Can I add the negatives later if I imported a catalog without negatives?

[jebir]

Can I add the negatives later if I imported a catalog without negatives?

OK... I feel a bit sorry that I only visit this forum whenever there are things in LR that I don't understand.

Anyway, I have searched for the answer to the above question without success.
The background is that during a recent trip, I saved all my new photos on an external harddrive connected to my laptop and imported, rated, etc. them in LightRoom 3 on that laptop during the trip (the files still on the external drive). So, I have now ended up with a 3/4-full external harddrive with 8500 new photos that I have gone through and cataloged, rated etc. Now I want to merge all that with my ordinary LR catalog on my desktop.

Because the external drive is 3/4 full, I can't export the catalog and include the negatives to the same drive because LR copies all the existing raw files - which there is no room for. So, I exported the catalog excluding the negatives and then, after importing the previews, developments, metadata, etc. into the LR on my desktop, I had hoped that I could add the files later from their original location (on the same external harddrive). However, I can't find such an alternative. I do find that I can re-locate the files one by one by clicking the question mark in the thumbnail frame of the imported photos that didn't come with the original negatives.

Apart from buying a second external harddrive with room for the photos, does anyone have a tip on how I shall add the negatives residing on my external drive after I have imported the database (without negatives) from the laptop?

Cheers, Jens

 

[clee01l]

Jens,

whenever there are things in LR that I don't understand.

is why we are here.
An exported catalog is not any different from any other catalog. If you create it with "negatives" then there is a tidy little package. If there are no negatives, you can't add them later to the package without regenerating the package. However you can open this catalog without negatives and it will complain, but it will also show you the folder structure that it expects. You can then copy those images into the folder structure expected using the OS filesystem tools.

if that is what you have done, then instead of finding each image individually, move over to the Folder panel and right click on your top level (parent) folder that shows the (?). From the context menu choose "Find Missing Folder" Repeat this for ant other missing top level folders.

 

[jebir]

OK, thanks Cletus.

I seems like that could be what I need to do. The only obstacle would be that the original drive letter from the laptop is not free on the desktop. Anyway, I may have a way around that.

Cheers, Jens.

 

[Tucniak]

Jebir, why export the catalogue first? You can just import you travel catalogue into your main one. The files stay linked and on their current EHDD.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Jebir, why export the catalogue first? You can just import you travel catalogue into your main one. The files stay linked and on their current EHDD.

Exactly and then you could move the files from the external drive within Lightroom.
The drive letters are your only issue.

 

[jebir]

Hi again!

It worked very fine, I copied the raw files to the drive on the desktop that happened to have the same drive letter of my pordable harddrive, used by the laptop. Since this isn't the drive where I have my photos, I just moved them into the correct directory from within LR. Done!

Thanks again, it was easier than I could think of (late yesterday night).

Cheers, Jens.

 

[jebir]

Jebir, why export the catalogue first? You can just import you travel catalogue into your main one. The files stay linked and on their current EHDD.

Hi, I didn't think of that.

If I understand you correctly, you suggest to move the database from the laptop HD to the external HD and then import it from there into the desktop LR database?
Problem #1 was that I didn't know what to copy (and where to find it) in order to bring over the entire database?
Problem #2 was the drive letter.

I'm not very proficient in LR and this is the first time I have had to bother about two separate catalogs so I just grabbed the commands that were available in the menus - thinking that there must be a standard way. I guess that exporting the database the way I did and then move the files to the correct directory on the desktop was more or less the same as you suggest?

Cheers, Jens.

 

[clee01l]

OK, thanks Cletus.

I seems like that could be what I need to do. The only obstacle would be that the original drive letter from the laptop is not free on the desktop. Anyway, I may have a way around that.

Cheers, Jens.

You might reletter your desktop drives temporarily (or permanently). Or you could open the catalog on the desktop and when the top level folders show up with (?), you can right click on them to "find Missing Folder".