If I keep Lr6 on older MacBookPro and start new Lr subscription on new MacBook M1....

[charlottefryereccles]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom 6

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

...will they remain separate or will the new affect the old because the two MacBooks will sync?

I basically chose not to upgrade my old MacBook beyond Mojave because my Lr6 stand alone would not work beyond that. The catalogs are saved on a portable drive, plus originals etc.
Now that I have a new MacBook I need Lightroom on there and am opting for the Adobe Photography Plan ie Lightroom Classic, Adobe Photoshop and the new Lightroom which seems the best package for me. If it's possible - I want to be able to continue using Lr6 on the old laptop with the catalogs created through it and then start anew going forwards on the new laptop with the new package.

Am I going to have a problem? Will they mess with each other, so to speak? I am terrified of making a mistake.
Could anyone advise me on this, please?

Charlotte

 

[Replytoken]

Welcome to the forum. If you keep the two machines separate, each version of LR should not interfere with the other, but I am not clear what you are asking in your comment about the two MacBooks syncing? If you install the Creative Cloud in your old machine, then you would need to pay attention. I use the Photography Plan on my Windows machine and I still have LR 5.7 installed and have not had any problems keeping them apart, but version 5 did not have have any activation verification feature other than entering a serial number.

--Ken

 

[Jim Wilde]

Am I going to have a problem? Will they mess with each other, so to speak? I am terrified of making a mistake.
Could anyone advise me on this, please?

It very much depends on how you will use Lightroom. If you intend to use both systems, then in essence you are going to have two separate Lightroom worlds....which probably doesn't make a lot of sense. Logically you would use the latest Lightroom on the newest MacBook, but that would mean the old Lightroom on the old machine is pretty much redundant.

So until we understand what it is you wish to do, i.e. how you would wish to work using the two systems, it's difficult to provide advice.

Many users with 2 systems would typically put their Lightroom environment (catalog, images, settings) on a single external drive which is switched between the two systems as needed. That absolutely cannot be used if Lightroom on the two systems are different versions, they could not use the same catalog. So tell us what you want to achieve and we'll try to advise how that might be done.

 

[clee01l]

I concur with Jim. But I also suggest that you might not even know what you want to do.

Here are some thing the you can do with two computers and a LightroomClassic Subscription.:

It is best to have one and only one master Lightroom Classic Catalog. You can do that with two computers running the same version of Lightroom Classic with the catalog and image files stored on a shared Portable volume.

Another option is to run the Latest version of Lightroom Classic on your newest machine. Sync those images to the Adobe Cloud and use Lightroom (cloudy) desktop on the older computer. Lightroom (Cloudy) desktop is a part of your Adobe Subscription and will access all of the Lightroom Classic images that have been sync’d to the Adobe Cloud. This is the option that IMO has the most flexibility.

A third option would be to use the older laptop as a travel computer and create LR6 catalogs with it. These can then be imported into the master Lightroom Classic Catalog on the new computer using the “Imoprt from another Catalog” function.


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[charlottefryereccles]

Thank you to all of you for taking the time to reply and apologies for taking so long to respond. I realised, Cletus, that indeed, I needed to think further about what I want to achieve and that I may well not know what I want to do - partly because my Lr knowledge is self-taught and only goes as far as 6!

Perhaps if I give a little context it will help you to help me...

I have taken photographs all my adult life - just for me - and it absorbs me, when I have the time, completely.

I do not have a photographic business but I do take commissions as they arise through referrals, mainly. This work is portraiture, actors headshots, family events, interiors and gardens. Occasionally I get asked to do a wedding, but I try to steer clear of them.

I have been using Lr standalone versions since about 2016, starting with Version 4 and am self-taught. Things changed when my full time job morphed into producing photography on a weekly basis for an agricultural university - documenting rural skills courses, covering CPD programme events (classroom shots, headshots, group photos, presentations, farm visits and so on. I use the photographs to create image libraries as a resource for digital marketing, for which I am also responsible. SuddenlyI had a MacBook Pro that was fit to bursting with images. A friend taught me to catalog each job (see attached image) and everything is saved and backed up to an external hard drive and not on the laptop. When I read all of your replies about my options on my question - I wonder if I have been doing it correctly because I don't have just one big catalog.

