Sorry to hear about your foot. Perhaps Tim Cooper could come down and visit you? I can’t speak for him and I don’t know that he is up to it but he is a “local” resource for you that I can truly endorse.

My remote support system is super easy for us to setup. We pick and a time and a date to talk on the phone while I link our computers together. Once linked I can see your screen, and control the computer, as if I were sitting at your keyboard. There will be a slight delay due to your Internet connection type but I can essentially do anything that I could do if I were actually sitting in your office. The only thing that I cannot do via remote support is plug in devices or answer questions like “why are my prints green?” It’s an amazing way to get help or to get personalized instruction. Give me a call at 406-356-6279 if you want more details or to set up a little “demo.”

Wishing you a speedy recovery and good weekend,

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David Marx

Thank you. I am amazed by and very positively impressed with your productivity in replying to posts and in preparing tutorials. LR is lucky to have you.

I will visit Tim’s website, but I am in a foot cast from surgery on a torn tendon, so I can’t drive to get to wherever Tim is to bring my computer.

But I have come to trust your approach and may ask for remote support, if you are available. How would I set that up? Thanks.

Matt

Your previous comment states that you just “used Carbon Copy Cloner…to clone the entire Mac HD” and that you “also coped the LR photos to the Seagate.” If this is indeed true, and I don’t doubt you at all, then I think that reseting the Time Capsule completely will do you no harm even if it wipes out your old backups. I could be wrong so please consider this to be dangerous advice. Without a remote support connection I cannot be sure about what is inside of your computer and what is currently on the Time Capsule. Please make sure that you have everything backed up but once you are sure that everything is safely stored on the Seagate, or another backup drive, then reseting and reformatting the Time Capsule should not create any problems for this computer.

If you are nervous we can talk about remote support options via your MiFi connection. It will be slower than I would like but remote help certainly is possible. Contacting my good friend Tim Cooper might be a good alternative for you if you feel like you need some face-to-face help. You can find his contact info at http://www.timcooperphotography.com.

best regards

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David Marx

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I made the classic mistake of opening LR first before watching any videos. I have watched several of your tutorials and find them very clear and helpful. My mess, however, will take time and patience to straighten. Unfortunately, we do not currently have a strong internet connection — Verizon MiFi — but Comcast is planning to come here within the next few months. If it is wise to wait a few months for you to take my Mac remotely, I would do that. Or, if you have someone in the DC area I could pay for the service, that would solve things sooner.

Since I posted my questions, I purchased a 3TB WD EHD, set it up for a Mac, then used Carbon Copy Clone, as a friend suggested, to clone the entire Mac HD. It worked; so I feel somewhat safe for the moment. I also copied the LR photos to the Seagate; I have checked and they are there.

I will try your suggestions about connecting the TC by an ethernet cable. I presume that port on the TC is not the one with the circle of dots. I have three ports on the TC that have this symbol over them: and a similar port on the Mac. I suspect they are the ethernet ports. The Mac does not have a port with a circle of dots.

Thanks again for your help and interest. We’ll get this done. Matt

Let me start by commending you on trying to learn and expand your skills. You deserve a lot of respect for trying to tackle complicated topics like file storage, backup, Lightroom etc. These are all hard questions. The fact that you are using a Time Capsule only makes this more confusing because the Time Capsule is actually two separate products in one box.

Your Time Capsule contains both a wireless router and network drive. My advice is to connect the Time Capsule to your computer using an Ethernet cable so that you can use it for a Time Machine backup even if your wifi is turned off or you cut off your Internet connection. “Wireless backup” sounds great in theory but in reality it is not so wonderful. Wireless Internet is great but again that’s a separate feature built into the same box. Connect your computer to the Time Capsule and reset your Time Machine settings.

I am a little unclear about your use of the word “Library.” Do you mean Lightroom Catalog or the folders and folders full of images that you are storing on your computer? If you are running out of internal hard drive storage space then moving the image folders to the Seagate makes good sense. If maintaining adequate storage space is not a currently issue then how does this move help? If you move those folders to the external disk then you need to make sure that it too is included in your Time Machine backups or you need to back it up to yet another drive.

These tutorials might help you make more sense out your storage and backup needs:

Getting Started: Where Should I Store My Photos?
Getting Started: Where Should I Keep My Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog?
Archives and Backup Copies
Backing Up a Mac with Carbon Copy Cloner

If all of this makes your head spin then you might consider hiring someone to help you get everything straightened out. If your Internet is strong enough I could help you via remote support or I can recommend someone who might be able to help who lives up in the D.C. area.

Best regards,

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David Marx

I reviewed video 1. You are a good and clear teacher — rare, believe me. I need big help, I am afraid. I started with L2 then upgraded to L3 when it came out and have been using it ever since. I got Scott Kelby’s books and tried to follow his instructions for setting up L2 and migrating to L3 but somewhere along the line I messed things up. I am using a MacBook Pro and last summer got talked into buying the Time Capsule for wireless backup. That was a mistake, at that time, I believe, because our wireless is very weak our here in the Virginia country side. Nothing has backed up on the TC since January. And I have several thousand pix from this past summer. A photographer friend recommends I transfer the Library (not the Catalog) to an External Hard Drive but I can’t find any suggestions on how to do that. So, I am stalled. I have a 1.5 TB Seagate EHD attached to the MBP, but I can’t get the summer’s pix to go there. They are all backed up on my internal hard drive, but I am afraid to lose them. If any of this is understandable, what do you think I should do? I am not all that savvy with computers — 76 years old — but am willing to learn. Thanks. Matt

I think that you were successful in moving your Catalog to the External drive. You went wrong though once you moved it by clicking on the default Lightroom program startup icon. It would have been better if you had double clicked on the .lrcat file on your external hard drive. It would have been even better if you had created an alias that leads directly to your new Catalog on the external drive and then clicked the alias.

Clicking the default startup icon created a brand new Catalog for you back in your internal Pictures folder. Since it’s a brand new Catalog it is blank. My advice is to trash this Catalog now before it creates more confusion. Build an alias that launches your Catalog–the one on your external drive– and set this as the default in your preferences.

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David Marx