Relinking LR Catalogue from Windows to Mac

Ive just set up my Mac and I previously had a windows pc. Ive saved my photos, LR Cat and previews to a hard drive. When I open up the LR Cat all my Albums have the "!" logo. How to I resync my albums as its not giving me the option!!!!! Is it something to do with how I saved on PC to how I'm looking at in on a Mac. I have no* idea and I'm rubbish with computers

The problem is, you moved/saved the photos to the hard disk outside of LR... and now the catalogue's internal links to where those photos are is broken...

You have three choices... depending on the number of photos involved...

you can use LR's internal functions to find/locate the photos, and fix the links..

or

You can create a new catalogue, then point it at the new hard drive, and let LR do a complete NEW Import of the photos in their new locations...

Option #1 may take days of tedious work
Option #2 won't carry over any editing changes you made...which are stored in the catalogue unless you diligently created XMP files...

Third option is to copy all the photos back to their original locations (you should have named/partition the new apple hard drive the same as your old PC hard drive) and be sure the original catalogue is working, then use LR to move everything to the new hard drive... LR will move the photos, and keep track, properly, of the new location in the catalogue...

Thanks. I'll take a look. How would I name the Apple hard drive the same as PC. I am using to transfer at the moment a WD My passport ultra but I also have a My Passport for Mac ready to use on my Mac once LR is up and running. So confused

You would want to be sure that, if you have the photos on the PC in

C:\photos.....

that you have the same thing on the Mac

IOW, as far as LR is concerned, the drive/folders are the same on the Mac as the PC

Would it work if I emptied my current EHD and connected it in LR then copy LR Cat and photos to hard drive in LR then plug in and connect EHD to LR in Mac and open cat from there and add photos to folders via LR?

What you should do is... Connect the EHD to the PC... and let's assume, for discussion that the PC now sees the EHD as Drive E:

Goto LR, and use the LR tools to MOVE the photos to the EHD drive:E

Unplug the EHD and install it in the Mac as Drive:E and install LR on Drive:C

The LR catalogue should then see your photos on Drive:E

Should I connect the EHD to LR within LR. The option at the bottom by flikr, Twitter etc ( Add HD)?

When you simply start LR, it should see all available drives connected to that computer. If you connect the EHD to the computer, LR should see it.

Sorted. Thanks all