Lightroom and Lightroom CC library files

Jon Rowlison

Senior Member
I found out by accident that Lightroom stand-alone for Windows and Mac can share libary files. Does anyone who's used Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC know if they can share library files? (I don't plan to use it in both apps at the SAME TIME, of course.)

I am still using 5.7 but will be trying 6.0 for the month-long trial and then probably switching to CC... want to make sure I don't lose changes made after I update the library from 5.7 -> 6.0.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I found out by accident that Lightroom stand-alone for Windows and Mac can share libary files. Does anyone who's used Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC know if they can share library files? (I don't plan to use it in both apps at the SAME TIME, of course.)

I am still using 5.7 but will be trying 6.0 for the month-long trial and then probably switching to CC... want to make sure I don't lose changes made after I update the library from 5.7 -> 6.0.

If by this you mean the following...
  • LR installed on MAC
  • LR installed on PC
  • LR Catalog file is on a shared drive and specified as the catalog for each application
  • You never open LR simultaneously on both machines

...then yes, you can certainly do that. But it must be the same physical catalog file and cannot be accessed simultaneously. There is no server version of LR that will allow multiple people to access the same catalog at the same time, though they can have independent copies of LR accessing the same base image file imported into independent LR catalogs (all LR edits are non-destructive and stored in the local catalog).

I've not heard of any issues with catalog migration, but once you go to 6.0 on the catalog file you will not be able to access it from the other machine until you upgrade the software.

To my knowledge there isn't a way to convert a LR6 catalog back to LR5, so make sure you back up a copy before upgrading. If, down the road, you decide to abandon LR CC the only way I know you could get the images back into LR 5 would be to export the image and .XMP sidecar file and then import them back into LR5. You may lose some tags and ratings, but you save the edits.
 
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