Installing and initializing Excire Search for Windows
I was recently given a copy of Excire Search 2 Pro to review. Let me start by saying I’m NOT a tech-head, but I’m all for something that can make life easier.
Excire claims to make my mess of Lightroom Classic catalogs a little less of a nightmare. I’m a bit lazy when it comes to my catalogs. I don’t use the keywording, keyword lists or metadata, let alone comments. Yes, I do use named folders, dates and years, but that is as far as it goes. I used to be a bit more organized with this, but these days it’s more food, more flowers or another themed model shoots. So I’m usually just trying to remember a particular image from a particular shoot.
I’m happy to say I’m usually pretty good at locating stuff, but was keen to see if Excire could really make a difference.
Downloading and installing
Downloading was easy and didn’t take too long. You may find you need to add it to the Plugin Preset Manager in Lightroom Classic, as mine would not automatically load, but it’s easy to do.
Just go to File > Plugin Manager, and on the bottom left there is a list of all plugins currently loaded (Excire is listed in the screenshot below because I loaded it). If you don’t see Excire Search there, click Add at the bottom and select the excire-search/lrpugin folder to install it. You will be prompted for your email and activation key, or you can select a trial version.
You can then access Excire by going to Library > Plugin Extras. But you will first need to initialize your photos, which is pretty straightforward and simple to do.
The hard bit is waiting for it to cover off over 70,000 images! Apparently, when you add to the list it is MUCH quicker. Then just sit back and wait.