Catalogs Using LRc / Photoshop on BOTH a MAC and Windows

[rebop]

Lightroom Version Number

13.5

Operating System

1. Windows 10
2. macOS 15 Sequoia

Using LRc / Photoshop on BOTH a MAC and Windows

Not at the same moment, of course And this is a non-rush question. Trying to be prepared.

As some my have read, I am considering a MAC for the first time in MANY years. Just started to think about where things go and how I would use catalog, etc.

The executables are easy. Here is what I have now in Windows. Where would these go in the MAC so that all things match?:

Lightroom Catalog: C:\Users\bob\Pictures\Lightroom\Bob's Lightroom Classic
Watermarks, end caps, etc: C:\Users\bob\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Stuff
Caches and preferences: C:\Users\bob\AppData\Local\Adobe
Presets and TONS of custom stuff: C:\Users\bob\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

For example:

I have a ton of custom stuff there.
And I think NIK collection is in there as well. I wonder where for Lightroom? Will look. Its older paid for before FREE NIK. May not have a MAC installer.

AHHHH, NIK Stuff:

C:\Users\bob\AppData\Local\Google

And then, where do I put the catalog? Or do I keep two copies and sync them before each computer use?

All Images will be on my NAS.

Photoshop easier, I think.

C:\Users\bob\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2024\Plug-ins

I **think** that is all I customized in PS but must be preferences as well.

What do you think? If I were just transferring, would be easier. But at least for a time want to be able to use my images on either computer.

 

[clee01l]

Now that is an interesting new wrinkle.

So, since I do not have a MAC to play with yet, isn't it windows assigning a drive letter that is not affecting the folders and files? The SD changes drive letter depending on where it is plugged in. So where would MAC be seeing this drive letter than causes the issue? And once again, isn;t this identical to using an external USB for the catalogs for BOTH Win and MAC? I thought Victoria suggested that as a solution.

Unconfuse me, please.

I think we have discussed this much earlier during your Mac search.

The Only way Victoria's suggestion works is because the EHD formatted has FAT32/exFAT contains both the catalog file and the images. This puts the images on a volume that resolves the "relativePath" field consistently. Either the 'relativePath' field or the 'absolutePath' field must have a valid path for the catalog to work on different computers. Because Windows complicates everything unnecessarily with Drive Letters, the only time the 'relativePath' is valid is when the image files are located on the same volume as the catalog file. Other times in Windows the 'relativePath' field is unresolvable because the path crosses drive letters. The 'absolutePath' field MUST contain a drive letter in Windows and can NEVER contain a drive letter in MacOS. This limits the 'absolutePath' field to being useful in Windows on different Windows machines only whe the Drive Letters match on both machines. Since MacOS mounts different volumes by name in the /vol folder, the 'absolutePath' files will always work on different MacOS computers. I also think the 'relativePath' field is resolvable when the image files are on a different volume from the catalog file on different MacOS computers.

 

[rebop]

Interesting, but what I am missing is that when a drive is ejected from Windows, it no longer HAS a drive letter. Where does MAC think that is coming from?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Interesting, but what I am missing is that when a drive is ejected from Windows, it no longer HAS a drive letter. Where does MAC think that is coming from?

That is irrelevant. MacOS will name the disk 'Untitled' if it has not seen it before, or has not given it another name yet.
The only thing that is relevant is what the path in the catalog is. Where in Windows the catalog has a path to the images like this:
D:/Folder/Subfolder/Image
on a Macintosh that same image should have a path that looks like this:
Disk Name/Folder/Subfolder/Image
That means that when you switch a catalog from Windows to Mac, Lightroom Classic will tell you the images are missing, because it sees a path that is not correct. Unless you use the trick with the relative paths.

 

[clee01l]

Interesting, but what I am missing is that when a drive is ejected from Windows, it no longer HAS a drive letter. Where does MAC think that is coming from?

The Lightroom Catalog stores the path information in the two fields I mentioned previously. This path field is where LrC looks to find the image when you run Lightroom. If the path 'relativePath' field is is not correct or undefined, then LrC resorts to the 'absolutePath' field value. If ic contains a drive letter and you are running Windows, then the drive letter in the catalog field must match the location for the images in that computer or you will get the "image Missing" notice. If you are running MacOS, the 'absolutePath' field needs to follow the normal POSIX file system path nomenclature and will not contain a drive letter.