Upgrading from LR 3.6 to LR 6 Perpetual

[marinephoto]

Operating System:
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):3.6

I recently purchased a new iMac and am migrating my data over to it. I am not planning, however, to migrate my current version of Lightroom (3.6) to my new machine. Once I get my new iMac set up I want to go to the Adobe website and update from LR 3.6 to LR 6 Perpetual. Never having done this I am unsure of the proper steps to follow. For instance is the fact that my old version of LR not going to be installed on my new iMac going to complicate my updating to LR 6?

Also once I get LR 6 installed on the new machine should I just move/convert my old catalog alone or bring along the previews created with 3.6?

Thanks!

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Just copy the old catalog folder and the folder with the original images to the new iMac and open the catalog file with Lightroom 6. Let Lightroom convert the catalog.

 

[marinephoto]

Just copy the old catalog folder and the folder with the original images to the new iMac and open the catalog file with Lightroom 6. Let Lightroom convert the catalog.

Thanks! Will opening my old catalog from LR 3 in LR 6 bring along previews and preferences? Or will I have to reset preferences again and allow LR 6 to build previews on demand?

Also I am planning to upgrade my LR 3 to LR 6 perpetual by going to the Adobe website. Is it necessary to have LR 3 on my new computer in order to upgrade or do I just need to provide my old LR serial number?

Thanks!

 

[Jim Wilde]

The upgrade will create new Preferences, but based on your existing LR3 preferences. It should also commandeer the existing previews, so building new previews shouldn't be necessary.

No, you don't need to have LR3 installed on the new computer, but you will need to provide the LR3 serial number (assuming you purchase an upgrade, not a full license). You'd enter the LR6 serial number first, then you'll be asked for the serial number of the qualifying product, i.e. this is where you enter the LR3 number.

 

[marinephoto]

Jim,

Hard drive space is a real problem for me given the volume of images I generate. For that reason I am not planning on moving LR 3 over to my new iMac when I migrate. Someone suggested that I simply install LR 6 perpetual on my new iMac and then move my LR 3 catalog over to my new iMac and open it with LR 6. If I move the catalog over but not the Preview file I assume that new preview files will have to be created by Lightroom whenever I view or edit images from previous shoots. Am I correct in this? The advantage of leaving the previews behind would be that my current preview file has grown pretty large (28.35 GB) and thus I would gain quite a bit of hard drive space. The negative aspect would be that the creation of new previews would slow things down a bit. Based upon a pretty "iffy" understanding of how Lightroom operates my guess is the gaining of space would outweigh the slight slowdown. Would you agree, or do you think it would be wiser to move the preview file over to my new computer along with the catalog files?

Thanks!

 

[Philippe Coudé du Foresto]

marinephoto,

You are correct. If you don't copy the preview folder, LR will recreate the preview as soon as it will acces an image. This will slow down a bit (but not that much) the first access to the image by LR, the next accesses to the same images won't be affected.
Regarding the space saved on disk, you'll get it at the begining since fewer previews will be in the preview folder. But the space occupied by this folder will grow up slowly each time you access a new image. In final, it may reach the same size. So yes, you will save space at the begining, but don't get this saving as granted as it will decrease over time.

 

[marinephoto]

Phillppe,

Thanks! While it's true that as new images are added the Preview file will grow at least I won't be carrying around the previews for thousands of legacy images I may never view again...