# Moving to a new iMac



## MikeTaylor (May 3, 2018)

Hi all. Long time listener, first time caller.
I'm going to be upgrading our iMac to a new base 27in model with a fusion drive and upgrading the RAM myself.
I use the Creative Cloud based Lightroom on my existing (old and very slow) iMac 
Two questions:
1. Can I just download LrCC, login and it will sync my pictures from the cloud  (I'm happy if this is slow and takes a while, we have great broadband)?
2. What's the best setup for Lr - where should I put my catalogue files on the new machine (or should I just let it do it's thing)?
I had a look around but couldn't find anything specific about this.
Many thanks in advance for any advice.  
Mike


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## Jim Wilde (May 3, 2018)

1. Yep, that's the way it's supposed to work....but see 2.

2. The "catalog files" will always be in the user's Pictures folder, and that can't be changed. The images themselves CAN be located wherever you wish, and you set that in the LRCC Preferences>Local Storage tab. You'll also notice a couple of options on that tab which can affect the answer in 1 above. By default, LRCC does not store local copies of the originals, which means that that first download when you sign in for the first time will only be previews, not originals. Originals will be downloaded on demand, i.e. when editing individual images. The second option can even partly stop that, i.e. you could have smart previews of the originals downloaded (into the local library, not your specified location for the originals), and these could be used for editing until you need to zoom into 1:1 at which time the full original will be downloaded. But unless you specifically chose to download a copy of all originals, you will usually have a mixture of previews and originals. 

All your albums and previews will still be seen, however, and they'll appear fairly quickly after the first sign in.


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