# Using Lightroom Classic CC on desktop and laptop



## si_ (Jan 9, 2019)

Hi

I´ve just joined this forum and I´m looking for some help. I´ve been using Lightroom Classic CC for a year or so now mainly on a laptop but since buying a new desktop, I want that to become my main computer for photo editing and file storage. However, for around 6 months of the year I travel abroad and take lots of photos which I will want to edit in Lightroom on my laptop for uploading to social media, websites etc. and also to photo selling platforms such as Adobe Stock. I´ve just returned from 3 weeks away with a laptop full of photos and lightroom edits but I´m struggling to get my head around how I can transfer the work I´ve done to my desktop. I know I can copy the photo files across and import them into the desktop catalog but how do I transfer the edits and see what I´ve already published to Adobe stock? Is there some way to sync the catalogs on both machines?

Thanks in advance for any pointers to a workflow for this.

Si_


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## Zenon (Jan 9, 2019)

This is what I do when I travel. I create a new catalogue on my laptop and name it based on the trip. I store files on an External Drive. When I get home I copy the catalogue to the ED, plug it into my desktop and use the Import From Another Catalogue command. It merges that catalogue into the master one on the desktop and moves the files off the ED. You may want to test this first and perhaps back up your files when you go live. I have never backed up my files and haven't had any issues.       

Sorry I don't know anything about Adobe Stock.


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## si_ (Jan 9, 2019)

Zenon said:


> This is what I do when I travel. I create a new catalogue on my laptop and name it based on the trip. I store files on an External Drive. When I get home I copy the catalogue to the ED, plug it into my desktop and use the Import From Another Catalogue command. It merges that catalogue into the master one on the desktop and moves the files off the ED. You may want to test this first and perhaps back up your files when you go live. I have never backed up my files and haven't had any issues.
> 
> Sorry I don't know anything about Adobe Stock.



Thanks Zenon, that makes sense, I´ll give that a try.


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## Zenon (Jan 9, 2019)

Works great. Gonna be gone for 6 weeks starting next month and going to do that again. My only complaint is the size of my laptop screen when I'm gone that long.  That is on the list of wants and needs as well.


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## clee01l (Jan 9, 2019)

Before the release of LightroomCC for the desktop, I used a travel catalog for my laptop and a Master catalog for my desktop.   I used the scenario that Zenon suggests.
Now, I use Lightroom Classic for my Master catalog and Lightroom CC for my laptop.   Lightrpopm CC syncs to the Cloud and back down to my Master Catalog  on the desktop.


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## si_ (Jan 9, 2019)

clee01l said:


> Before the release of LightroomCC for the desktop, I used a travel catalog for my laptop and a Master catalog for my desktop.   I used the scenario that Zenon suggests.
> Now, I use Lightroom Classic for my Master catalog and Lightroom CC for my laptop.   Lightrpopm CC syncs to the Cloud and back down to my Master Catalog  on the desktop.


Thanks. I get that method but am I right you don't get the full editing capability of Lightroom with the cloud version?


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## Zenon (Jan 10, 2019)

No currently doesn’t. LR CC does not have all the capabilities of Classic.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 10, 2019)

si_ said:


> Thanks. I get that method but am I right you don't get the full editing capability of Lightroom with the cloud version?


It has most of the editing tools (things like tone curve are just hidden under a button), but organizational tools are more limited.


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## Tom75 (Jan 11, 2019)

clee01l said:


> Before the release of LightroomCC for the desktop, I used a travel catalog for my laptop and a Master catalog for my desktop. I used the scenario that Zenon suggests.
> Now, I use Lightroom Classic for my Master catalog and Lightroom CC for my laptop. Lightrpopm CC syncs to the Cloud and back down to my Master Catalog on the desktop.



Hi Cletus,

this is actually a very interesting solution of way of working to avoid exporting and messing around with travel catalogues.

I have used the CC cloud sync now for some time but mainly for making final projects available on other devices and to other people etc but I will look into syncing in progress project collections for working on them when away ... if that works as good as it sounds then it should be almost perfect for me.

The only thing is when you are away and you are shooting stuff which you want to backup to an external drive, then I cannot import these images into Classic before I am back home because they first need to get into Classic to be able to sync them with CC.

Regards,
Tom


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## allen-c (Jan 13, 2019)

I presume that when creating the "travel catalogue" you install your keyword structure, and retrieve new entries when you reincorporate the new photos. I've yet to use LR CC. I understood that it doesn't allow you to define keywords or they don't sync back or something like that. Are keywords a thing of the past?


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 13, 2019)

allen-c said:


> I presume that when creating the "travel catalogue" you install your keyword structure, and retrieve new entries when you reincorporate the new photos. I've yet to use LR CC. I understood that it doesn't allow you to define keywords or they don't sync back or something like that. Are keywords a thing of the past?


That is indeed the advantage of using Lightroom Classic on both computers and use a 'Travel catalog'. You can export your keyword list from the main computer and import that into the Travel catalog, so they match. Any new keywords you add to the Travel catalog will automatically be imported when you import the Travel catalog into the Main catalog when you get home. Using Lightroom CC on the laptop does not work this way because keywords do not sync between Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic. Keywords are definitely not a thing of the past, even though Lightroom CC uses artificial intelligence to recognise images and add keywords itself (invisible to the user however, and not editable by the user).


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## Fifer (Jan 14, 2019)

I keep my Lightroom catalog in Dropbox (although OneDrive or Google drive would work also), and my photos on a portable hard drive. When I travel with my laptop, I take the portable drive with me, and as long as I have internet access, my catalog and photos are always available. That way I maintain one catalog.
My photos are also backed up to at least two other hard drives, so I don't rely only on the portable drive.
It may not be your method of choice, but it works for me.


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## clee01l (Jan 14, 2019)

You most easily create a travel catalog by  making a copy of your master catalog and moving it to the travel computer.  When you open this catalog on the travel computer it will appear with all of your keywords, collections etc..    Since you did not move a copy of your images in their folders, the catalogs images will appear missing on this travel catalog.   You can either ignore that fact or tidy up the travel catalog by REMOVING all of the images that have been cataloged.


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## jtrippy (Jan 14, 2019)

clee01l said:


> You most easily create a travel catalog by  making a copy of your master catalog and moving it to the travel computer.  When you open this catalog on the travel computer it will appear with all of your keywords, collections etc..    Since you did not move a copy of your images in their folders, the catalogs images will appear missing on this travel catalog.   You can either ignore that fact or tidy up the travel catalog by REMOVING all of the images that have been cataloged.


I don't understand this.  Would you please explain in more detail?  Thanks.


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## clee01l (Jan 14, 2019)

jtrippy said:


> I don't understand this.  Would you please explain in more detail?  Thanks.


You have a master catalog file on the desktop.  It currently has everything in your master catalog including your keywords, collections etc. It also includes a reference to the path of all of the images that you have imported.  

 Put a copy of this catalog file on your laptop.  
Rename it "Travel.lrcat".  
  Using Lightroom Classic on the laptop, open this catalog.  It will show you everything that is in your master catalog that is on the desktop except that the images will be missing and there will be no previews. 
Working only on the laptop, select all of the images in the Travel Catalog and choose REMOVE to remove these entries from the travel catalog.  
Your travel catalog will show zero images but your keyword list and all of your collections and any publish services will be intact.   
While traveling with the laptop, import images into this catalog on the laptop.   
After you return you will merge the new images into the master catalog using the Export from Catalog/Import a catalog process


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