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Author Topic: Lr Backup  (Read 2848 times)

Remo Nonaz

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Lr Backup
« on: February 02, 2014, 02:27:53 pm »

I presently backup my Lr catalog to a second hard drive, and the C drive - with the original Lr catalog is - backed up via the web to Carbonite. I'm having a lot of problems with Carbonite as I have too much data being backed up and Carbonite can't keep up. I've been fine tuning the Carbonite account, removing from backup items that really don't need to have backed up there.

The Lr previews file,  which is on the C drive is 12.3GB. I'd like to take it off the Carbonite backup list. This file is not backed up on my other drive with the catalog, nor is it backup up to an external backup drive I use for all my images.

In the event I lost the C drive and had to rebuild my Lr data base, assuming the catalog is still available from backup, is it safe to assume that Lr would rebuild the preview files and therefore, it is safe to not have a back of this folder?
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john beardsworth

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2014, 02:30:23 pm »

In the event I lost the C drive and had to rebuild my Lr data base, assuming the catalog is still available from backup, is it safe to assume that Lr would rebuild the preview files and therefore, it is safe to not have a back of this folder?
Yes, only the lrcat file is important to back up.
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2014, 02:34:09 pm »

Great! There's another 12GB Carbonite does not have to try and track! Thanks.
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utahmike

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2014, 06:01:28 pm »

A caviate is that unless you explicitly sync your metadata, or have metadata auto sync turned on, it's possible for the metatdata to be stored in the catalog, and not in the sidecar or DNG files. So make sure you've got that taken care of if you're going to risk losing the catalog. The catalog can be completely re-built using the metadata in the DNG and side car files, but only if its there.

-- Mike
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Michael Clark - Salt Lake City

utahmike

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2014, 06:02:27 pm »

OK - Lazy reading. It looks like you have that covered. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

-- Mike
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Michael Clark - Salt Lake City

john beardsworth

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2014, 04:08:59 am »

The catalog can be completely re-built using the metadata in the DNG and side car files, but only if its there.
No it can't You potentially lose a lot of your LR work:
- Virtual copies
- Stacking in folders or collections
- Pick flags
- Collections, saved books, saved slideshows etc
- Published photos
- Adjustment history
- Keywords which haven't yet been applied to photos

XMP metadata is a second rate backup, better than nothing, but the only proper backup of your catalogue is a backup of your catalogue.

John
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2014, 07:49:58 am »

So my understanding is:

If you have the .lrcat file and the images, with the sidecar files or metadata written to the .dng, you have everything you need to restore the data base. The preview files are not required.
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john beardsworth

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2014, 09:07:35 am »

See my edit:

If you have the .lrcat file and the images, with the sidecar files or metadata written to the .dng, you have everything you need to restore the data base. The preview files are not required.

The sidecar files and metadata written to the dng are only a second-class backup. The lrcat and the images are what you must backup.

John
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utahmike

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2014, 10:07:12 am »

You are 100% right. I've never considered these things. Thanks for the corrections. I use virtual copies all the time. I'd be in a lot of hurt if I lost those.

-- Mike
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Michael Clark - Salt Lake City

digitaldog

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2014, 10:10:47 am »

When I backup to the cloud (I use CrashPlan), I backup all DNG's and images (DNG's have the metadata saved as I have auto save XMP on), the catalog, presets but not the Previews.lrdata file(s) as that can be rebuilt from the catalog and isn't worth backing up to the cloud (I have 15+30 gig's respectively between previews and smart previews). Of course backing up locally, everything gets included, previews and all within the back-up. Rebuilding all those previews would take days.
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digitaldog

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2014, 10:11:57 am »

You are 100% right. I've never considered these things. Thanks for the corrections. I use virtual copies all the time. I'd be in a lot of hurt if I lost those.
VC's that end up as hero's I export as DNG then toss the VC's. Belt and suspenders mentality but VC's are too important to me not to eventually build an actual raw document.
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Remo Nonaz

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2014, 11:19:30 am »

Andrew: Your strategy sounds similar to mine. The problem I have been having is that Carbonite cannot keep up with the new files I add. Just the DNGs I throw at them bogs them down. Forget about uploading TIFs at half a GB each. When you bog down the system, Carbonite never gets around to backing up the other files that may not be in photography backup plan.

Other than converting the document to a different format, is there any way to significantly decrease the size of TIF files? I've been seeing around 200 to 600MB per image and that's with flattening.
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john beardsworth

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #12 on: February 03, 2014, 11:40:06 am »

I differ from Andrew here. I backup the DNGs only after they are first created, and frequently backup the catalogue, so I have 100% backup coverage of my images and all my work on them, including VCs and other LR features. I occasionally save metadata back to the DNGs (why not?), but that doesn't mean I back up the "working" DNGs because, as I noted earlier, a lot of LR work is never saved to the DNGs or to sidecars, and I already have a complete backup of my images and work.
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digitaldog

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #13 on: February 03, 2014, 12:10:16 pm »

I'm also working with what many would consider a small number of images, about 30,000. So the belt and suspenders approach isn't at all a bandwidth issue for me even syncing to CrashPlan.
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mradey

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #14 on: February 04, 2014, 02:08:52 pm »


Don't you need to back up presets and preferences, for a complete backup? For OS X;


Presets and templates:

/Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/[preset or template folder]/[preset or template filename.lrtemplate]

Preferences:

/Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.Lightroom5.plist


The full reference of LR (5) files is here (http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/preference-file-locations-lightroom-41.html)


Adey
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digitaldog

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Re: Lr Backup
« Reply #15 on: February 04, 2014, 02:34:30 pm »

Don't you need to back up presets and preferences, for a complete backup? For OS X;
Store presets with catalog preference helps but there are too many other files scattered about too. DNG camera profiles, lens profiles etc.
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