I started using robocopy /mir and found this strategy good because it duplicated everything but was a real issue in ensuring changes replicated as I stored both the catalog and the photos on the same disk.
After some decisions I have now moved my photos to the \\server\share and the catalog is tracked via subversion! This makes everything so much easier between machines.
What I have done is created a repository that holds the Lightroom catalog. I have added an exception to not include the preview files as subversion has some issues with them. I also added a couple of batch files that can backup and restore the lightroom preview files to the \\server\share location.
Now my steps are as follows:
- Update subversion
- Run update batch file to bring in new preview files
- Run Lightroom
- Import pictures
- Move images between local drive import and shared file share
- Make any required changes
- Exit lightroom
- Commit catalog
- Run batch file to backup the Lightroom preview files to the \\server\share file
- That's it!
How do you manage your Lightroom catalog across multiple machines without resorting to carrying around an external hard drive?