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(2) Macs sharing (1) LRC Main Catalog and (1) Photo Library-not at the same time-is it possible?

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M

mavots

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May 12, 2016
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Lightroom Experience
Advanced
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
LR 11
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
I recently purchased a M1 MacBook Air (16/1TB) and and am impressed at how much faster it is than my 2018 Mac Mini.
My LRC Main catalog is on an external NVME drive and the photo library is on a 12TB RAID 5. Everything connects to the Mini via a CalDigit TSR Plus hub.
It would be very easy to simply unplug the CalDigit hub from the Mini and into my M1 MB Air instead and, hopefully, continue to use the same LRC Catalog and photo library.

The Mac Mini is still running Mojave (with LRCv10) but will soon be updated to Big Sur and LRCv11. The Main catalog will be updated to v11 when I update the Mac Mini.
With the software matching on both Macs, will there be any issues sharing one main catalog and one photo library between the two, and not concurrently? I assume(?) the M1 and Intel versions of LRCv11 can work with the same v11 main catalog.

I realize there are a lot of presets, camera profiles, plug ins, etc that reside in the each Mac's /user/library/appsupport/... folders so they will need to be matched up. Thats probably the hardest part (I wonder if CCC or Super Duper could do that?). Also creating new LR (or other app) presets using one Mac and then sharing with the other Mac. Can all those profiles , etc instead be located on the same drive as the Main Catalog?
I used to do something similar with Dropbox. The presets were in the cloud and linked to each computer. It worked but was a bit dodgy if the hyperlink broke and did not sync for a while.

Is it worth it? Will it work? Every edit is done within the main catalog so it won't be overwritten when I switch the hard drives from one computer to the other.

The 2018 Mac Mini will eventually be replace whenever the next iteration of M1(2?) Mac Mini comes out. At that point I'll stick with that machine as my primary editing tool. I could still take the main catalog with me (and use Smart Previews) if I travel with the MacBook Air (CalDigit hub and RAID5 will stay home!)

Thoughts?
 
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Yes, that will work just fine. Many people use one LrC catalog with two machines that way. And Lightroom has an option to save presets with the catalog, which makes that part a lot easier than trying to sync them.
 
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Simply checking the box labeled "Save Presets with catalog" does not move the existing presets from the global location to the local location. These folders need to be copied manually the first time. Any subsequent new presets will be stored in the local "Lightroom Settings" folder.
 
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Thanks. I guess if you turn it around, this is just like taking your main catalog with you when traveling.
That's a great idea to move the presets to the same drive as the catalog and letting LR know where to look for them.
 
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