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Migrate photos and videos from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom

Last updated on Jul. 11, 2024

Learn how to migrate your photos and videos from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom, Adobe’s new all-in-one service designed from the ground up for photo enthusiasts.

If you’ve used Lightroom Classic earlier, you’re familiar with the concept of catalogs. A catalog in Lightroom Classic is a database (.lrcat file) containing records for each of your photos and any videos you may have imported. A record in the catalog includes a reference to where the photo lives on your system; your instructions for processing the photo—for instance, the adjustments you applied; and photo metadata, such as keywords and ratings.

On the other hand, in Lightroom, your photos are stored in their full resolution centrally in the cloud, and synced with your computers and devices when you’re working on them. You can migrate your catalogs from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom. When you do so, Lightroom brings in each of your photos included in the catalog and uploads it to the cloud in its full resolution for access across multiple devices and computers. Later, to save on disk space, you can even consider deleting those photos from the local storage on your device.

Note:

Collections of your photos in Lightroom Classic automatically become albums in Lightroom. The following data in your Lightroom Classic catalog won’t be available in Lightroom after migration:

Snapshots
Custom metadata
Creations: books, slideshows, and print/web creations
Shares on Lightroom for the web
Map-saved locations
Folders and folder hierarchy
Smart collections
Develop history
Color labels (migrated as keywords in Lightroom)

Recommended steps: Prepare for migration

Prepare your catalog in Lightroom Classic

Follow these steps in Lightroom Classic:

Optimize the catalog (File > Optimize Catalog).
Reconnect any missing files. See Locate missing photos.
Optimize the metadata for the migration. Some tips:
- Try creating a smart collection to find any metadata conflicts. See Create a smart collection.
- Resolve metadata conflicts.
Custom folder names are not migrated to Lightroom. As a workaround, before migrating, create collections in Lightroom Classic mimicking the custom folder names/structures.
If you want to continue using Lightroom Classic after migration, consider upgrading to its latest version before migrating the catalog. This step makes it simpler to sync photos and metadata between Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. The original versions of any photos you import into Lightroom are synced back to Lightroom Classic.

Prepare Lightroom for migration

Follow these steps in Lightroom:

Ensure that the Cache > Storage location for originals preference points to the desired location. See Cache preferences.
Ensure that there's enough disk space in that location to accommodate the original, full-sized images in the Lightroom Classic catalog. The migration process creates a copy of your images. If you're running low on space on an internal drive on your computer, you might want to connect an external hard-drive and specify a location on it as the custom location.

Migrate a catalog

In Lightroom, select File > Migrate From > Lightroom Classic Catalog.
In the information dialog that appears, click Continue.
Review the information in the Before You Begin dialog and click Continue. Before doing so, keep the following considerations in mind:
- You can migrate a catalog only once.
- Once you migrate a catalog, Lightroom automatically syncs all your images to the cloud. The catalog no longer syncs in earlier versions of Lightroom, such as Lightroom 6 or Lightroom 2015. The sync functionality is available in Lightroom or the latest version of Lightroom Classic.
Select the catalog that you want to migrate. Then click Start Scan.
Lightroom scans the catalog and launches the migrator, displaying a progress bar for you to monitor. This step may take a while to complete.
(Occasional) Review any exceptions that the migrator reports. For example, the migrator might report an exception if it is unable to locate some photos included in your source catalog. In such a case, you may want to click Migrate Later and begin the process afresh after resolving the catalog issues in Lightroom Classic.

If you want to ignore the exceptions and continue migrating, click Continue Anyway.
Review the information in the Catalog Ready for Migration dialog. If necessary, click Open Log File to inspect details. When ready, click Start Migration.

Lightroom begins the migration process and displays a progress bar. Depending on the catalog size and the resources on your computer, this step may take a while to complete.
When migration is complete, Lightroom displays a confirmation dialog. If there are exceptions, click Open Log File to review the details.

Congratulations! You can edit, organize, and share your photos using Lightroom now.

Migrate presets

When you launch Lightroom for the first time, existing Lightroom Classic profiles and presets on your computer are automatically migrated to Lightroom. If you have made some changes to the existing presets or added new presets in Lightroom Classic, you can migrate preset to Lightroom.

There are two ways in which you can migrate presets from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom:

Import presets from the default location into Lightroom

Launch Lightroom and navigate to File > Import Profiles and Presets.
Browse to the following location:
- Windows: C:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings
- macOS: Macintosh HD/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings
Note:

On macOS, you can use the Cmd+Shift+G keyboard shortcut to open Go to Folder and paste the above-mentioned path.
Select the presets that you want to import and click Import, You can also select a folder and click Choose Folder.

Export presets from Lightroom Classic and import into Lightroom

Launch Lightroom Classic.
In the Develop module, select a user or third-party preset in the Presets panel that you want to export. You cannot export built-in Lightroom Classic presets or preset groups.
Do one of the following:
- Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (macOS) the preset and choose Export.
- To export all the presets in a group, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (macOS) the preset group and choose Export Group.
Specify the location and file name. Click Save.
Launch Lightroom and navigate to File > Import Presets and Profiles.
Navigate to the location where you saved the preset from Lightroom Classic and import it into Lightroom.

FAQ

No; it may take some time to sync your original photos to the cloud. Click the icon in Lightroom see the sync status.

Leave the external drive connected until all your photos have synced to the cloud (Sync Status: Synced And Backed Up). After the sync is complete, you can disconnect the drive and set the Local Storage > Originals Are Currently Stored In A Custom Location preference in Lightroom to point to a location on an internal hard-drive. Lightroom moves your previews files from the external hard-drive to the internal location. Your originals remain safely backed up in the cloud.

For related helpful information, see Local storage preferences.

Yes; you can migrate as many Lightroom Classic catalogs (.lrcat files) as you want. The contents of each .lrcat file are added under a folder (similar to a collection set in Lightroom Classic) with that catalog’s name.

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