My confusion is this - knowing that Lr6 is not compatible (will not work) on my MacBook Pro M1 I had thought that I would not be able to import my Lr6 catalogs into the new photography plan I aim to subscribe to on the new laptop because, as you say Jim, they are two different versions. If that is correct, then I thought it would be a solution to just keep them separate.

Ken - what I meant by 'syncing' is because both my Apple laptops have the same Apple ID so of course they communicate and what is on one is on the other. I did see that when you upgrade to a subscription that you tick a box to keep an older version separate from it. Is this what you meant Cletus, when you said, "A third option would be to use the older laptop as a travel computer and create LR6 catalogs with it. These can then be imported into the master Lightroom Classic Catalog on the new computer using the “Imoprt from another Catalog” function." If I can do that with my existing Lr6 catalogs then I could ultimately let Lr6 go.

I'm going to stop there before I drive you all nuts. Does any of that information help?
Thanking you in advance.
Charlotte

 

[Jim Wilde]

My confusion is this - knowing that Lr6 is not compatible (will not work) on my MacBook Pro M1 I had thought that I would not be able to import my Lr6 catalogs into the new photography plan I aim to subscribe to on the new laptop because, as you say Jim, they are two different versions. If that is correct, then I thought it would be a solution to just keep them separate.

I think the question you need to figure out is: do you want to be using both laptops for Lightroom work, or just one? Using just one is far simpler than trying to use two, and as they are both portable devices then using the newer one only makes more sense. One other thing to be aware of is that while the newer one cannot run LR6, all your existing LR6 catalogs can be upgraded to the latest LrClassic level on the newer laptop without having to have LR6 installed. Basically you can simply upgrade your current Lightroom setup to LrClassic level on the new laptop.

I had assumed from your first post that you wanted to continue to use both laptops for Lightroom work, but maybe that's simply not necessary?

Later on you can deal with merging those catalogs into a single one if that is your preference.

 

[Replytoken]

To build a bit on what Jim and Cletus advised above, and in light of the additional information that you provided in your post today, I have a few suggestions for consideration:

• If you are going to subscribe to one of the Creative Cloud Lightroom plans, then consider installing this on your two machines, or your new machine and possibly your work machine if they have given you one. Your license allows you to install licensed copies on two machines. As was suggested above, then you can convert your LR6 catalogs to the newest version, presumably Lightroom Classic. Actually LR will copy the old catalog and then upgrade it, so nothing happens to your old catalog.
• You do have a situation where having more than one catalog makes sense. If the work you are shooting is very discrete, university vs. personal, for example, it can make sense to have a catalog for each. What we generally try to suggest is not going wild and creating catalogs for every shoot, or year. That defeats the ability to search and organize within LR since the program cannot search more than one catalog at a time.
• I would also suggest a reasonably fast external drive to hold your images and catalogs if you are going to have a two computer setup. This will allow you to work on either machine. SSD external drives are quite convenient and fast enough for what you will need. If for some reason you need to move your catalogs to a dedicated machine, then that can be moved later.

Hope this helps.

--Ken

 

[clee01l]

My confusion is this - knowing that Lr6 is not compatible (will not work) on my MacBook Pro M1 I had thought that I would not be able to import my Lr6 catalogs into the new photography plan I aim to subscribe to on the new laptop because, as you say Jim, they are two different versions. If that is correct, then I thought it would be a solution to just keep them separate.

The most important this to consider here is that your LR6 catalog file and your images are all you need to use Lightroom Classic on your new M1 Computer. LrC will open the LR6 catalog file and because the database has changed, convert the contents to the current LrC v12 database structure creating a replacement catalog file. What that means is that you will not lose anything if you switch to the new M1 MBP computer.


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[charlottefryereccles]

Thank you all so much. That has really helped me to decide what I want to do and I am relieved to know that I can, in fact, take my LR6 catalog with me on to the M1 without losing it all. I may come back with further questions but I think I can leave you in peace for now.
Best wishes
Charlotte