Catalogs Repointing Lightroom Catalog?

[BoulderG]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic version 11.4.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Newbie here! Looking for guidance for my pointing my Lightroom Catalog at a different library without losing edits, please.

In June, I got two new identical hard drives for my Windows 10 Desktop PC: Primary Data Drive E: and Backup Data Drive F:.

Raw files are stored on E: by year, with a separate directory of Lightroom Catalogs by Year, for example:
E:/Images/2021
E:/Lightroom Catalogs/2021

Somehow, when I open my Lightroom Catalog for 2021 or 2020 Images, the Library shows the images on the Backup Drive F: and not the Primary Drive E: and it has question marks by the files.

This does not happen for 2022 or 2019, so I suspect I did something wrong when setting up the new drives.

I did "Find Missing Folder" for some of the Library to the Backup F: Drive and it worked fine - my edits are still there but it is pointing to the incorrect drive for the images.

How can I point the catalog to the correct Primary E: Drive files and not to the incorrect Backup F: Drive files without losing any edits, etc?
(And remove the F: drive files from the Library and Catalog, since F: is a Backup.)
Many thanks!

 

[Replytoken]

Welcome to the forum. A couple of quick questions.

• It sounds like you are creating separate catalogs for each year, is this correct? (You may want to consider using just one catalog, but that is another issue for a separate thread);
• Is the file/folder/naming structure for your images identical between the two drives?
• Have you written any data or sidecar files to the images on the F: drive?

If the answer to #2 is yes, then you could just point the catalog to the E: drive. If the paths and names are identical, LR will be okay. If that is not the case, or you answered #3 with yes, then you could move the files from F: to E: either inside or outside of LR. Then the files will reside on your primary drive.

Have you assigned specific drive letters to each of the drives? I would recommend doing so since Windows has a habit of re-assigning letters from time to time. Assigning them yourself tends to stop this behavior most of the time. If you need instructions on how to do this, just ask and we can provide it.

Hope this helps.

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[BoulderG]

Thank you, Ken, and I appreciate the welcome! I'm a fan of The Lightroom Queen and this, fortunately, is the first time I've boxed myself into a corner for a while. Your #2 idea worked fine.
I am currently doing annual catalogs, and organize primarily by date. It's not perfect, but pretty good while my calendar and memory work.
Not sure what to do about different catalogs - it was a problem a few years ago with ~200K images, but also prompted getting a new computer.
I suspect "Finding the Perfect Workflow" is a constant and elusive target!
(Partly hoping for a brutal winter so I can use my indoor time to get my Lightroom in order.)

 

[Replytoken]

Glad things are working out now. A durable workflow can often take time to develop and refine. There are a lot of philosophies a round catalogs, but the prevailing wisdom in the forum is to try an use one catalog when possible as it allows you to take advantage of the many image management features built in to LR. I generally work with a main catalog, but also have a couple of other catalogs that have very discrete sets of images that are not related to my personal work (e.g. volunteer work at several nonprofit agencies). Catalog speed is not necessarily determined by the number of images in a catalog, so that alone is not necessarily a good reason to use separate catalogs. No need to take any immediate action, but you may want to consider some of the benefits and see if it makes sense for you. Please feel free to post if you have any other questions.

Good luck,

--Ken