MOVE or COPY CATALOG!

I can't believe this isn't in the app.?I want to move the catalog off my tower machine onto the external drive where all my pictures reside.?Fat chance.?This is in Lightroom 2.4 on Mac OS.

I copied the entire catalog directory to the external drive, but opening it results in a ''catalog is corrupt'' error.?The repair attempt fails, and the TechNote says only that catalog corruption can result from moving a catalog without moving its ''-journal'' file.?There is no -journal file in the Lightroom catalog directory, not even a hidden one.

Just do a search on this topic and you'll find widespread problems.?It's incredible that version 1 went out the door without this critical function, but to have it persist in version 2?

WTF?

MOVE or COPY CATALOG!

I hope Lightroom was closed while you were moving the catalog?

MOVE or COPY CATALOG!

It was, thanks.

I tried it twice just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.?The original catalog works fine.

So all the time I spent entering tags was pretty much wasted.

Unbelievable.

Have you tried selecting the top level folder(s) in your catalog and choosing File %26gt; Export as Catalog and set the destination to the other machine? That will copy your catalog and if you want, all your original images. That should allow you to move it to another machine without the problem.

I'm not 100% sure what the journal file is, either. But, you do need to make sure you're copying all the files over (there are usually 2 catalog files, for example). If you're just picking and choosing, you might run into trouble. I'd recommend copying the entire directory that your catalog resides in. That will help ensure Previews and other settings also come along for the ride.

Thanks.?I did copy the whole directory.

The question is, does exporting the top folder as a catalog also export all the tags and adjustments??And, I want to add other items to the catalog that exist at the same level as the folder (that aren't subfolders).

Ah, let's start over....(I just saw your reply in another thread that indicated you were having a problem in this area.)

What occurs when you copy just the .lrcat to the external HD, with LR closed, and then double click on said copy of the .lrcat?

I've just tried this on both a partition of my MBPro's, and a FW pocket drive..... it references and accesses the files with no help from me, and starts building a Previews folder.

There are, of course, other ways to effect a transfer, but this is one that works just fine on updated Leopard and FW drives. (the journal file, and the .lock file, should not exist when LR is quit. Delete them if you got 'em under that circumstance.)

I copy my main catalog regullarly, works no problem, this is from an external hard disk to internal disks on both a windows machine and an OSX machine, if you also copy the preview file you don't even need to rebuild.

Indeed. Copying the Previews folder means it doesn't get built afresh. And so that's one reason I generally do not copy it over.

I only keep my 1:1 previews for a week, why would I want to re build previews of the images I am presently working on? Is there an advantage in this?