# i am getting a new computer and dont want to lose any of my LR stuff what do i need



## bjc (Jan 19, 2011)

i am getting a new computer..i have LR2 on my dt and lt and am replacing my lt... most of my photos are on my ehd...as is my catalog... so what do i need to do to have things just the way they are when i replace my lt with a new computer??? also have presets in a folder on my ehd...

thanks for taking me thru the steps so i dont run into problems when i get my new computer tomorrow..thansk


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 19, 2011)

Hey bjc, there should be no problems with changing to a new laptop.

Could you do a few things for me first:

1. I sort of recall talking to you a few months ago after you had upgraded to LR3. Is that correct, or is my memory playing tricks? So first thing is please confirm the exact version of LR that you are running on both Desktop and Laptop.
2. On either of your two systems, can you start Lightroom, then go to Edit>Catalog Settings>General Tab....you should get a dialog box like in my attached screenshot, please take a screenshot of your settings and post them back (I just want to refresh my memory of where your catalog is stored on your EHD, and what it is called).

Get back to me on those two items and we'll talk more....


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## bjc (Jan 19, 2011)

1.  i have version 3.3

2.  here is screenshot.... catalog is on the ehd


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 19, 2011)

Bjc, a couple of other things we need to do (thanks to Beat for the reminder!):

1. Please confirm the operating system of the old and new laptops.
2. On the *old laptop, *can you start Lightroom then do File>Plug-in Manager and give me a screenshot of the resulting display.
3. Then do Edit>Preferences and give me screenshots of the Presets and File Handling Tabs.

Thanks.


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## bjc (Jan 19, 2011)

1.  the DT and Lt have been sharing the ehd and both have LR 3.3 with that shared catalog.... the DT and LT are vista ....i am replacing the LT with another DT and it will be windows 7... 

i will get back to you on 2 and 3...my husband is on the lt now and i cant get to it..thanks


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 19, 2011)

OK, no worries on the screenshots, do them when you can (it's bedtime this side of the pond, so that's where I'm headed very soon).

I am a little confused though....I had assumed you would be replacing your old laptop with a new *laptop.....*but your last post said you are replacing it with a new* Desktop*...is that correct? I thought you took the laptop and the ehd with you when you went visiting? So what will you do now? Will you still need to be able to run LR on both?


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

i am going to have the DT at my daughters ( where i babysit) and another DT at my home... and will be taking the edh to both places.... without having to take a computer with me..just the ehd... also find it annoying working with my photos on a LT... i enjoy a large monitor etc....so that is the story....

pleasant dreams and i will do the other screenshots and look for your info in the morning here in us.... i get the new computer friday..thanks

will have 2 DT, both with LR and 1 EHD..hope this is clear now


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

dumb question.... when i go to the old LT LR to answer your questions....i have to have the ehd plugged into it right???


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 20, 2011)

bjc said:


> i am going to have the DT at my daughters ( where i babysit) and another DT at my home... and will be taking the edh to both places.... without having to take a computer with me..just the ehd... also find it annoying working with my photos on a LT... i enjoy a large monitor etc....so that is the story....
> 
> pleasant dreams and i will do the other screenshots and look for your info in the morning here in us.... i get the new computer friday..thanks
> 
> will have 2 DT, both with LR and 1 EHD..hope this is clear now



OK thanks, that's perfectly clear. 

Now, a follow-up question. Who is 'setting up' the new desktop? You, your husband, or somebody else? The reason for asking is that an apparently quick and painless way of doing that is to use the Windows Easy Transfer tool, which will transfer ALL user settings (not just Lightroom's) from the laptop to the new desktop. You can read about it here - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transfer - and watch the video on how it's done.

I've never used this tool, as I generally prefer to configure a new system from scratch, but it is certainly recommended by one of out senior members here.

If you decide not to use it, that won't be a problem for us in setting up Lightroom, though we won't really be able to help setup all other applications you may want to install on the new desktop.

So, let me have those screenshots from the laptop when you can and we should be able to work out how to proceed. Answering your other question, it would be sensible to have the ehd connected to the laptop when doing the screenshots (it's not strictly speaking necessary, but probably would be better to do it and so avoid any confusion).


