How to move Lightroom to a new computer: 7 Steps

Table of contents:

This wikiHow teaches you how to transfer a Lightroom catalog from one computer to another.

Steps

Step 1. Prepare the Lightroom folders

If you have a long list of Lightroom folders, it can help to organize them in a hierarchy. These are some examples:

Try to create folders for each year. With subfolders for each month or season of the year.
If you take a lot of travel photos, it can help to create folders for each country, and then add folders for various locations in that country.

Step 2. Back up Lightroom

The photos are stored on the computer, not in Lightroom, you will have to back them up with the usual backup application. But you'll want to make sure you have copies of the Lightroom catalog, as well as any other settings you want to move around (presets, profiles, etc.).

To support the catalog:
- Click on the menu Edit (Windows) or from the menu Lightroom (macOS), select Catalog settings, and then select The next time I quit Lightroom from the ″ Backup ″ drop-down menu.
- Close Lightroom: the ″ Back up catalog ″ dialog will appear.
- Select a location for the catalog and click Support.
To back up the plugins, you will need to find their locations. How to do it:
- Click on the menu File and select Add-on manager.
- Check the path (under the ″ Status ″ heading) under each plugin. These are the locations of the plug-in files that you will need to copy to the new computer.

Step 3. Install Lightroom on the new computer

If you don't have the DVD, you can download it from Adobe. Once you've downloaded the installer, simply run it and follow the instructions provided.

Step 4. Transfer the files from the original computer to the new one

When you copy the files, save them to the same location they were on the old computer. Here you will find some of the different files:

Presets and templates:
- Windows:
  
  C: \ Users \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom
- Mac:
  
  Macintosh HD / Users // Library / Support Application / Adobe / Lightroom
Preferences:
- Windows:
  
  C: \ Users \ \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Lightroom \ Preferences \ Lightroom Classic CC 7 Preferencess.agprefs
- Mac:
  
  Macintosh HD / Users // Library / Preferences / com.adobe. LightroomClassicCC7.plist

Step 5. Open the catalog on the new computer

To do so, just double click on the catalog file *.lrcat that you copied.

Step 6. Relink the missing files, if there are any

If you find question marks on folders or icons on thumbnails, don't be tempted to delete the missing photos and re-import them. Instead:

Right-click on the main folder in the hierarchy and select Find lost folders.
Open the new folder location.
Relocate all top-level folders until photos are online.

Step 7. Check the default settings, preferences and plugins

Make sure your preferences and settings are the same. As long as you've copied everything to the same folders, you should be able to access the same preferences and default settings that you had on the old computer.