Tutorial: Sharing Your Lightroom Catalog with Your Laptop

We often like to experiment with new blog features, so today, we have a tutorial provided to you by Gilberto J. Perera from Laptoplogic.com. Go there to read the latest mobile technology news and check the best netbooks that are available on the market!

As an owner of a laptop and a desktop and a frequent user of Lightroom, more often than not I find myself disappointed with Lightroom’s inability to allow users to access catalogs located in network locations. Of course Adobe has a very good reason for this and it stems from their use of SQLite as their database for Lightroom. Unfortunately my productivity is halved when away from home so I had to find a solution.

After scratching my head for a while a light bulb went off. I had recently written an article on Microsoft SyncToy 2 and how well it worked. I realized that I could use the SyncToy application to synchronize the catalog files between my laptop and my desktop, best of all I have a Windows Home Server with enough space to host the Catalog file and the RAW images. Although not entirely a solution, rather a workaround this system has worked for me thus far. I hope that you find it equally useful.

The diagram and the summary below will describe how the files and the syncing profiles were arranged. If you know of a better way to synchronize these files, please let us know.

SUMMARY

1. Create a directory on your server designated for the LR Catalog files


2. Setup SyncToy and create a sync profile that synchronizes your desktops catalog with the directory created on your server


3. Verify the sync profile by running a preview


4. Synchronize the catalog files


5. [On Your Laptop] Create a sync profile that synchronizes the server location with a designated location on your laptop (this is the location where you will tell Lightroom on your laptop to open the catalogs from)


6. Verify the sync profile by running a preview.


7. Synchronize the catalog files


8. Once both profiles are set up and files are synchronized, use Vista’s or XP’s Task Scheduler to run the Sync Profile each time your computer boots up.


9. You’re done!

TIPS

• IMPORTANT - before embarking on this task please backup your files.


• Make sure to preview your Sync using the Preview button, this will help prevent errors should you have missed something during the sync profile setup process.

This tutorial was written by Gilberto J. Perera from Laptoplogic.com.