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

ok..off to set that ehd up with the lt and send you those screen shots... i have a super IT guy that services my computers if i have any problems so he is coming over to set up my computer..thanks for the link to that set up program..i will assume my guy does it himself..that is why i am trying to get all the info i need about my different programs ready for him so hopefully we can have a smooth transition.... be back with the screen shots soon..and thanks for all your help


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

here are the screen shots as requested...these are from my old to be replaced lt... with vista...will be replacing with a dt with windows 7 and will also still be using my dt with vista... both computers will be sharing an ehd where i have the photos and the lr catalog

i have no idea what these things are that you had me do screenshots of ..and no idea if i need to know..lol..

thanks for helping me to be ready for my it guy to come over tomorrow to do all the set up with new computer while maintaining the old dt too 

tnaks


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 20, 2011)

Thanks for the screenshots. I was just checking to see what plug-ins you had installed (none bar the defaults, so no action needed there), what your catalog opening setting is (will sort that out for your new desktop in due course), and finally what ACR cache settings were in use (default, though this may be worth changing, will advise how to do that).

Can you tell me which of the two current PCs you use for the catalog backup? Desktop or Laptop? And can you recall where the backups are placed?


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 20, 2011)

Oh, and can I have one final screenshot.....the External Editing tab of the Preferences dialog? Thanks.


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

did u want that screen shot with the lt hooked to ehd or the dt hooked to ehd ?


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

and a dumb question again....i thought my catalog backup was on my ehd..is that so? and if so then i would think i could use either to do the backup?  can you enlighten me please...thanks

here is a screen shot of my ehd folder for LR


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 20, 2011)

Yes it looks as though the backups will be run from both systems. Not a problem.

Just checking back, you didn't give me the screenshot of the Presets tab, so could I have that as well as the External Editing tab....both on the laptop please with the ehd connected. Many thanks.


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## willowbee (Jan 20, 2011)

very helpful information.  Thanks all.  I am in process of changing computers as well.


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

here are the screen shots i think you wanted

and tomorow morning my IT guy is coming so can you go over the steps i need to do to put Lr on the new compute and set it up so it works ok with my ehd being shared with other computer ..thanks


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 20, 2011)

Thanks. I'm a little puzzled by one of the screenshots (the Presets one), so could I ask that you take the same screenshot again, *but this time on the desktop with the ehd attached. *Thanks.

There are only a couple of Lightroom-specific things your IT guy needs to do:
1. Install Photoshop (I see you have Photoshop CS5 installed). Before doing that, however, you probably need to deactivate it on the old laptop (Start Photoshop on the old laptop, then do Help>Deactivate). 
2. You will need your Photoshop serial number handy, and when it has been installed on the new desktop you can do Help>Activate (still on the new desktop).
3. Download and install Lightroom 3.3. Again make sure you have your serial number handy, start Lightroom (it will have a new clean catalog initially, we'll pick up the proper catalog later), and enter the serial number to have it validated. 
4. Close Lightroom.
5. Tell the IT guy to connect the ehd, and tell him to set the drive letter for the ehd to be *N* (same as on the other desktop).

And that's about it for Lightroom, he can carry on setting up the desktop.

When he has finished, there will be a few settings that I want you to change, I'll provide instructions for that later (after I have that other screenshot).


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## bjc (Jan 20, 2011)

ok here is that screen shot from my dt... with ehd attached.... hope it all makes sense to you... and i guess i should just be in touch after we have set up the new computer...ok???


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 20, 2011)

Really, once LR (and Photoshop) is installed and the ehd setup with the correct drive letter, there's very little left to do. I'll type up the instructions in the morning (over here time) and you can either have your IT man do the changes or you can do it yourself when he's finished.

One question: do you have any user presets (e.g. develop, metadata, export) setup on either of your two existing computers?
And one more: will you be keeping the laptop around for a few days (just in case there are some files on it that we need to copy)?


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## linkwoman (Jan 20, 2011)

I have a similar question - will post separately!


