Today’s Question: Can you please explain how to create a catalog for use when traveling with Lightroom Classic? I understand you can then merge that catalog with the main catalog at home?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can create a new catalog for traveling with Lightroom Classic using the “New Catalog” command on the computer you’ll be traveling with. You can then merge that catalog with your primary catalog when you return home using the “Import from Another Catalog” command.
More Detail: Creating a new catalog for a photography trip is a great way to make full use of Lightroom Classic while traveling. You can then merge that catalog with your primary catalog when you return home, retaining all metadata updates and other information about the photos you imported and worked with during your travels.
I recommend creating the new catalog on an external hard drive you’ll be traveling with, which will make it much easier to migrate to the primary catalog when you return home. So, on the laptop you’ll be traveling with you can open Lightroom Classic and choose File > New Catalog from the menu. Navigate to the external hard drive, enter a meaningful name in the “Save As” field, and click the Create button.
Be sure to use that catalog exclusively while traveling. You can import photos into the catalog, preferably onto the same external hard drive where the traveling catalog is stored. You can make use of all features in Lightroom Classic during your travels, as all your work will be retained with this process.
When you return home, connect the traveling external hard drive to the computer with your primary catalog. Open Lightroom Classic with your primary catalog and then from the menu choose File > Import from Another Catalog. Navigate to the location on the external hard drive where you created the traveling catalog, select the catalog file (the file with the .lrcat filename extension), and click the Choose button.
In the dialog that appears, make sure all folders are selected for import and choose “Add new photos to catalog without moving” from the File Handling popup. Click the Import button, and the traveling catalog will be merged with your primary catalog. You can then move the folder containing the photos from your trip to your normal storage location for all photos. Just be sure to move that folder within Lightroom Classic, not through the operating system.
At that point you’ll have all the photos and metadata updates from your traveling catalog in your primary catalog. You should not use the traveling catalog from that point forward, and can discard all the related files once you’re sure the primary catalog is in good order and the catalog and all photos have been backed up.
