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Author Topic: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups  (Read 2812 times)

MikeDitz

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Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« on: October 13, 2012, 12:26:34 pm »

this morning while I was searching for something else I found about 200 Lightroom catalog back ups hoarded away , ranging in size from 160mb to 740mb and dated yesterday all the way back to 2008.
There is no way I need these....do I? Are the backups independent from each other or are they linked together some how? If I could dump most of these I could free up cubic space on the HD. ???
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Rhossydd

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2012, 12:49:32 pm »

I'm sure it's safe to delete most of them.
I just keep my two previous backups here.

It would be nice if Adobe could add an option to automatically delete older backups (user configurable of course) to save HDD space.
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mac_paolo

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2012, 12:57:16 pm »

I'm sure it's safe to delete most of them.
I just keep my two previous backups here.

It would be nice if Adobe could add an option to automatically delete older backups (user configurable of course) to save HDD space.
I use Hzel to do that. Watch the backup folder and remove elements older than xx days/weeks.
We're on XXI century… don't waste precious time! :)
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NikoJorj

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2012, 02:05:00 pm »

And if space is scarce, keep in mind that these backups are highly compressible (around 1:10).
I keep a few recent ones, and a few of longer ago (a few months) zipped, in case something went wrong and kept flying under the radar for a while.
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walter.sk

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2012, 02:11:14 pm »

I use Hzel to do that. Watch the backup folder and remove elements older than xx days/weeks.
We're on XXI century… don't waste precious time! :)
What is Hzel?  Also, what is the backup folder (I'm using Windows 7)?
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mac_paolo

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #5 on: October 13, 2012, 03:15:37 pm »

What is Hzel?  Also, what is the backup folder (I'm using Windows 7)?
Hazel is one of the reasons why I prefer a Mac! :D

Don't know about any Windows counterpart, sorry :(
Backup folder is the one you set in the Catalog backup dialog.
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leuallen

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #6 on: October 13, 2012, 03:55:54 pm »

I keep my backups on a different drive than the catalog file is on. I have a folder named LR4 Backups. I check it and clean it out every couple of weeks of so. No big chore. If you keep the backups on the same drive, what do you do if the drive goes south and you don't have a good backup.

Larry
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MikeDitz

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #7 on: October 13, 2012, 04:31:03 pm »

Good point Larry!

I will do some house cleaning and double check my back up isn't on the same drive as LR

Thanks for your help, I didl't think I need 203 backups but ya never know
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kaelaria

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #8 on: October 13, 2012, 05:14:17 pm »

You can delete everything but the last.  I don't even bother with the internal backups, i simply include my /lightroom dire, which has the cat, prefs and settings, in my normal backup routine.
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MarkH2

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #9 on: October 13, 2012, 06:23:24 pm »

...i simply include my /lightroom dire, which has the cat, prefs and settings, in my normal backup routine.

I exclude the Previews directory from backup.  Reduces backup by thousands of files and quite a few gigabytes.  Not really a problem if the previews were lost.  I use Second Copy for backup; easy to use.
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Tony Jay

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #10 on: October 13, 2012, 06:51:46 pm »

There is a plugin that allows one to automatically delete Catalog backups that are no longer required.
It can be set up to leave the most recent backups - how far back you go is up to you.

Regards

Tony Jay
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kaelaria

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #11 on: October 13, 2012, 07:08:37 pm »

Yes I also have the previews excluded.
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wolfnowl

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Re: Lots and Lots of Lightroom Catalog Back ups
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2012, 02:24:39 am »

Deleting Old Lightroom Backups

The instructions are for Windows, but there must be a Mac equivalent.

Mike.
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