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

Hey bjc,

OK, after the IT guy has finished (Photoshop and Lightroom have been installed and the ehd has been assigned the drive letter N), you can do the following:

1. Ensure the ehd is connected to the new desktop.
2. With Lightroom *not *running, open Explorer and browse to the 'Lightroom CATALOG edh' folder on the N drive. Open the folder and find the file 'Lightroom 3 Catalog.lrcat' and double-click on it. This should launch Lightroom with the catalog you just clicked on.
3. Take a minute or two to check all your pictures, keywords, collections etc are all OK.
4. Then you need to check/change the following settings:
- Edit>Catalog Settings, ensure the 'Backup Catalog' setting is set to 'Once a day, when exiting Lightroom'
- Edit>Preferences>General Tab, in the Default Catalog section, ensure "Load most recent catalog" is chosen from the drop-down list against "When starting up use this catalog:".
- Edit>Preferences>File Handling Tab, you might want to change the size of the Camera Raw cache to be a little bigger than the default 1.0gb....maybe change it to 10.0gb (box near the bottom of the dialog screen)....this is optional, if you spend a lot of time in the Develop module it might help performance a little, but don't bother if you spend most of your time in the Library module.

And that's about it, you should be good to go.

One last thing, I see that in the "Lightroom CATALOG edh" folder on the N drive that there are a couple of older Lightroom 2 previews folders. It'd probably be safe, and a good idea, to delete these. The folders you can delete are:

- *Lightroom 2 Catalog Previews.lrdata*
- *Lightroom 2 Catalog-2 Previews.lrdata

Just be careful to delete the correct folders!

*One last thing, when closing Lightroom if you get the option to take a backup, just check that the location of the backup is set for the N drive. If is is NOT, get back to me and we'll try to fix that.


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

TNG said:


> Really, once LR (and Photoshop) is installed and the ehd setup with the correct drive letter, there's very little left to do. I'll type up the instructions in the morning (over here time) and you can either have your IT man do the changes or you can do it yourself when he's finished.
> 
> One question: do you have any user presets (e.g. develop, metadata, export) setup on either of your two existing computers?
> And one more: will you be keeping the laptop around for a few days (just in case there are some files on it that we need to copy)?



i will be keeping the LT ( my husband will be using it ) 

and i just remembered i have a template for the naming of my photos when i load them...i will attach...i had a friend tell me how to do the template...i use it so that i can name all my grandson photos with his name and date.... but of course i have no memory of how i set up the template or if this is something we can bring over to the new computer?  is it?  i have some keywords also, do they come over with the new computer?  and a bunch of free and paid for presets for develop mode... those presets for develp i have in a folder on my ehd.... and i am assuming i will just have to load them again? 

thanks for letting me know about the template i had made


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

also , deleted the suggested folders...wow i think they were pretty big so glad to get rid of..thanks....before i empty my recycle bin want to just show you my folder to make sure i have deleted the correct ones and that nothing else should be deleted..so see screen shot..thanks for all your help

it is snowing hard here in ny...hope weather wont keep the IT guy away... he lives close by so will see if he shows up later..thanks again


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## bjc (Jan 19, 2011)

i am getting a new computer..i have LR2 on my dt and lt and am replacing my lt... most of my photos are on my ehd...as is my catalog... so what do i need to do to have things just the way they are when i replace my lt with a new computer??? also have presets in a folder on my ehd...

thanks for taking me thru the steps so i dont run into problems when i get my new computer tomorrow..thansk


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

Hi again!

OK, keywords are in the catalog, so no problem there.

Presets: confused by this comment that you have a bunch of them stored on the ehd, because the way you have your preferences set (and why I asked for that screenshot of the Presets Tab) then Lightroom isn't looking at them. Could you give me a screenshot from within Lightroom's Develop mode (on either laptop or current desktop) of the Presets pane (top of the left hand panel) with the User Presets expanded.

Rename template I'm not sure about....but I'm sure we'll be able to sort that out.

Keywords are held in the catalog, so no action needed there....they will still be there when you open the catalog on the new desktop.

