How to Transfer Your Lightroom Classic Catalog to a New Computer (2026)

Last Updated: May22, 2026

Confirmed working with Lightroom Classic 13.x and Lightroom CC

You just got a new computer and want to move your entire photo editing setup across without losing a single edit, preset, or folder structure.

The good news is it is straightforward once you know the right order to do things. The bad news is doing it in the wrong order means missing files, broken links, and a catalog that cannot find your photos.

This guide walks through every step clearly so you get it right the first time.

What You Are Actually Moving

Before touching anything, understand what a Lightroom migration involves. There are three separate things to transfer and they all need to arrive on the new computer in the right place.

The catalog file (.lrcat). This is the brain of your Lightroom setup. It stores every edit, rating, flag, collection, keyword, and piece of metadata you have ever applied. It does not contain your actual photos — just the instructions for what to do with them.

Your photo files. The actual image files sitting on your hard drive. Lightroom just points to them. If they move without the catalog knowing, you get the dreaded grey exclamation mark on every thumbnail.

Presets, profiles, and settings. Your develop presets, export presets, import settings, and any custom camera profiles. These live separately from the catalog and are easy to miss if you only copy the .lrcat file.

Miss any of these three and the migration is incomplete.

Before You Start — Back Everything Up

Do this before touching anything else.

Open Lightroom Classic on your old computer and go to Edit > Catalog Settings > General (on Mac: Lightroom > Catalog Settings). Note the exact file path shown under Location. This is where your .lrcat file lives.

Then go to File > Back Up Catalog and run a manual backup to a location you can find easily. This gives you a safety copy in case anything goes wrong.

While you are at it, note where your photo files are stored. If they are all in one main folder (such as a Pictures folder or an external drive), the migration is straightforward. If they are scattered across multiple drives and locations, you will want to consolidate them first — or at least map out where everything is before you start.

If you are also upgrading your monitor as part of this setup change, read the best monitors for photo editing before buying — a calibrated display makes a bigger difference to editing accuracy than most photographers expect.

Step 1 — Copy the Catalog to an External Drive

On your old computer:

Go to the catalog location you noted above. You will see a file ending in .lrcat and a folder called Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata (sometimes also a Smart Previews.lrdata folder).

Copy all of these to an external hard drive or a large USB drive. Do not just copy the .lrcat file alone — the previews folder contains your rendered previews and smart previews, which save Lightroom from having to regenerate everything from scratch on the new machine.

If your external drive is not large enough for previews, copy just the .lrcat file. Lightroom will rebuild previews on the new computer, it just takes time.

Step 2 — Copy Your Photo Files

This is the step most people underestimate in terms of time.

Copy your entire photo folder structure from the old computer to the new one. The folder structure needs to be identical on the new machine for Lightroom to find everything automatically.

For example, if your photos were at: C:\Users\Hakan\Pictures\Photography\2024\

Put them in the same relative path on the new computer. If you are moving from Windows to Mac or vice versa, the drive letter will change but you can update that in Lightroom after migration.

If your photos live on an external drive rather than the computer’s internal drive, this step is simpler — just plug the same external drive into the new computer and Lightroom will find everything.

Step 3 — Copy Your Presets and Settings

This step is easy to forget and annoying to fix later.

On your old computer, go to Edit > Preferences > Presets (Mac: Lightroom > Preferences > Presets) and click Show Lightroom Develop Presets. This opens the folder where all your presets live.

Copy the entire Develop Presets folder and any other folders you see there (including Export Presets, Filename Templates, Print Templates, and Web Galleries) to your external drive.

On the new computer, paste them into the same Presets folder location after installing Lightroom.

Step 4 — Install Lightroom Classic on the New Computer

Download and install Lightroom Classic from your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription on the new computer. Sign in with your Adobe ID.

Do not open Lightroom yet after installing. Before you launch it for the first time, make sure your photo files are already in place on the new computer. This avoids Lightroom setting up a default empty catalog before you point it to your existing one.

Step 5 — Open Your Existing Catalog

On the new computer, copy the .lrcat file and previews folder from your external drive to a location on the new computer — ideally the same relative path as before.

Then open Lightroom Classic and go to File > Open Catalog. Navigate to the .lrcat file you just copied and select it. Lightroom will restart and open your existing catalog with all your photos, edits, collections, and history intact.

If Lightroom opens a blank new catalog instead, close it and use File > Open Catalog to navigate to your copied .lrcat file manually.

Step 6 — Fix Any Missing Files

After your catalog opens, look for grey exclamation marks on thumbnails or a question mark icon on folders in the left panel. These indicate Lightroom cannot find the image files at their old path.

To fix a missing folder: right-click the folder with the question mark in the Folders panel and select Find Missing Folder. Navigate to where you placed the photos on the new computer. Lightroom will re-link the entire folder including all subfolders in one step.

If only individual files are missing rather than whole folders, right-click the thumbnail and select Find Missing Photo and navigate to the file.

