Two users on iMac accessing the same shared Lr Catalogue, photos on Synology NAS.

[mstrathmore]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom classic 8.3.1

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

Hello folks, a newbie tech question that I'm hoping somebody with technical Lightroom skills can help with.

I recently bought an iMac and upgraded to Lightroom classic CC.

• Both my wife and I use the same computer; each of us has our own account and I want both of us to use the same catalogue as out photos are of mutual interest.

• I store the Lr catalog in the \Users\Shared folder so that we both have access to it (sidenote: the catalogue is also backed up to OneDrive which replicates it to a Synology NAS. Call me paranoid).
• All photos are stored on a Synology NAS in the default \Photo folder, which we both have access to.

Here's the frustrating thing: I can see and work with Lr on the photos. I shut down Lr (because Lr cannot handle more than one user at a time looking at a catalogue) and log out to allow her to log in and open Lr. She then sees the catalog, but all photos are simply grey squares!

The only way I can fix it is by deleting the file "Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata" and restarting Lr; then all of the previews appear.

The problem is that the next time *I* log in, I see grey squares! I have to delete the same file.

And so we toggle on...

Has anyone got two users working on an iMac properly? Surely this can't be a unique or difficult scenario?
Cheers,
Mark.



https://www.facebook.com/groups/LRReaders/#

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I have seen this before. If I remember rightly, it was the file permissions /ownership on the previews that are the problem - not just the package file but all of the individual previews inside it. If you can't get it working after you've fixed the permissions, the other alternative is to put the catalog on an external drive, which should allow you to ignore ownership.

 

[mstrathmore]

I have seen this before. If I remember rightly, it was the file permissions /ownership on the previews that are the problem - not just the package file but all of the individual previews inside it. If you can't get it working after you've fixed the permissions, the other alternative is to put the catalog on an external drive, which should allow you to ignore ownership.

Thanks Victoria,

I suspected it must be a permissions issue. Good to hear I might be on the right track.

I'll keep at it!

Mark.