based Lightroom), and want to run LR Classic on both computers (albeit not at the same time) and have all Classic features and tools available on both and have all work performed on one be available on the other, then Clee was answering a slightly different question.

I would opt to skip the LR Cloudy option (unless there are other reasons for using it) and would place both the LR Catalog (actually the entire folder containing the LR catalog) and all the images referenced by that catalog on an external hard drive and move that drive between the two computers. Make sure the drive is compatible with both operating systems and can handle files as large as your catalog is and is expected to become. If you do a lot of work with presets and are changing them often, setup LR Classic to store presets with the catalog. You'll also have to have your preferences on both as well as plugins. You will have a bit of performance degradation with the catalog on an external hard drive. I work this way swapping an external hard drive between a Windows desktop machine and a Windows laptop machine. I find the performance degradation a bit annoying but manageable (2.95gb catalog file). I don't store presets with the catalog as I don't change them all that often - I just added them to both computers.

However, based on comments in various forums, many seem content using cloud sync tools such as DropBox as long as they are set up such that LR perceives the catalog folder as being on a local drive and you assure that cloud sync completes before you swap to the other machine. As I don't do this, I can't offer any configuration advice or first hand experience.

Thank you so much
I followed your advice and acquired a Sandisk extreme SSD , formatted it for xFAT and migrated the picture files and LR catalogue to it. I have a Windows 10 desktop and a macbook pro both with LR classic, latest version. The windows 10 version crashes most of the time on start up. Works occasionally. I checked sharing permissions, thought it might be Backblaze , turned off sync. My brain has run out of things to try.

 

[clee01l]

The windows 10 version crashes most of the time on start up. Works occasionally. I checked sharing permissions, thought it might be Backblaze , turned off sync. My brain has run out of things to try.

There are a host of reasons why Windows would be crashing while running Lightroom. There are probably too many variables in a typical Windows install to try all of the permutations and combinations

Do the following: Create a new empty catalog in your Pictures Lightroom folder and import several hundred images also stored on the C: drive. If windows continues to crash then we have eliminated the EHD and the LR master catalog is a cause.

Often people will over use their C: drive partition. It needs lots of freespace for temporary files. If you have less than 50 GB free this could be a problem. This often happens with 256GB SSDs as the primary C: drive.

 

[Roobro]

Thank you, I'll give it a try. It's Lightroom CC that's crashing, not Windows 10. 115 G free on the C drive.

 

[clee01l]

Thank you, I'll give it a try. It's Lightroom CC that's crashing, not Windows 10. 115 G free on the C drive.

What version and build of Lightroom Classic and Windows 10? (Copy the contents of the menu {Sys Info...} dialog in to your reply


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Roobro]

Lightroom Classic version: 9.2 [ 202001311240-2d026470 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Business Edition
Version: 10.0.17763
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 3.4 GHz
SqLite Version: 3.30.1
Built-in memory: 16271.7 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 16271.7 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 824.1 MB (5.0%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 1293.6 MB
GDI objects count: 681
USER objects count: 2399
Process handles count: 1743
Memory cache size: 2.2MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 12.2 [ 384 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 284MB / 8135MB (3%)
Camera Raw real memory: 285MB / 16271MB (1%)
System DPI setting: 144 DPI (high DPI mode)
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 2560x1440
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:
DirectX: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (26.20.100.7263)



Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: E:\Lightroom\Gail May 17 from Backblaze-3.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\george\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Canon Print Studio Pro
3) Facebook
4) Flickr
5) LogiOptions
6) LR/Instagram
7) Nikon Tether Plugin

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[LRList001]

That is an older version of Windows, though I don't know if that is that important. The current version is 10.0.18363. (1909).

Does the Windows event log record any reason for the crash? (try the application log first). Do you have GPU acceleration enabled? Reading the above, it looks like no. On the off chance, try switching it on, though usually the problem arises with it on. It is a performance preference.

 

[clee01l]

Follow LRList001 suggestions about the GPU but also do the test that I suggested earlier. And let us know the results