• Welcome to the Lightroom Queen Forums! We're a friendly bunch, so please feel free to register and join in the conversation. If you're not familiar with forums, you'll find step by step instructions on how to post your first thread under Help at the bottom of the page. You're also welcome to download our free Lightroom Quick Start eBooks and explore our other FAQ resources.
  • Dark mode now has a single preference for the whole site! It's a simple toggle switch in the bottom right-hand corner of any page. As it uses a cookie to store your preference, you may need to dismiss the cookie banner before you can see it. Any problems, please let us know!

Can I export a book into an other catalog?

Status
Not open for further replies.

drmaxx

Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
56
I try to move my books (layout) from the laptop to my main computer. Can I do that?
 
Hi drmaxx, sorry we missed your thread. Right-click on the book in the Collections panel and choose Export Collection as Catalog. Then when you get to the main computer, File menu > Import from Catalog.
 
Thanks Victoria for the reply.

I somehow can not manage to transfer a book completely into an other catalog. E.g. by choosing to export the book with pictures and then import it in the new catalog with pictures. The pictures are imported correctly, but the book only contains some or none of the pictures. Any picture in the collection that is part of the book has a little note attached that complains "Error writing metadata".

Any other combination, e.g. by importing the pictures first and then the book either with or without pictures produces the same results.

I am not quite sure if this is a bug or if I am doing something wrong.
(LR4.1, Laptop with Win7, 64bit; Desktop with Vista, 32bit).
 
Last edited:
That sounds very odd drmaxx. I'd expect exporting the catalog with originals to work correctly.

Ok, an interim step - what happens if you open the exported catalog, before importing into your main catalog. Does everything look right there?
 
I tried a few things but the end result is the same: I can not import the book correctly into my catalog.

If I open the exported book-catalog separately then everything is o.k. - Independent whether I have the export done with or without pictures.

If I import the exported book with pictures then the picture import is correct, the collection is there with all the correct pictures - but the book is empty.

If I import the pictures first and then import the collection with the book then every picture in the book/collection is gets this little sticker with the metadata error -- and the book is empty or only partially filled.

Any idea what I could try to resolve that?
 
Just tested it with an other (large) catalog on a external drive hooked up to the laptop. Again, the same import behaviour. It definitely is not a Win7/Vista or 64/32 bit issue.
 
But it's all the same book each time? I'll flag it up the engineers and see if they have any bright ideas.
 
Matt Dawson just came up with another idea. He said:

Saw this comment in the thread:
> If I import the pictures first and then import the collection with the book then every picture in the book/collection is gets this little sticker with the metadata error -- and the book is empty or only partially filled.

Did he try doing this with a photo less export as well as an export with the photos? My guess is not.

For this test to give it the best chance of working I’d assume he’d need to:
- export two separate catalogs, one with and one without photos. Ideally the one with photos would include a simple collection that contained the same photos (i.e. no book metadata)
- import the catalog containing photos and a simple collection, to get the photos into the destination catalog
- import the catalog containing the book metadata but no photos

Will this work? I have no idea. But the theory is it would get the photos cleanly into the catalog then we can test whether it is the book metadata alone that is the problem. Might also make it easier to submit the book metadata catalog for testing.

Any luck with that?
 
Based on the suggestion, I did the following:
1. Optimised the target catalog
2. Exported the pictures (A) (right click on the directory and export this folder as catalog)
3. Exported the book collection (B) without negatives and without previews
4. Transferred them over the network on the other computers HD
5. Imported the pictures (A) (Files -> Import from other catalog)
6. Imported the book without previews (B) (Files -> Import from other catalog)

-> Same result: The collection was imported correctly (pictures are there and there is the little book sign). The layout of the book is correct. But there are no pictures in the book.

And some (! 7 out of 21) of the pictures in the catalog have this little sticker (like a memo card with an exclamation mark on it).
Clicking on the little sticker brings up the following message: The metadata for this photo has been changed by both Lightroom and another application. Should Lightroom import settigs from disk or overwrite disk settings with those from the catalog?
 
And that metadata warning's not there before you import, on either catalog?
 
I still can't reproduce it here, but if you're not completely sick of it yet, I'd be interested to take a look at the main and travel catalog to see if I can reproduce it using your catalogs. I'd only need the .lrcat files, so no previews, and they zip up well. You could drop them on my server (www.vbftp.net, username webupload, password 123).
 
I am very grateful for this kind of support. Not what I expected. I am happy to upload the files, but this needs to wait till the weekend when I am back home and have access to my desktop.
 
My pleasure drmaxx, you know where I am when you have time.
 
Hi - I am having the same problem as drmaxx, from what I can ascertain. I 'selected all' with my book selected in the collections in the book module and exported as catalog, exporting the negative files as well as previews. On my laptop, when importing from catalog, I get the rather complex layout maintained in the book module, and all the images represented in the filmstrip, but with no images populating the book in the content area. It's disappointingly empty. I'd hate to have to start from scratch when working from home with a deadline. Am I doing something wrong? Many thanks!
 
Hi Silvertrace, welcome to the forum!

This is a long shot, but rather than selecting all, what happens if you do the right-click on the book in the Collections panel and do the export as catalog from that context-sensitive menu.

Oh, and if you just open the exported catalog, rather than importing it into the other catalog, does that work correctly?
 
On the right tracks!

Hi - I am having the same problem as drmaxx, from what I can ascertain. I 'selected all' with my book selected in the collections in the book module and exported as catalog, exporting the negative files as well as previews. On my laptop, when importing from catalog, I get the rather complex layout maintained in the book module, and all the images represented in the filmstrip, but with no images populating the book in the content area. It's disappointingly empty. I'd hate to have to start from scratch when working from home with a deadline. Am I doing something wrong? Many thanks!


I arrived at this point just a moment ago and have just found the solution, although i didn't have any images in the filmstrip. In my case i had made a separate collection for the book images which i imported from my other catalogue. The contents of this collection I selected and dragged to the book collection. The blank template then populated itself with the correct images automatically! Good luck, I hope that it works for you too!
 
I found this thread looking for a solution to this same problem. I tried what Phill Adams recommended, but nothing works. No matter how I do it, when I import the catalogue on the other computer everything is there including the book layout, but there are no pictures in the book. The pictures are in the film strip.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Oh my goodness. Here it is 2020 and I'm having the same problem. I exported a book as a catalog (from the book icon in the collection module) so I could send it in dropbox. When I got home and tried opening, directly from the Book catalog, only some of the associated images appeared. I had previously built smart previews for all of lthe images. I can't see the missing images - even in the develop or library module let alone the Book Module?

At a loss.
 
If you open the book catalog on the original computer, do they all show up? I suspect that not all of the previews had been built before the export, so it didn't include them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top