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Catalogs Using the same lightroom catalog on windows and mac?

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kenwood

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nyc
Lightroom Version Number
13
Operating System
  1. Windows 11
  2. macOS 14 Sonoma
I have the latest lighroom classic installed on a windows and a mac laptop. I have a catalog created from windows, stored on an external ssd. I am not able to open this catalog from a mac laptop, saying it is a 'network volume or a volume lightroom can not save changes to'. I am also not able to import files from this catalog, saying the catalog is invalid. I have no issue using this catalog on windows.

I found it susprising the catalog is restricted to OS. Is there a way to make the same catalog work on both windows and mac?
 
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Catalogs aren't restricted to specific Operating Systems, the problem is much more likely to be caused by the use of an incompatible disk format. If the catalog originates from a windows-based external drive, chances are that the drive is formatted as NTFS which is a format that MacOS cannot write to without the installation of an app such as Paragon or Tuxera. Typically, if you are intending to use the same hard drive on both Windows and Mac systems, the solution is to format the drive using the ExFat format, which both Operating Systems can write to.
 
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There are two things that you need to do to run Lightroom interchangeable on both Mac and Windows.

The External Disk drive needs to be formatted in a filesystem that is read and write capable by both WindowsOS and MacOS. That filesystem is exFAT or FAT32. It does not have the users security layer that Windows imposes or the security in MacOS.

Once you have created this disk, you can copy the contents of the current disk drive to this exFAT formatted disk.

Windows uses Drive letters (C:\, D:\ , etc.) It is the only operating system today that uses drive letters. The Lightroom Catalog has a path field named 'absolutePath' That will contain the drive letter if used in the Windows environment. This drive letter will confuse Lightroom Classic if opened in MacOS. Fortunately there is an second path field in the database. It is named 'relativePath'. This is the path relative to the location of the catalog file. If the image are located on a different WindowOS drive this field is un resolvable. However if you locate the images in a folder that is a sub folder of the folder containing the catalog file this field 'relativePath' is always resolvable in both MacOS and WindowsOS.

The easy way to achieve this is to use the Export As a Catalog function to export the whole catalog and all the digital negatives to the exFAT formatted drive. This creates a portable "package" that you can take to any computer with either operating system.
 
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File system is the reason, thank you to both of you.

Now a related question, how do I copy all settings (various presets, export settings) from windows lightroom to mac lightroom? I have tried manually copying them to <username>\Library\Application Support\Lightroom, but it didn't help even after a restart. I found this path lightroom preference, show lightroom preset location.
 
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kenwood said:
File system is the reason, thank you to both of you.

Now a related question, how do I copy all settings (various presets, export settings) from windows lightroom to mac lightroom? I have tried manually copying them to <username>\Library\Application Support\Lightroom, but it didn't help even after a restart. I found this path lightroom preference, show lightroom preset location.
Click to expand...
If you check the box in Preferences Presets tab that is labeled "Store presets with this Catalog" , LrC will create but not populate a folder called "Lightroom Settings" inside the folder alongside the catalog file. You can then copy the presets folder from the Global location to the Lightroom Settings folder. From that point on all new presets will be added to the appropriate folder in the Lightroom Settings folder and the Presets will always be current and travel with the catalog . Note that this does not copy ALL Preset settings but it does cover the major ones.
 
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clee01l said:
If you check the box in Preferences Presets tab that is labeled "Store presets with this Catalog" , LrC will create but not populate a folder called "Lightroom Settings" inside the folder alongside the catalog file. You can then copy the presets folder from the Global location to the Lightroom Settings folder. From that point on all new presets will be added to the appropriate folder in the Lightroom Settings folder and the Presets will always be current and travel with the catalog . Note that this does not copy ALL Preset settings but it does cover the major ones.
Click to expand...
I tried this but could not get it to work. I have this folder called photo-active on an external ssd, which contains my catalog and actual files. I copied develop presets to photo-active/Lightroom Settings. When I open on windows, all develop presets are there as expected. But when I open on mac, none of the presets are there.

I also tried copying photo-active folder to the mac but that did not help.

I was able to copy export presets to the lightroom on mac, but the develop presets dont work. The develop presets are all .lrtemplate, not sure if that is a problem? I have at least 300 develop presets.

On mac I have the presets copied to:
<username>\Library\Application Support\Adobe\Lightroom\Develop Presets
<username>\Library\Application Support\Adobe\CameraRaw\Develop Presets
 
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kenwood said:
The develop presets are all .lrtemplate, not sure if that is a problem?
Click to expand...
Those are the old pre-Lightroom Classic 7.2 presets. They became obsolete since that update. The correct ones are in: <username>\Library\Application Support\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings
 
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kenwood said:
I tried this but could not get it to work. I have this folder called photo-active on an external ssd, which contains my catalog and actual files. I copied develop presets to photo-active/Lightroom Settings. When I open on windows, all develop presets are there as expected. But when I open on mac, none of the presets are there.

I also tried copying photo-active folder to the mac but that did not help.

I was able to copy export presets to the lightroom on mac, but the develop presets dont work. The develop presets are all .lrtemplate, not sure if that is a problem? I have at least 300 develop presets.

On mac I have the presets copied to:
\Library\Application Support\Adobe\Lightroom\Develop Presets
\Library\Application Support\Adobe\CameraRaw\Develop Presets
Click to expand...

Preference for Presets need to be the same (Store with catalog) for both Windows OS and MacOS. You need to restart LrC after changing the Presets location.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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