The following instructions use the MobileMe Gallery plug-in for illustration purposes, however the process is nearly identical for other plugins as well.

Upgrade

If you are upgrading the plug-in from an earlier version, you may need to take an extra step and unregister the old plug-in in Lightroom. The older installation method was to copy the folder containing plug-in related files into the special Modules directory, where Lightroom loads plug-in definitions when it starts. This older method is no longer recommended – the Installation section below explains the new approach, which is easier to implement and maintain.

If the old version was installed into the Modules folder, follow the steps below to uninstall:

  1. Close Lightroom.
  2. Navigate to Lightroom’s Modules folder:

    3. Windows Vista or 7: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules

    Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\Modules

    Mac OS: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules (where ‘~’ is your User directory)

  3. Delete the folder with plug-in files – in this example you should be looking for the MobileMeExport.lrdevplugin folder. Remove the folder.

If you are having trouble locating the original location of the plug-in, the following should help:

  1. Launch Lightroom.
  2. Go to the Plug-in Manager (File | Plug-in Manager…)
  3. Select MobileMe Gallery in the list.
  4. On the main panel of the Plug-in Manager, expand the Status section.
  5. “Path” will show the current install path. Click Show in Explorer (Windows) or Show in Finder (Mac)

  6. Close Lightroom.
  7. In the Explorer/Finder window, you should be inside the MobileMeExport.lrdevplugin folder. Simply go one level up and remove the folder.

Installation

IMPORTANT: Before you begin the installation be sure to have the Lightroom application closed.

The ZIP archive you have downloaded contains a single folder with a bunch of various files inside. This folder is the plug-in. In our example, the folder name is, MobileMeExport.lrdevplugin.

You can keep the plug-in anywhere on your hard drive, you will just have to tell Lightroom where it is, so it can load the script files when the application starts. I recommend creating a designated folder for all of your Lightroom plug-ins and keep them there. This way it’s going to be easier to manage your plug-ins and install updates. Here are my suggestions:

Windows XP, Vista, 7: %APPDATA%\Adobe\Lightroom\Plugins
Mac OS: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Plugins/

Windows Installation

Install the plug-in by extracting the MobileMeExport.lrdevplugin folder contained in the zipped package to %APPDATA%\Adobe\Lightroom\Plugins.

After extracting the files, your installation folder should look like this:

Installation on Mac OS

  1. Double click the downloaded ZIP archive to “unzip” the file. A MobileMeExport.lrdevplugin folder will appear on the desktop.
  2. Copy this folder to ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Plugins/If this is your first plug-in you are installing, you would need to create the Plugins folder in your home directory | Library | Application Support | Adobe | Lightroom
  3. Drag or copy the entire “MobileMeExport.lrdevplugin” folder from your desktop inside the Plugins folder.

The following two screenshots illustrate how the folder contents should look like in Finder after the installation:

Intallation Path Folder Content

Adding the plug-in to Lightroom

  1. Start Lightroom and bring up the Plug-in Manager (File | Plug-in Manager…).
  2. Click Add
  3. Navigate to and select the MobileMeExport.lrdevplugin folder. Click OK.
  4. The plug-in will need to add a metadata fields to your catalog, so you will be prompted for permissions to update the catalog. Click Update.

Now the plug-in is ready for use. MobileMe Gallery should appear in the list of installed plug-ins in the Plug-in Manager, with a green ball next to it.

Activation

If you have purchased a commercial plug-in, you will need to activate it.

Select MobileMe Gallery in the list of installed plug-ins on the left hand side. The Plug-in Info panel will be displayed on the right:

Click the Activate Plug-in… button, the Plug-in Activation window comes up.

Enter your first name, last name, and the serial number exactly as they appear in the registration e-mail from alloyphoto@alloyphoto.com. Then click Activate…

Once your information is validated, Lightroom will display a confirmation message:

Now you can click Done to close the Plug-in Manager. Now you are ready to export your photos.