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Author Topic: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog  (Read 3271 times)

DThomas

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Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« on: December 03, 2016, 07:45:05 pm »

After years of inattention I reviewed my LR system folders and find what appear to me current Backups (36.7GB), LR Catalogue Previews.Irdata (12.7GB), Lightroom Settings (40KB) and Lightroom Catalogue.Ircat (366mb).  All of this seems as expected, however I also have catalogue versions of LR 3, 4 and 5 and 10 Temp Import Data folders,  all with some content.  I'm a LR CC subscriber using Windows 10 (64bit) at present and I'm planning a serious hardware upgrade.  My question is whether what appear to be obsolete catalog versions can be deleted or do I need to do something to integrate their content into LR CC?  Thanks for any clarification or help you can provide.  Dave Thomas
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2016, 07:56:06 pm »

You can, and perhaps should, merge all these catalogs into one. Instructions for how to do this are in Martin Evening's Lightroom book and in Victoria Bampton's LR Missing FAQ. I highly recommend reading thoroughly before doing. I once merged a number of previous catalogs into one current working version operating on the current version of LR CC; it's nice to have all one's stuff accessible from one organized location.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Rhossydd

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2016, 04:14:03 am »

You can, and perhaps should, merge all these catalogs into one.
That might be sound advice if someone is working with multiple different catalogues, but my reading of the OP is that they're looking at old version catalogues, not multiple catalogues.
I'm not sure that attempting to merge older smaller versions of a main catalogue would be a smart move. I'd suggest just deleting them if the current catalogue has no problems. Keep just a couple of recent backups, along with previews and settings.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2016, 07:45:50 am »

That might be sound advice if someone is working with multiple different catalogues, but my reading of the OP is that they're looking at old version catalogues, not multiple catalogues.
I'm not sure that attempting to merge older smaller versions of a main catalogue would be a smart move. I'd suggest just deleting them if the current catalogue has no problems. Keep just a couple of recent backups, along with previews and settings.

I was assuming that the O/Ps older catalogs would have different stuff in them and the idea may have been to bring it all together. Of course he would be ill-advised to delete whatever may not be duplicated elsewhere. More info needed.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Rhossydd

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2016, 07:58:11 am »

I was assuming that the O/Ps older catalogs would have different stuff in them
Trying to import old data could become a nightmare if locations have been moved, files renamed, additional metadata added, new revisions to processing etc.

If it's working fine now, don't mess with it.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2016, 08:47:23 am »

You're right, it is risky and could become a nightmare - but it's most likely doable, why I recommended careful reading before doing. Recall, the O/P is changing his hardware, so a carefully developed approach to moving and better arranging all this stuff onto his updated platform may still not only make sense but perhaps in some respects also be necessary. Doing as much as possible from within LR is one of the most recommended approaches, so the application keeps track of every modification and has better prospects of working without further intervention.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Rhossydd

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2016, 09:10:35 am »

You're right, it is risky......... but it's most likely doable,
But if it's not necessary, just don't do it at all.

Moving LR from system to system doesn't have to be difficult. Only a modicum of pre-planning is needed if everything is working well before hand.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2016, 10:10:32 am »

"Not necessary" doesn't mean "undesirable" - up to the O/P to decide what suits him/her best. All I'm suggesting is to read and be sure first. You're right that with a modicum of pre-planning it should be OK.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Phil Indeblanc

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Re: Cleanup Lightroom Catalog
« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2016, 12:45:17 am »

Storage needs grow, and I have had to juggle quite a bit of hard drives and recently added a full set of new 5TB drives, and it has become a NIGHTMARE in a sense....
But LR is so slow with 3 factors in play...The number of drive to the number of images in my catalog and the size of my files from 40-50mpixel raws.

So if you have an old catalog working and you are wondering to merge. I say just leave it, or get an old hard drive and dump the content on it as a back up. But if you have a faily smaller size number of images total, it wouldn't be so bad to put them all in one catalogue.  It will upconvert to the new version if from an older one, and it will ask before hand. LR does a lot things great. But the speed has had me move to alternate products as its unusable.  Which reminds me...always use a folder structure you can revert to, and not something the catalogu is dictating where you files are. Meaning , dont rely solely on LR for keyword look up unless its a universal location for the search.
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