For my use, I choose SyncThing and am very happy about it. These include BitTorrent Sync, SyncThing, or ownCloud and many others. In place of Dropbox, there are several personal cloud storage solution that can be used. I have to leave computer 1 on a long time after and edit, and also wait a long time on computer 2 before an edit, for Dropbox to do its synchronization. Without LAN Sync, it take a long time to sync both ways. And for LAN Sync to work, the other machine has to be switched on at the same time.
This avoids the performance hit completely, as long as there is a way to keep them synchronized. Hence, my method, which is keeping the catalog file local on both machines. On wifi, everything slows down to a crawl. Performance suffers a lot using this, and I find that I can only work on my laptop if I connect it to the network with Ethernet cable.
However, there is a good reason Lightroom doesn’t want you to keep catalog files on the network. Lightroom cannot tell anymore that the drive is not attached locally, so it will let you load catalog file stored on it. This may seem like split hair, but with subst The command “substitute” (instead of mapping) a drive letter for a network path. One solution that I had used previously is using the subst command. This is very similar to mapping network drive, but with subtle difference. (Not even if you map it to a drive letter) Lightroom will not let you load catalog that is located on a network folder. Lightroom now knows where the images are, and you can continue to work on them just like before.
Right-click on them and select “Find Missing Folder.” then choose the new folder crated on the NAS. In Library module, under Folders tab on the left, you will see the moved folder(s) having question mark on them. Move the image files to the destination loccation (I suggest using FastCopy), then delete them from the original location).And it will be A LOT faster than doing it within Lightroom. But if you do the following, you should be fine. That is sort of true, you can mess things up pretty badly. You may have heard suggestions to only do this within Lightroom, or risk messing up your catalog. The \photography\ share will be used for other data as well (Lightroom plugins, camera profiles), so the images themselves are kept one level deeper.Īfter the folder is created, move the existing image files into it. I have a share dedicated to this at \\ NAS IP address\photography\photo\ Create a location on your NAS to host your images. I assume you already have a Lightroom catalog with images in them, which we will make available on 2 machines in the following process. I use a FreeNAS box that I built myself, but off-the-shelf unit like Synology or QNAP should work too. What will be needed?īasically, a NAS is needed. This method takes care of both the images and Lightroom catalog synchronization. I am quite happy with what I ended up with, so I thought it could be useful for others as well. I need to be able to use either machine depending on the mood/time of day, and then switch to the other machine with the minimum of fuss and waiting for things to synchronized. I have struggled for a good 6 months trying to find a good way to let me edit on either of my 2 computers at home, with Lightroom kept in sync’d automatically.