Lightroom on 2 computers: How can I see the edits on both?

Little help?
In prep for a vacation (that I just returned from), I moved my photos to an external drive and installed Lightroom 5 on my wife's laptop so I could edit photos while on vacation. Mission accomplished. But now that I'm home I see that the edits I made are not visible when I open Lightroom on my desktop.

It seems to me I've seen people mention something about sidecar files that need to be copied from one computer to another? Or is there some other solution? And is there a way to set things up so in the future this all happens automatically, or at least as easily as possible?

I'm not the most tech-savvy guy in the world, and would appreciate any help you could give me walking me through this.

It can be done with sidecar xmp files, but that's the messy way to do it which you would have to use with PS/ACR. The fact that LR is catalog based makes it easier. On the laptop, in Library module / grid view, at the top of the left side panel, select Catalog/All Photographs and then do Edit/Select All. Go to File/Export as Catalog, and check only the top box, Export Selected Photos Only. This will give you a .lrcat file. Transfer it to the desktop, open LR and go to File/Import from Another Catalog and select that .lrcat from the laptop. When you are asked if LR should update the metadata, say yes.

tzalman wrote in post #17127561
It can be done with sidecar xmp files, but that's the messy way to do it which you would have to use with PS/ACR. The fact that LR is catalog based makes it easier. On the laptop, in Library module / grid view, at the top of the left side panel, select Catalog/All Photographs and then do Edit/Select All. Go to File/Export as Catalog, and check only the top box, Export Selected Photos Only. This will give you a .lrcat file. Transfer it to the desktop, open LR and go to File/Import from Another Catalog and select that .lrcat from the laptop. When you are asked if LR should update the metadata, say yes.

Thanks.

A couple questions:

Can I do it with just the folder in question instead of "All Photographs"? Meaning instead of selecting Catalog/All Photographs, can I just select the folder that contains the photos I took on vacation?

And when I follow your directions and go to File/Export as Catalog, I don't see an option for "Export Selected Photos Only". The boxes I see are "Export negative files", "Build/Include Smart Previews", and "Include available previews". The first and last of those three are checked.

MichiTimm wrote in post #17127597
Thanks.

A couple questions:

Can I do it with just the folder in question instead of "All Photographs"? Meaning instead of selecting Catalog/All Photographs, can I just select the folder that contains the photos I took on vacation?

Yes, definitely

Uncheck all three. The first will make copies of the photo files, but if you are attaching the external to the desktop, you don't need copies. Nor do you need Smart Previews and where new updated normal previews are needed LR will generate them.