Using External Hard Drive on Another Laptop

[John Chaille]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom 6 Version 6.14

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I have two laptops ( L1 and L2). Both use Lightroom 6 verison 6.14. I use L1 for all Lightroom work, with the catalog on Drive C of the laptop and all pictures on an external hard drive (HD A).
We recently purchased a small laptop (L2) to use on a 5 week photo travel trip. I want to take HD A with us to use on the trip for downloading all pictures on to daily, using L2. No pictures will be put on drive C of L2, but the LR catalog will reside on the C drive of L2.
Please send me the steps for setting things up so I can use the above plan. I don't know how to handle the catalog issues.

Your help will be much appreciated.

John Chaille

 

[Replytoken]

I have two laptops ( L1 and L2). Both use Lightroom 6 verison 6.14. I use L1 for all Lightroom work, with the catalog on Drive C of the laptop and all pictures on an external hard drive (HD A).
We recently purchased a small laptop (L2) to use on a 5 week photo travel trip. I want to take HD A with us to use on the trip for downloading all pictures on to daily, using L2. No pictures will be put on drive C of L2, but the LR catalog will reside on the C drive of L2.
Please send me the steps for setting things up so I can use the above plan. I don't know how to handle the catalog issues.

Your help will be much appreciated.

John Chaille

Two questions. Are you bringing your existing catalog because you want to work on existing images or because you want to add the new images (or both)? And, why do you not want the catalog to reside on the EHD? If you are just wanting a catalog for new images, I would create a a new catalog and then merge it with your existing one when you get back home. If you plan on doing this a lot, then I would consider putting the catalog on the EHD and let it live there. The file locations you are proposing will work for occasional use if you are comfortable moving/replacing the LR catalog files on your machines, but for frequent use, it is not an ideal arrangement.

--Ken

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Hi John

Victoria did a specific blog post on the topic:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-to-lightroom-catalog-multiple-computers/
It's also covered in more detail in her Lightroom Classic book.