Migrate photos from Photoshop Elements to Lightroom

Last updated on 16 May 2021

Learn how to easily migrate your catalog from Photoshop Elements 2019 or later to Lightroom desktop.

In case you're facing issues while migrating your catalog, see Possible errors | Catalog migration from Photoshop Elements to Lightroom.

Prepare for migration

Prepare your catalog in Elements Organizer

Follow these recommended steps in Elements Organizer:

Reconnect any missing files. See Reconnect missing files for details.
Optimize the catalog:
1. Launch Elements Organizer and open the catalog which you want to migrate
2. Select File > Manage Catalogs
3. The Catalog Manager dialog box opens. Select the catalog to be migrated.
4. Click Optimize.

Prepare Lightroom for migration

Follow these recommended steps in Lightroom:

Ensure that the Local Storage > Originals Are Currently Stored In A Custom Location preference points to the desired location. See Local storage preferences.
Ensure that there's enough disk space in that location to accommodate the original, full-sized images in the Elements catalog. The migration process creates a copy of your images. If you're running low on space on an internal drive on your computer, you can connect to an external hard-drive and specify a location on it as the custom location.
Close Elements Organizer and Photoshop Elements (Photo Editor app). These applications much be closed for the migration to be successful.

Migrate a Photoshop Elements catalog

In Lightroom, follow these steps:

Launch Lightroom and select File > Migrate From > Photoshop Elements Catalog.
In the information dialog that appears, click Continue.
Review the information in the Before You Begin dialog box. Keep the following considerations in mind and then click Continue:
- Migration is intended as a one-time event: Once a catalog has been migrated, doing so again can cause duplicate entries.
- Quit Photoshop Elements and Elements Organizer: Photoshop Elements (Photo Editor) and Elements Organizer needs to be closed for migration to proceed.
Review the considerations before you begin migration
Select the catalog that you want to migrate and click Start Scan.
Lightroom scans the catalog and launches the migrator, displaying a progress bar for you to monitor. This step may take a while to complete.
(Occasional) Review any exceptions that the migrator reports. For example, the migrator might report an exception if it is unable to locate some photos in your source catalog. In such a case, you may want to click Migrate Later and begin the process afresh after resolving the catalog issues in Elements Organizer.

If you want to ignore the exceptions and continue migrating, click Continue Anyway.
Review the information in the Catalog Ready for Migration dialog box. If necessary, click Open Log File to inspect details. When ready, click Start Migration.

Lightroom begins the migration process and displays a progress bar. Depending on the catalog size and the resources on your computer, this step may take a while to complete.
When migration is complete, Lightroom displays a confirmation dialog. If there are exceptions, click Open Log File to review the details.

Catalog migration complete with no exceptions.

Catalog migration completed with exceptions. You may see exceptions if you clicked 'Continue Anyway' in step 6.