The folders that you deleted, yes I can confirm they are the correct ones so you can empty the recycle bin!! Have you noticed another folder (Lightroom 2 Catalog.lrdata) which can also be deleted.


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

here is screenshot of the partial list of my presets ...there are a bunch that you cant see in just the window..you have to scroll to see more... these are purchased ones and paid for ones...and as i said i have a folder on my ehd and when i buy or get new ones i put them in this folder and then in LR just click on add and add them to the presets


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

here is screen shot of the folders on ehd


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

the custom file naming is here..see screen shot...will i have to reset up this in new computer or will my custom template be there?


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

Could you just clarify for me how you get your presets into Lightroom.....I can see that you put them in the Lightroom Presets folder on the ehd, but how exactly are you then getting them into Lightroom? You say you just click on add, or do you mean you click on 'import' then select the ones you want from the folder on the EHD? 

Using Explorer on the laptop, can you browse to the folder C:\users\*yourusername\*appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom\develop presets\user presets and give me a screenshot of the contents of the user presets folder?


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

bjc said:


> the custom file naming is here..see screen shot...will i have to reset up this in new computer or will my custom template be there?


 
I'm not entirely sure....I think it depends on whether or not you saved the custom template. Give me a screenshot of the contents of C:\users\*yourusername\*appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom\Filename Templates on the laptop.


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

yup thats what i mean...i create a folder under presets, name it and then right click on it and import it ...i then go to the ehd and get that folder to import


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

here is that c folder stuff 

just realized this is from the c drive on my DT...do i need to do this screen shot from the LT?


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

bjc said:


> yup thats what i mean...i create a folder under presets, name it and then right click on it and import it ...i then go to the ehd and get that folder to import


 
In which case it'll be easier if you tell your IT guy, AFTER he has installed Lightroom on the new desktop, to copy the contents of the User Presets sub-folder (C:\users\*yourusername\*appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom\develop presets\user presets) FROM the laptop into the same sub-folder on the new desktop. Then all your presets will be ready for you.


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

bjc said:


> here is that c folder stuff
> 
> just realized this is from the c drive on my DT...do i need to do this screen shot from the LT?


 
Yes please.


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

now on my LT with ehd connected.... but i cant find that path to follow on the LT /..see screen shot

also will be out for an hour or so... IT guy coming about 4 ny time....


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

OK, you probably need to adjust the view properties of Explorer on the laptop:

Start Explorer, then click on Tools>Folder Options>View Tab. About 6 entries down is the item for "Hidden Files and Folders"....you need to select the option which says 'Show hidden files etc.". OK that, close Explorer then start it again and see if you can now see the Appdata folder under the Username.....


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

i am confused...you said explorer??? like internet explorer??? dont know what you mean


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

The program that you use to view files and folders on your computer is called Windows Explorer. The last screenshot you did for me, where you said you couldn't see the Appdata folder, was the Windows Explorer program. Change the settings as I described and you should then see the AppData folder.

However, all this will be not needed if your IT guy uses the Windows Easy Transfer toool as I suggested, because then ALL the Lightroom settings will be transferred from the laptop to the new Desktop.....we only need to be doing these investigations in case he doesn't use the W.E.T....


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

my IT guy doesnt use that software..he says it takes too long and if something goes wrong in the tranfer you are in trouble...

here is the path that you wanted...

and also the window before it.... this is all from my laptop


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## bjc (Jan 21, 2011)

my IT guy doesnt use that software..he says it takes too long and if something goes wrong in the tranfer you are in trouble...

here is the path that you wanted...

and also the window before it.... this is all from my laptop


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 21, 2011)

OK, I think I understand a bit better about the develop presets now, so please ask the IT guy, when he has installed Lightroom on the new Desktop, to copy the contents of the Develop Presets sub-folder (c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom\develop presets) from the laptop into the same folder on the new desktop.

Also do the same for the Filename Templates folder.