Once you have re-linked one top-level folder that contains subfolders, Lightroom usually finds everything underneath it automatically.

Step 7 — Update Cache and Backup Locations

After your catalog is open and all photos are found, go to Edit > Catalog Settings (Mac: Lightroom > Catalog Settings) and update two things:

Backups: under the General tab, check where backups are being saved. Update the path to a folder on your new computer.

Camera Raw Cache: under the Performance tab, check where the Camera Raw cache is stored. Update it to a fast drive on the new computer, ideally your main SSD.

Then go to Edit > Preferences and check the Default Catalog setting points to your newly migrated catalog.

Transferring Lightroom CC (Cloud Version)

If you use Lightroom CC rather than Classic, the transfer is much simpler.

Install the Lightroom CC app on your new computer, sign in with your Adobe ID, and let it sync. All photos stored in the cloud will download automatically. All your edits, albums, and settings come with them.

The only complication is if you have a large local-only library that is not synced to the cloud.

Migrating a Local Lightroom CC Library

If you have photos stored locally in Lightroom CC without cloud sync:

Quit Lightroom CC on the new computer before starting
Locate the Lightroom CC storage folder on the old computer — typically at ~/Pictures/Lightroom Library on Mac or C:\Users\[name]\Pictures\Lightroom Library on Windows
Copy the entire Lightroom Library folder to an external drive
Paste it into the same location on the new computer
Open Lightroom CC — it will detect and load the copied local library
Go to Preferences > Local Storage and confirm the path points to the copied folder

Your local photos, catalogs, and edits will now be accessible.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

All my photos show as missing even though I copied them

This happens when the folder structure on the new computer does not match the old one. Right-click the top-level folder in the Folders panel and use Find Missing Folder to re-link it. Lightroom will cascade the fix down to all subfolders.

My presets are not showing up

You copied the catalog but not the presets folder. Go back to your external drive, find the Develop Presets folder you copied from the old computer, and paste it into the correct location on the new machine. The path is shown under Edit > Preferences > Presets > Show Lightroom Develop Presets.

Lightroom is running slowly on the new computer

Check that the Camera Raw cache is pointing to your fastest drive (the internal SSD, not an external drive). Also check that GPU acceleration is enabled under Edit > Preferences > Performance. For more on speeding up Lightroom after a migration, read the Lightroom desktop performance guide.

I moved from Windows to Mac and the paths are all wrong

Lightroom stores absolute file paths, so a Windows path like C:\Users\Hakan\Pictures will not automatically translate to /Users/Hakan/Pictures on Mac. Use Find Missing Folder on each top-level folder to re-link them one by one. It takes a few minutes but fixes everything permanently.

My catalog backup location is showing an error

Update the backup path in Edit > Catalog Settings > General to point to a valid folder on the new computer.

Final Tips

Keep your old computer set up and accessible until you have verified everything works perfectly on the new one. Do not wipe or sell the old machine until you have confirmed every photo is accessible, every edit is intact, and presets are working.

Run a full catalog backup on the new computer as soon as everything is confirmed. Go to File > Back Up Catalog and save it to an external drive or cloud storage separate from your main files.

If you are building a proper editing setup on the new machine, a calibrated monitor is worth prioritising alongside storage. The best monitors for photo editing covers the options that give you accurate colour without spending more than necessary.

For photographers who store and back up large RAW libraries, the principles in the photos secure backup guide are worth reading before you settle on your new file storage setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to reinstall all my Lightroom plugins on the new computer?

Yes. Plugins are not stored in the catalog. You will need to reinstall each plugin on the new computer and re-enable them under File > Plug-in Manager.

Can I run Lightroom on both computers during the migration?

Yes, but only open the catalog on one computer at a time. Adobe allows Lightroom Classic to be installed on two computers with one subscription but opening the same catalog simultaneously on both can corrupt it.

How long does the migration take?

The catalog copy takes minutes. Moving photo files depends entirely on how many you have and your drive speeds. A 500GB library on an external drive over USB 3.0 takes roughly 30 to 60 minutes. Over a network it can take several hours.

Should I use an external drive or cloud storage to transfer?

An external SSD is the fastest and most reliable method. Cloud storage works but uploading and downloading hundreds of gigabytes of RAW files is slow and uses a lot of data. Use cloud as a backup copy, not the primary transfer method.

Do I need to re-import all my photos after migrating?

No. The catalog remembers all your imported photos. As long as the files are in the same folder structure on the new computer, Lightroom finds them automatically without reimporting.

What happens to my smart previews after migration?

If you copied the Smart Previews.lrdata folder along with your catalog, they transfer intact. If you did not copy it, Lightroom can regenerate smart previews but it takes time. Go to Library > Previews > Build Smart Previews to rebuild them.

I hope that makes the whole process straightforward. If you run into a specific issue during your migration, drop it in the comments and I will add the fix to this guide.

Hakan | Founder, PhotoCultivator.com