Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: Taxgeek on January 13, 2008, 05:26:30 pm
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Hi.
I'm using my laptop in the field, then exporting catalogs/libraries/whatever they're called now to desktop when I get home. I want the laptop drive clean after the export.
I think I may have goofed, because I erased all the actual raw files using My Computer; I didn't tell LR to do it. Then, I went into LR, highlighted everything, and said "Remove from Library". Which it was happy to do.
But, when I checked the Previews folder on my hard drive, there are still several gigs of preview files that LR didn't delete, all hidden handily in that crazy hierarchy of subfolders LR creates.
1. Is it ok to just delete that whole subfolder structure and have LR create it anew as needed? (you know the one, with 80 bazillion file folders LR puts the previews in for some reason)? Or is that a bad idea?
2. And in the future, what's the best way to get the laptop all clean after an export?
(If it matters, I'm on Windows, at least till my new Mac Pro comes - scary changeover!!!)
Thanks!
Susan
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I believe you can specify how long it should hang on to the previews. Set that short and they'll disappear on their own.
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In Catalog settings there is a tab with settings to control LR automatically discarding previews.
If your files have been copied from your laptop to your master working drives and you want to clean those files off the laptop you don't need to keep the preview files.
When shooting in the field, here's what I do:
1. On my laptop create a new Lightroom catalog, in a new folder on the desktop. The folder is named for the trip and will contain all my image files, a Lightroom catalog and the Lightroom previews package.
2. I then do all my downloading, DNG conversion, keywording, metadata and field edits working in the temporary field catalog.
3. When I return to my studio, I connect the laptop to my studio desktop machine via Ethernet. In my master working library, I use the Import from Catalog command, which simultaneously copies the image files to my master drives and imports them into my master LR catalog.
4. When everything has been copied and backed up, I delete the trip folder and all its contents from the laptop. The temporary LR catalog, all the preview files, and the image files themselves are deleted, freeing up my laptop for the next trip and a new set of files.
I've found it's very useful (and easy) to work with multiple catalogs, as needed, while also having a master catalog that contains my entire image library. This allows me to do lots of work on the road and easily integrate that work into my master library.
This "packaged" approach makes it much easier to keep track of files and make sure they are handled properly and backed up frequently. Sometimes I burn DVDs in the field, and I can usually get a day or two's worth of images onto a single layer DVD.
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One other thing I forgot to mention - Lightroom will always build previews whenever it needs to; if any preview packages are moved or deleted you'll just have to wait for LR to rebuild them during the next editing session.
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Would this be the lightroom catalog previews.irdata? I just looked at mine, it's crazy 15,557 folders! Wayne
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Would this be the lightroom catalog previews.irdata? I just looked at mine, it's crazy 15,557 folders! Wayne
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I just checked mine and there are slightly fewer files than images and almost as many folders as images.
Alan
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Them are the ones.
The only bad juju I got from messing around with these preview packages (and the files inside) was when using a new database trying to link to the old previews. It didn't work, even though the new database had the same name as the old. And in this scenario LR did not build new previews, either. So there is a specific relationship between the db records and the preview files.
I've started a new database with nearly 25,000 images in it -- and no preview files -- and it really hasn't posed any problems except the slight delay for LR to build thumbnails when selecting sources.
Overall, I don't think aggressively managing the preview package is of any benefit. I just leave them alone.