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## bjc (Jan 27, 2011)

ok...i am back!  hope you didnt miss me..LOL.... i have my new DT with windows 7 and LR 3.3 ( just did update) and the same old ehd...where all my pics and my catalog is ...so i can share with my old DT which is at my daughters.... LR is running fine but on the new computer i dont have any of my presets so would like your help....  i do have a folder called presets on my ehd... and that is where i install them from ..... my IT guy just copied the entire c drive from old computer ( vista dt) to this new one..so everything should be the same...so let me know what you need to see or know from me so that i can get all my presets back in the dev mode..these are presets i have purchased or downloaded for free

thanks


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 27, 2011)

Well, if the IT guy did what I asked him to do then I don't really know what the problem is. For starters, on the new desktop using Windows Explorer can you give me a screenshot of the contents of the following folder: c:\users\_*yourusername*_\appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom\develop presets. Thanks.


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## bjc (Jan 28, 2011)

here is screen shot


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 28, 2011)

Well, as the Develop Presets folder on the new Desktop is empty, it would seem the IT guy did not do what I suggested in post #42, i.e. copy the contents of the Develop Presets sub-folder from your laptop to the same folder on the new Desktop. Which is disappointing.

So, either:

1. Do the copy as per post #42, assuming you still have the laptop and it hasn't been reset/rebuilt for your husband's use?
2. Reimport the presets from the ehd.
3. You could copy the contents of the presets folder on the ehd directly into the Develop Presets folder, but that way you would end up with the complete contents which may be more than you had originally imported. Cleaner to do 1 or 2 I think.


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## bjc (Jan 30, 2011)

i am confused cause the presets are all in the ehd.... so i am not sure what the LT has to do with it?  but i do have the LT , nothing has been changed on that computer....


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 30, 2011)

Yes I know that the presets are in a folder on the EHD.....*but Lightroom doesn't know that! *Lightroom looks in the folder at c:\users\_yourusername_\appdata\roaming\adobe\lightroom\develop presets for any presets which are not supplied as standard. When you were using the laptop you used to *import to Lightroom* those presets that you downloaded, and when you did that they were stored by Lightroom in that Develop Presets folder. Look at the screenshot of the Develop Presets folder from the _*laptop *_in post #40....you see all the presets are there. Now look at the screenshot of the equivalent folder from the new *Desktop *(post #45) and you will see that it does NOT contain any of your presets, and if the IT guy had copied that folder to the new desktop as I requested we wouldn't be having this conversation.

So, once again, to have your presets appear in Lightroom on the new Desktop you have the 3 choices as outlined in my post #46. I really don't know how else to explain this....


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## bjc (Jan 31, 2011)

on my own i manually added the presets from the ehd by making folders  and importing..actually doing it this way let me be more and better  organized from before..

now should i move or copy anything into the c drive as specified above so that i have them in that preset folder for the future?

thanks again


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## kevinsousa (Jan 31, 2011)

The information that Jim shared in this thread is extremely valuable because I am also getting a new computer and so are several of my associates in my organization. Including those screenshots with your replies will save me a lot of time. Thank you for that.


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## bjc (Jan 19, 2011)

i am getting a new computer..i have LR2 on my dt and lt and am replacing my lt... most of my photos are on my ehd...as is my catalog... so what do i need to do to have things just the way they are when i replace my lt with a new computer??? also have presets in a folder on my ehd...

thanks for taking me thru the steps so i dont run into problems when i get my new computer tomorrow..thansk


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## Jim Wilde (Jan 31, 2011)

bjc said:


> on my own i manually added the presets from the ehd by making folders  and importing..actually doing it this way let me be more and better  organized from before..
> 
> now should i move or copy anything into the c drive as specified above so that i have them in that preset folder for the future?
> 
> thanks again



If you've used Lightroom to import the presets (they now appear in the Develop module, yes?), there is nothing more you need to do....in the process of doing that import Lightroom will copy the presets into the C drive 'Develop Presets' folder. If you want to, go check the folder using Explorer and you should find your presets are now there.


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## mkpaul (Feb 1, 2011)

I"m so happy I found this forum. I can finally get the direct information I need just from reading these post. Much better than searching the internet!

Mike


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