Are the Luminar catalogs on Mac and Windows interchangeable?
Answered
So, I am looking into building myself a PC desktop for home use to compliment my MacBook Pro which I use while travelling, and was wondering if there was a way to transfer edits between the different copies of Luminar? I have seen people just moving their photos and catalogs to an external drive and using that to work off multiple different Macs, however I haven't heard of anyone doing something similar between the Mac and PC versions of Luminar.
Does anyone know if the Luminar for Mac catalog works in the Windows version?
TIA!
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Hi Anna, thanks for your reply.
So is there any option for transferring edits between different operating systems? It would be a really useful feature to have, if, for example, the edit information for each image could be exported as a text file, which Luminar could then read and apply to the different images.
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I tried this myself.
First, I copied the catalog-files and all the RAW-files from a Windows machine to a MacBook Pro. Then I opened the catalog on the MacBook, searched for the missing folders where the RAWs are in and the catalog with the pictures shows up without any problems.
But now when I open up a picture to see the edits that I made on the Windows machine to this picture, the picture just looks like the original one, like no edits had made. But when I look at the history (don't know which term is used in the english version, I use the german one), I can see the changes made on the Windows machine (see the screenshot). But why aren't they applied on the picture on the MacBook?
Vice versa it's the same: Editing a picture on MacBook, copying the catalog and the picture to Windows and open it, the changes don't show, but are visible in the history.
The list of changes is there, but they are not applied to the picture when copying between Windows and OS X.
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Hello Luminar,
I've heard that they don't want to fix the bug. I don't think that's okay from the customer's point of view. I should be able to change the computer system. When I bought the software, I was not told about it and it is also not understandable why it does not work.
If there are really insurmountable compatibility differences between the sql-Lite on Macintosh and on Windows, it can also be solved using a migration program.
However, there should be a solution!
When do you want to solve this problem?
Best regards, Thomas Eilermann -
Hi Thomas,
Luminar catalogs on Mac and Windows are structured a bit differently inside and the processes that happen under-the-hood are a bit different due to the peculiarities of the OS. Thus, it's not recommended to share the same catalog between different OS.
Right now, our main focus is on improving the stability, performance of the software, its editing algorithms as well as working on the promised features that are listed on our Roadmap: https://skylum.com/luminar/roadmap
Therefore, at the moment, we have no precise ETA for when the compatibility mode will be enabled.
Nonetheless, if any news comes up, we'll make sure to make it known.
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Hello Kate,
is actually not really understandable. But if this is the case and there is no possibility for a migration, you should do the following:
Include this point in your FAQ as soon as possible! - Is that possible?https://skylum.com/de/luminar-faq/4
Best regards, Thomas Eilermann -
This is a required feature for me too. I sometimes want to use my windows desktop and sometimes my macbook pro. Not sure what is involved in getting this working. If it is just how the files in the catalog are structured, you can easily write some code to be able to export and import catalog which will take care of how the catalog needs to be structured on a specific OS.
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Hi all,
I have wrote an app to convert the catalog from Windows to Mac, which is availabe here:
https://github.com/sebing/LuminarConverter/blob/master/release/LuminarConverter.jar
The instructions to run it are available here:
https://github.com/sebing/LuminarConverter/blob/master/readme.md
I have tested it with my Luminar 4 installation in both Wndows and Mac.
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Hi Gang!
Any news on this? I'm migrating from Mac to Windows, and I need to convert the catalog.
Sebin George: does your tool does the opposite way, also, i.e., from Mac to Windows? BTW, great job!
Anybody tried the Avalanche for this purpose?
I've been using Luminar for sometime, and I already got my handful of disappointments, all of them related to this database, which is very fragile, limited, and unreliable. I'll restate the piece of advice I gave on another thread: it is time to abandon the database and start using sidecars.
BR,
Marcello.
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Hi Gang!
I finally bought my new PC (Win10) and I'm struggling to migrate the catalog from Mac to Windows.
I did some research, dig into the forums history, and I got the Sebin George code to understand how he did the Windows to Mac migration.
I opened the catalog with an Database editor, and did the following adjustments:
-Update the "volumes" table to include the new HD SerialNumber.
-Update the "paths" table to point to the new Windows folders. The folder structure is the same.I understood how the images are referred to in the "images" table, how the changes history is kept in the "image_history_state_proxy" table, and how each action is stored in the "img_history_states" table.
I could see that the whole history from the Mac version is still there.
I opened the migrated catalog and I could see all my images there, but they are all on their "Original" states, despite the whole history is there.
What is missing to complete the migration?
I'm absolutely not considering losing all my work.
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Hi Member,
I don't have the latest versions of Luminar. When I have tried, it was in version 3.
I assume they have changed the way the catalog stores data. It is too much of trial and error and time-consuming to find out what is going on in the background. If there is a demand, skylum should either publish the documentation so we can develop a migration tool. Or they should support it.
If you have the right information it is not a big deal. May be a week of work. It is a shame skylum may not have cross-platform users demanding this.
Kind Regards.
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Hi people,
Sebin George: Just to be clear, I know that you are a contributor, so I'm not expecting you to solve the problem. You already did an awesome job with the Win to Mac tool.
I totally agree that it is a shame that Skylum didn't solve this issue yet, and they ought to come up with a solution. I'm sure that other people have the same issue.
It is a lack of respect to our work. Skylum says we can export the photos to PNG/JPG. So what? I'm losing all anyway, and it prevents any future adjustment or synching the adjustments to other photos.
Alina Skylum, Maryna Skylum, Kate Williams, @Skylum Team: Anything??
As per Sebin's comment, it is like a one week task for someone without the product knowledge; thus, it should be dramatically less for the Skylum to develop this tool. Don't your customers deserves this little effort?BR,
Marcello. -
Here we go...
My vote is for Sebin George! -
Dear Luminar Team,
I am having the very same problem right now. The sad part is: I specifically asked if I was able to use the software on both OS and Windows and was not told that the catalogs are incompatible.
This is a huge drawback of the software and I will loose thousands of edits moving from one laptop to the next one. This is not a bug. This a MAJOR DRAWBACK that is just another reason why Luminar is still not heads up with Lightroom or Capture One.
I am honestly a bit lost on how to proceed and I would have NEVER moved to Luminar with this information upfront. And I think this will also keep me from ever using it in a professional context. The way Skylum deals with the fix of important issues (years without a fix and even transferring the issue from Luminar 3 to 4 to AI is a warning sing to every customer.
PLEASE have this fixed and please also ensure continuity between Luminar AI and NEO for the catalogs!
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Hi Christopher,
If both of your computers use the same OS (Windows or Mac), it is quite simple to transfer the catalog, and this piece of software work.
Hopefully you're luckier than me and many others that switched OS.
And, yes: Luminar takes forever to fix things, when they fix at all.
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I am also in the same boat wishing this was an option, traveling with my MBP and working from home on a more powerful desktop. Quite pathetic at the lack of implementation of fixes from Luminar. They seem to be more concerned with developing new software rather than fixing and enhancing old software.
Time to move to Lightroom I suppose.
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