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Lightroom 4 to Lightroom CC + Photo Mecanic

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Annie

New Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2017
Messages
6
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
4.x
Hello,

I have been using Lightroom 4 for many years on an old laptop. Works fine, but it's time for a new laptop. I don't have the product key any more, so I need to migrate to Lightroom CC.

Long ago I decided to keep my original RAW files on an external hard drive and my exports on the old laptop. I have a lot of photo culling to do, I'll use Photo Mechanic for that.

I think what I need to do is start by culling useless photos from my external hard drive and maybe add keywords if Photo Mechanic will let me do that (I haven't bought it or used it yet).

Then sync my Lightroom 4 catalog. Then install Lightroom CC on the new laptop and import my Lightroom 4 catalog and photos to the new laptop. Presumably the size required won't be too big after all that culling I will do.

Does that sound like a good way to proceed? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
 
I would suggest you upgrade to CC, just import everything, and treat any purchase of PM as a separate decision for a separate task.

Getting everything into LR will give you a "helicopter view" of what you've got. So for example you'll be able to see you have image 1234 in two different folders, and sort that out.

PM is excellent software but is for a limited range of tasks. It's really for reviewing new shoots at very fast speed, adding keywords and other metadata, and sending them. You can open more than one folder, and each one shows as a tab. But you won't pick up that 1234 is duplicated if you don't open the right folder, and if you don't see it when switching between each tab. You won't see the results of any adjustments, so you won't be able to see if one picture has ACR/LR adjustments and was a keeper, or in another picture was a reject. And so on.

So upgrade to CC, get everything in, sort out and cull in LR. And get PM for other reasons.
 
Thank you so much for that great explanation, I didn't realize Lightroom CC could do that, it sounds really helpful! I think I'll go ahead with that plan.
 
A couple of things that need pointing out. Your LR4 license resides on your computer and can be found. If you registered your purchase at Adobe, then Adobe has a record of your LR4 license in your Adobe account. You can purchase an upgrade license to a Perpetual license for LR6 (No subscription needed) for $79USD.
 
In fact, if you start LR4 and do Help>System Info, your serial number is displayed in the first line.
 
Oh, wow, that's really good to know! I don't think I registered my LR4 years ago, I didn't used to see the point of registering anything back then. But if I can see the registration number in System Info, that's cool!!! I won't have my old laptop until next Thu when I go home. But I'll definitely check on that because I'd MUCH rather have a stand-alone license and surely LR6 is going to have a lot of improvements when compared to LR4. Thanks everyone!
 
If I find the number, do you think I'll be able to upgrade to LR6 on a new computer or only the old one? Isn't a new computer a brand new install even if it belongs to me? Thanks!
 
Both, actually. Your license allows you to install on two machines--you're just not supposed to be in LR on both at the same time.
 
Thanks again everyone for your help, it worked! LR6 installing on both my old and new laptop right now, then I'll do some cleanup of my old library, then import all of that into the new laptop. So much work, no wonder some people just use Google Photo and don't give it another thought.
 
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