Question re combining catalogs

[texasmacs]

Lightroom Version Number

9.1

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

It would be a very long story to tell you how this happened, but just suffice it to say, it did! So, I have thousands of pictures in files from 2010-2017 on an external hard drive under a Lightroom Catalog (lrcat ). Then on my computer I have two folders 2018-2019 under a different Lightroom catalog. Is there a way to combine these two catalogs? Or... if not, then is there a way to start an entirely new catalog so that I can import all of these pictures (yes, I know this would take tons of time) so that all of my pictures are under one (lrcat file) catalog? I am trying to keep all of my edits and not just import jpgs. I am pretty good at editing in Lightroom, but really understanding catalogs is something I am not very good at. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Philippe Coudé du Foresto]

Open the catalog on your computer (2018-2019), select "File" > "Import from another catalog", then browse to select the catalog (2010-2017) on your external drive. If you want to keep the 2010-2017 photos on the external drive, in the dialog box select "Add new photos to the catalog without move" .
After clicking on the "Import" button, your photos on the external drive will be referenced in your catalog on your computer with all their edits.

 

[dkinpgh1]

Open the catalog on your computer (2018-2019), select "File" > "Import from another catalog", then browse to select the catalog (2010-2017) on your external drive. If you want to keep the 2010-2017 photos on the external drive, in the dialog box select "Add new photos to the catalog without move" .
After clicking on the "Import" button, your photos on the external drive will be referenced in your catalog on your computer with all their edits.

Tried that process to combine 2 catalogs, however, when it finished, the number of pictures on my EHD went from 55k to 110k. Other than use a dip finding software app, is there any easier, less time consuming way to clean this up?
Thanks

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Tried that process to combine 2 catalogs, however, when it finished, the number of pictures on my EHD went from 55k to 110k. Other than use a dip finding software app, is there any easier, less time consuming way to clean this up?
Thanks

That means you did not select the correct option to add the images without moving or copying them.

 

[dkinpgh1]

Figured that out, but, how do I clean up my mistake? Somehow, I must have missed an option and copied the new catalog in to the older one..

I have pictures going back to 2003 on an external hard drive and probably in a moment of ineptitude, I saved everything in a second catalog.

Trying to fix that, I tried to combine the 2 catalogs and, not being as totally LR aware as I should be, duplicated a significant number of the pictures.

I'm half tempted to dump both catalogs and start all over, separating the pictures by year on my EHD and then reimporting them into LR, after trying to cull dups. But then, I need a way to include the sidecars for the pics I've reimported. (I did read the lRQ tip about the software to id the dups and am using that. It is rather time consuming (Unfortunately, external conditions have provided me some extra time to play with that feature.)

Compounding the issue of cleaning things up is that over the years as I've changed camera systems, I have quite a few pictures with the same naming convention (e.g., multiple files labeled IMG_03333) taken in different years.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Because you copied the images, half of them should not be in the catalog (the originals of the copied images). With a little bit of luck it might be a full hierarchy of folders that you can delete in one go, and if you are not that lucky then it should still be folders of images that you can delete. So go through your folders and compare them with what Lightroom shows.

 

[dkinpgh1]

When I use the software, I notice that a good number being deleted are virtual copies, which is what you’ve alluded to I think. It’s going to be a time sump to clean this up

 

[Johan Elzenga]

When I use the software, I notice that a good number being deleted are virtual copies, which is what you’ve alluded to I think. It’s going to be a time sump to clean this up

You said that the number of pictures on your EHD went from 55K to 110K, so I concluded that you must have copied the originals in the process of merging the catalogs. Virtual copies are exactly the opposite. They only exist in the Lightroom catalog, not on your EHD. This can happen if Lightroom thinks that some images have been edited, and you check the option to make a virtual copy in case of edit differences between the merged catalogs.

 

[Philippe Coudé du Foresto]

A Johan said, you now have duplicates. You can use the Teekesselchen plugin to cleanup your duplicates as explained in this article

 

[dkinpgh1]

A Johan said, you now have duplicates. You can use the Teekesselchen plugin to cleanup your duplicates as explained in this article

I've downloaded the paid app and have run that on a few sections. I will run it thru the entire DB - Good thing I'm stuck at home in order to delete all those dups. Should only take a day or two... Fortunately, the weather's also conspiring to keep me inside.