LR backup

[shacharoren79]

hello,

it seems that my LR 3.3 Catalog and my backup has been deleted!!!

now, it is important to say that when i import images i always create a sidecar file next to the RAW or Jpeg image! (XMP file)

the original files and the xmp's are protected.

1. i don't care about the previews. (i can always ask for them again in LR)

2. about what is in the new catalog i will open i don't care either. (i was planning on reorganizing anyway)

3. now about the images changes and editing info i do care!

is the fact that i kept all the XMP files should be relaxing?!

meaning, if i import a raw file with it's XMP file, would it show it's changes in LR?

pls help

[eliedinur]

Yes, when you click Metadata/Read Metadata From File LR will load all your edits from the XMP. However, not all the organizational stuff you might have had in the old catalog, like collections, flags, etc., is in the XMP.

[wolfnowl]

Yes, when you click Metadata/Read Metadata From File LR will load all your edits from the XMP. However, not all the organizational stuff you might have had in the old catalog, like collections, flags, etc., is in the XMP.

IF you wrote the metadata from LR to the sidecar files (either automatically or manually by pressing Ctrl/Cmd-S) then the keywording, edit history is saved in the .xmp files (for raw images - embedded directly in .tif, .psd, .dng and .psd). Importing the images into a LR catalog will read and apply that information. However, by default LR only keeps this information within its catalog.

Mike.

[shacharoren79]

well i did try to do this with 2 files.

they are raw files with the XMP files with them, and when importing into a new LR it seems LR automatically keeps all changes made to the file.

now, i understand that everything besides the file changes will not be kept. collections, presets and so on.

but the images marking is important, like color labels and flags. just stuff the relates to a specific file,

is there any way to extract this info (color labels and flags) from the XMP sidecar file?

[Gerry Walden]

I rely on my backup system (Time Machine in my case) safely backing up everything all the time, and never back up my LR catalog as a separate action. A, I wrong to do this?

Gerry

[digitaldog]

I rely on my backup system (Time Machine in my case) safely backing up everything all the time, and never back up my LR catalog as a separate action. A, I wrong to do this?

Time Machine is a nice system, I use it too but not for dedicated back up. It backs up iterations which can get messy with LR IMHO, I have that one drive set to never access via TM. Instead I just clone that one drive, that has all my images, library, LR presets etc to another group of drives using SuperDuper.

[Gerry Walden]

Thanks for your thoughts on the subject. I will look at the way I work, and see the best place to put my LR backup.

Gerry

[Nigel Johnson]

well i did try to do this with 2 files.

they are raw files with the XMP files with them, and when importing into a new LR it seems LR automatically keeps all changes made to the file.

Assuming that this also applies to all your files then you are lucky. As Wolfnow correctly stated in his earlier reply, this is dependent upon either having automatic writing to XMP enabled (and taking the resultant speed hit) or manually writing to XMP.

but the images marking is important, like color labels and flags. just stuff the relates to a specific file,

is there any way to extract this info (color labels and flags) from the XMP sidecar file?

No - the information is not saved within the XMP, indeed in LR versions up to the LR4 Beta flags are separately set within collections and thus a single image can have different flag settings dependent upon where you are in LR.

Sorry that it is not good news, in future you need to ensure that you backup your catalog (and image files and sidecars) to another disc (and don't just use the default backup feature in LR as, by default, it saves the catalog backup in the same folder as the original catalogue).

Regards
Nigel