Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: Philmar on March 26, 2011, 07:07:54 pm
-
I use Vista 64 Bit OS. My 'Lightroom' folder contains 3 folders: 'Lightroom 3 Catalog', 'Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.lrdata', and a folder called 'Backups'
I assume the 'Backups' folder are copies of my catalogue from each time I back it up. But the 'Backups' folder is getting quite huge.
Is it safe/wise to delete all but the most recent one? Or is there some prudent reason to keep saving them all?
Is there a way to delete them within LR?
Thanks!
-
You really only need to keep one or two "backups" (you should of course open them to confirm that are valid).
So other than the last one or two, you really DON'T need to keep multiple old back up catalogs...
-
Perhaps an enhancement request to throw a popup reminding the user that they have <N> old/stale backups and most are not needed?
-
Why are you backingup to the same drive that your active catalog is on? This rather negates most of the value of a backup because if the disc goes down it will take your backup with it.
-
Why are you backingup to the same drive that your active catalog is on? This rather negates most of the value of a backup because if the disc goes down it will take your backup with it.
Isn't that where it defaults to though?
-
Why are you backingup to the same drive that your active catalog is on?
Do you know of a way to make Lightroom change this, not seen anything in the catalogue or LR prefs
I backup to an external drive periodically but would be nice if LR did its daily backup to a second drive in my system
-
Make sure your backup is not including the previews folder - Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.lrdata. This consists of the thumbnails and adjusted previews you see in LR, and doesn't need to be backed up. See if your backup software can avoid it.
Alternatively, my current preference is to set LR's Prefs to create a backup on exit. This is the lrcat file, the important one with all my LR work. My backup software then targets the folder containing these backups, not the one containing my actual LR catalogue.
if you want, zip the lrcat backups - they are often a fraction of the size of the uncompressed file.
John
-
Do you know of a way to make Lightroom change this, not seen anything in the catalogue or LR prefs
I backup to an external drive periodically but would be nice if LR did its daily backup to a second drive in my system
When you exit the program LR asks if you want to backup or skip it. This window shows the location of your current backup folder and next to it is a button labeled "Choose" which will allow you to change the location.
Isn't that where it defaults to though?
Well, sure. Adobe doesn't know if you have an external or what its name (letter) is.
-
When you exit the program LR asks if you want to backup or skip it. This window shows the location of your current backup folder and next to it is a button labeled "Choose" which will allow you to change the location.
Well, sure. Adobe doesn't know if you have an external or what its name (letter) is.
Thanks tried that - its good, remembers the new location so don't need to enter it each time. Just surprised its not in prefs
-
There are certain aspects of LR which even its most fervent devotees will admit are a little odd, and smack of afterthought rather than a coherent user interface, and this is one of them. Like many things in LR, you can do it, but it is often not at all obvious how you do it.
John
-
There are certain aspects of LR which even its most fervent devotees will admit are a little odd, and smack of afterthought rather than a coherent user interface, and this is one of them. Like many things in LR, you can do it, but it is often not at all obvious how you do it.
John
John: To jump in here with a gratuitous comment, when I embarked in Lightroom I envisioned that the Develop rather than the Library module would prove the most complicated, with the higher learning curve. To my amazement (and some chagrin) I am still getting confused (and frustrated) with my attempt to come to reasonable grips with the Library module. And that's in spite of having the Evening and Kelby texts and Jardine tutorial as references! I tell myself that, as a lawyer, I shouldn't be having these problems. So, it's a bit "gratifying" to note in this forum that others sometimes appear to be as confused as me.
-
That's because LR is for cataloguing as well as adjusting, and managing files and categorising data is as complex as adjusting them. It also reflects the backgrounds of the authors - graphics pros rather than librarians / accountants etc.
John
-
Why are you backingup to the same drive that your active catalog is on? This rather negates most of the value of a backup because if the disc goes down it will take your backup with it.
It is on the disk with my data files which is backed up. My PS, Bridge and LR caches are on another disk and my apps on a third dsk with the OS. So if the disk with my catalogue goes I'd have the backup of the Backups folder on my external backup.
But thanks for bringing that to my attention. I'll separate the 2 and put another small layer of protection to it.
-
There are certain aspects of LR which even its most fervent devotees will admit are a little odd, and smack of afterthought rather than a coherent user interface, and this is one of them. Like many things in LR, you can do it, but it is often not at all obvious how you do it.
John
True. And I can imagine that if someone were using LR and storing photos on a single disk PC that they should be better informed of this because disk performance could be suffering as the disk gets close to getting full.
Adobe should realise there ARE people out there using LR whose expertise/passion is photography and that whose understanding of PCs/data management & storage is less so.
Not a word of criticism, just a little hint as an area for improvement. No harm better educating their clients about important matter of deleting archived catalogue backups. Maybe LR should remind someone to do this, just as it reminds you to backup regularly.
But thanks for the info everyone
-
Sounds logical to me if using LR and photos is the only thing you do on the computer. Still considering backups as a measure against fatal loss due to disk failure or other perils should be normal practice for someone using a computer to create and store digital data.
Note that i do not use the LR backup option, but have a backup procedure in place for all files i want to backup, including the catalog file, any presets i value etc.
-
Phil: This might be of interest to you: http://www.wolfnowl.com/2010/05/deleting-old-lightroom-backups/
Mike.
-
Thanks Mike! It was very relevant, exactly what I needed. :)
Hope everything is well on the island (I lived in Comox in the 70's).
-
Hey, I actually visited Comox once in the 70s. Was that you on the corner of...? Never mind, it's not THAT small an island!! Still a great place to be though...
Mike.
-
Yeah, that was me outside the Overwaitea trying to sell painted pine cones in order to buy sugar-based products.