HONEST SCOPE
Keep the decisions, start fresh on the edits
Happy Photon brings over the assessments that help you review a shoot: zero-to-five-star ratings, pick or reject flags, and native color labels. It maps those values to the photographs already stored in your folders.
This is a metadata import, not a Lightroom catalog conversion. Lightroom develop edits do not migrate, and Happy Photon does not reproduce or import Lightroom’s full catalog organization and features, such as collections, keywords, stacks, virtual copies, publishing, or cloud services.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Close Lightroom and keep the catalog local
- Install Happy Photon for Windows, macOS, or Linux.
- Close Lightroom Classic completely before selecting its catalog.
- Use a local
.lrcatfile; Happy Photon may suggest catalogs it detects, or you can browse to one. - Make sure the photo folders you want to match are mounted or available locally.
IMPORT STEPS
Preview every change before applying it
- 01
Open the importer
During first run, use the optional Lightroom step. Later, choose Import from Lightroom… from the Folders header’s More folder actions menu.
- 02
Choose a catalog
Select a detected local catalog or browse to another
.lrcat. Lightroom Classic must remain closed. - 03
Confirm folder mappings
Happy Photon matches known locations automatically. Point any moved Lightroom location to its current folder, or leave it blank to skip those photographs.
- 04
Choose how values merge
Use Replace differing values or Fill empty values, then review the updated change report.
- 05
Apply the import
Only matched ratings, flags, and labels are written to the Happy Photon catalog. Lightroom and original photographs are never changed.
SAFE MERGING
Choose how imported values meet local work
Replace differing values adopts an assessed Lightroom value when it differs from Happy Photon. Fill empty values preserves an existing Happy Photon assessment and fills only an empty axis. Neither mode clears a local rating, flag, or color label.
Missing files, unmapped locations, virtual copies, and unsupported files are reported as skips. If no mapped photographs exist, correct the mappings or make the originals locally available before applying. Repeating an up-to-date import performs no catalog writes.
OPTIONAL XMP SIDECARS
Keep future assessments portable
After import, Settings can opt the current Happy Photon catalog into XMP reading or read/write interoperability. Sidecars exchange ratings, flags, and recognized color-label names with standard Adobe metadata; examples include xmp:Rating, xmpDM:pick, xmpDM:good, and xmp:Label.
Read/write mode creates or updates a sidecar only after you make an assessment change. Turning it on does not publish older catalog values. XMP work never opens or changes the original photograph, and it does not silently download an online-only original.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Lightroom import FAQ
Does Happy Photon replace Lightroom Classic?
It offers a smaller folder-to-export workflow. It can import ratings, flags, and color labels, but Lightroom develop edits and full catalog features do not migrate.
Will the import change my Lightroom catalog or photos?
No. Happy Photon reads from a safe snapshot and writes imported metadata only to its own catalog. It never writes to Lightroom or an original photograph.
What happens when photos have moved?
Map the old Lightroom location to the folder where those files now live. Leave a location unmapped to skip it. Missing files are skipped rather than opened or downloaded.
Can I import the same catalog again?
Yes. Review the new preview and merge choice each time. When every matched value is already current, Happy Photon makes no catalog writes.
Do I need XMP sidecars?
No. XMP is an optional per-catalog setting for exchanging future assessments with compatible software. The one-time Lightroom catalog import works without it.