# Duplicate Collection Set using drag and drop - is it possible?



## thommy (Jan 5, 2018)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): Lightroom Classic version: 7.1 [ 1148620 ]

I read somewhere that you can use shortcut CTRL whilst dragging a Collection or Smart Collection to quickly create a duplicate of it. And it was also possible to that with Collections Sets with it's content. 
I have tried, and also with ALT, but cannot make it work. All it does is to create a duplicate of the Collection Set with no images and the name COPY added to it.
I know there is a right-click option "Duplicate Collection Set" and I get the same stupid result there.
Empty Collection Set.
Anyone knows how duplicate of Collection Sets works? Or doesn't it?

Thommy


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## Kirby Krieger (Jan 5, 2018)

I had to wait a few minutes for newly-duplicated Collection Sets and Collections to be populated.  (I'm on OS X, all up-to-date.  I _have not_ done this with by dragging — just with the context-sensitive menu.)  Try again, wait, and, as long was we are trouble-shooting, close Lightroom and reboot and see if duplicating Collection Sets gives you the result you expect.

It _should not_ require the user to wait, but that may be a different subset of the issue "I'm not getting the result I expect" than "it does not work at all".

(Minor edit for clarity.)


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## thommy (Jan 5, 2018)

Thanks for the reply, but no, it doesn't work even though I wait 5 minutes.


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## clee01l (Jan 5, 2018)

thommy said:


> Thanks for the reply, but no, it doesn't work even though I wait 5 minutes.
> 
> Collection Sets contain no images, only Collections and other Collection Sets.  The result is an empty collection set. The function is working as designed.
> 
> If you want to copy collections or Smart Collections to another Collection set you can use the {Cntl/Cmd} Drag and Drop operation to copy.  A simple Drag and Drop moves the collections or Smart Collections


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## thommy (Jan 5, 2018)

Understand that, but I wonder if it 's possible to drag and drop a collection set with it's collections containing images.
And here is where I read it:
Seven (almost) random Lightroom 4 quick tips – Lightroom Solutions

See tip number 2 : You can shift select multiple items too, and even copy entire Collection Sets using this method.

Thommy


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## clee01l (Jan 5, 2018)

thommy said:


> Understand that, but I wonder if it 's possible to drag and drop a collection set with it's collections containing images.
> And here is where I read it:
> Seven (almost) random Lightroom 4 quick tips – Lightroom Solutions
> 
> ...


"Copying Sets is *a bit fiddly* though, so I may do a short video showing how to do it." Perhaps we need to get John Beardsworth in here to explain how it is done


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## thommy (Jan 5, 2018)

clee01l said:


> "Copying Sets is *a bit fiddly* though, so I may do a short video showing how to do it." Perhaps we need to get John Beardsworth in here to explain how it is done


And further down in the responses to his post, John says "- It’s possible, Sean, but it’s not as straightforward as it should be. You have to expand the set, then Shift click, hold down the Alt/Option key, and drag."
I tried that as well, but cannot make it work.

Thommy


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## clee01l (Jan 5, 2018)

thommy said:


> I tried that as well, but cannot make it work.


Me too with only partial success.  Let's wait on John.


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## johnbeardy (Jan 9, 2018)

Well, that's a mystery to me, and I don't recall ever doing that video!

I think it is along the lines you've been following, but I can't get it working to multiple levels. And it's tricky if you are trying to drop at the top level (or maybe I am being cackhanded!), so it's easier if you first create a collection set manually or by Duplicate Collection Set. This provides somewhere convenient to drop. You can then shift select all the child collections and collection sets and Opt/Alt drag them to the new set.

Unfortunately this seems to create all the selected collections at the same level, even if some collections are children of an inner collection set. 

Interestingly, that article is about 6 years old and 3 years ago I appear to have been working on a plugin called Collection Tools which included a Duplicate Collection Set command. Looking at it again, it recursively recreated the current collection set, no matter how many levels it contained. This bit works, and there is an option to include the photos or not, but the plugin is obviously unfinished. I remember that what I was trying to do was include some "search and replace" logic in how it copied smart collections. If you know my workflow smart collections, you will know that many of its smart collections are based on finding photos in a collection called Current Work. If you are duplicating a set like this, you might want those SCs to be based on a collection called Jones Wedding. So the plugin was intended to replicate the set but with changes like this.

It had two other commands. One creates a collection based on the current photo, prompting you for the field and the collection type. Let's say you have put Brands Hatch in the location field, so this command sets up a smart collection with location contains all Brands Hatch, or a dumb collection with photos meeting that criterion. The second menu item converts the current Library Filter into a smart collection.

No, you can't have it.... yet. The basic copying works, but I need to refresh my memory of how far I got with the cleverer stuff!

John


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## thommy (Jan 9, 2018)

Thanks for the feedback, John!!
I'll have to stick with manually creating my Collections sets.


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## lightroom-austvic (Sep 9, 2020)

The best I can manage is to manually create the Collection-sets, and then Ctrl-click and drag the wanted Collections from one collection set to the new location. Then you get a duplicate of the final level of collections. If you select all of these at once and delete the contents you then have empty collections to add your new image into.


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## Noosabird (Mar 17, 2021)

thommy said:


> Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
> Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): Lightroom Classic version: 7.1 [ 1148620 ]
> 
> I read somewhere that you can use shortcut CTRL whilst dragging a Collection or Smart Collection to quickly create a duplicate of it. And it was also possible to that with Collections Sets with it's content.
> ...


Operating system Windows 10 Lightroom Classic version 10.1.1
I use this system regularly when culling photos to create photobooks where I want to retain early culls.
Right click on the collection set and 'duplicate the Collection set '
Rename the collection set eg Collection cull 2
Shift click to highlight all the collections within the set you wish to duplicate
Hold down 'control' while dragging the collections on top of the new  collection set (the icon will change appearance when you are correctly located) then release.  
Narelle


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