Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: Ellis Vener on March 11, 2014, 12:57:35 pm
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Can I move the Lightroom5 Previews.lrdata file to a different internal drive from the one with the OS and Application itself? I am trying to keep the boot drive (a 240GB SSD) as clean as possible. Right now my Lightroom5 Previews.lrdata file is 32.91GB for a library of just over 118,000 photographs.
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Yes, you can move it to a different hard drive but I think that it has to reside in the folder that contains your Lightroom library (some_name.lrcat). I would also be interested to know whether it's possible to store the smart previews and the "normal" previews in a different location (relative to the LR library).
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Yes, you can move it to a different hard drive but I think that it has to reside in the folder that contains your Lightroom library (some_name.lrcat). I would also be interested to know whether it's possible to store the smart previews and the "normal" previews in a different location (relative to the LR library).
I think you mean "catalog", not "library".
That's my understanding, too. The previews are always in a subfolder of the folder containing the catalog.
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Interesting. Looking at my boot drive the Lightroom5 Previews.lrdata file is not in the same folder as the Lightroom5.lrcat ,unless we consider the larger Applications folder to be that folder.
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Yes, you're tight, replace Library by Catalog…
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Interesting. Looking at my boot drive the Lightroom5 Previews.lrdata file is not in the same folder as the Lightroom5.lrcat ,unless we consider the larger Applications folder to be that folder.
In your second screenshot, You have Lightroom5 Previews.lrdata and Lightroom5.lrcat in the same folder… I don't think that you can store them separately, each one in a different folder. But you can move both elsewhere, on a different hard drive.
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In your second screenshot, You have Lightroom5 Previews.lrdata and Lightroom5.lrcat in the same folder… I don't think that you can store them separately, each one in a different folder. But you can move both elsewhere, on a different hard drive.
So by "same folder" we are both referring to the "Applications" folder on the SSD?
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So by "same folder" we are both referring to the "Applications" folder on the SSD?
Yes, correct!
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Okay, got it. Not sure I want to move the catalog as well off of the boot drive but I might.
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Okay, got it. Not sure I want to move the catalog as well off of the boot drive but I might.
I just moved mine to my second drive and it works fine. Note that I moved the entire folder including catalog, previews and backups.
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Try this. Create a new catalogue on a different hard drive in a Folder named *New LR Catalogue*, import a few pics and do a backup and then you'll see how the filing structure works without being confused by other stuff, in say your apps folder.
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Note that I moved the entire folder including catalog, previews and backups.
Doesn't having your backups on the same disc as the original catalog kind of defeat the purpose of having a backup?
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Doesn't having your backups on the same disc as the original catalog kind of defeat the purpose of having a backup?
Good point. I will move the backups back to the system drive. Thanks for pointing that out.
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Good point. I will move the backups back to the system drive. Thanks for pointing that out.
As backups save to the same folder, it's a good idea to use a programme that regularly backups the backups to another HD. Backing up entire folder with catalogue would make sense, but unfortunately all the previews also reside there and that can end up being a considerable size. A way around this on a Mac is to use a symbolic link for the preview folder, so the preview data is actually stored on another drive. Important if catalogue is on an SSD for speed, as they are quite small compared to a HD. And so are easily filled by LR previews.
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I just got a new computer with 256gb SSD and 24gb memory and 2 TB hard drive with Windows 8.1 . I also got LR5 and will be starting "fresh"; no old catalogs or pictures. I let LR5 load where it wanted too when I installed it. I also run Adobe Elements 12 for some photo edits and Premiere for the now and then movie I make.
Going forward, where should a keep my LR RAW images, catalogs, backups, etc. so I get the best processing speed?
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Doesn't having your backups on the same disc as the original catalog kind of defeat the purpose of having a backup?
It's not a backup in the sense of normal backup. It's a backup that you can use if your catalog gets inconsistent. Even the backup folder should be backed up like anything else on your computer.
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I just got a new computer with 256gb SSD and 24gb memory and 2 TB hard drive with Windows 8.1 . I also got LR5 and will be starting "fresh"; no old catalogs or pictures. I let LR5 load where it wanted too when I installed it. I also run Adobe Elements 12 for some photo edits and Premiere for the now and then movie I make.
Going forward, where should a keep my LR RAW images, catalogs, backups, etc. so I get the best processing speed?
In your case I would suggest that you put the Lightroom catalog on the 2TB drive and all your most recent folders on that drive as well. Older pictures that you access less often can be placed on an external drive. Keep only one catalogue is my recommendation. When you have the external drive unplugged the pictures will show up with an ! mark which indicates that the picture is not available. You can use smart previews so you can still work on pictures even though the original RAW files are not available.
This is the way I have setup my system. I have a MacBook Pro 15" retina with 1TB SSD and I keep the catalog (and associated previews and catalog backups) and the RAW files from roughly the last year on the internal SSD drive. Other pictures I have on a Thunderbolt 3TB raid drive sitting in my office. I also have a portable 2TB drive where I can place a copy of my pictures that are not on the internal SSD drive if I need them when travelling. I can only do this since I delete a lot of pictures from my shoots and only keep the pictures that I find successful or have potential for future edits. In addition there is a backup strategy both on HD's and online.
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Doesn't having your backups on the same disc as the original catalog kind of defeat the purpose of having a backup?
You can get Lightroom to save its catalogue backup to a different place than the catalogue. I have done this. As far as I can remember when Lightroom asks to do a backup you can change file path of the backup file. It will remember this new path in the future.
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You can get Lightroom to save its catalogue backup to a different place than the catalogue. I have done this. As far as I can remember when Lightroom asks to do a backup you can change file path of the backup file. It will remember this new path in the future.
That's correct. See the screen shot below.
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You can get Lightroom to save its catalogue backup to a different place than the catalogue. I have done this. As far as I can remember when Lightroom asks to do a backup you can change file path of the backup file. It will remember this new path in the future.
It's not just a matter of "you can" - it's "you should".
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It's not just a matter of "you can" - it's "you should".
The important thing is have both a backup of the catalog in a consistent state and a backup. If you already have a full backup strategy for your machine (and associated drives) it does not matter if this backup folder that Lightroom saves the consistent backups to is on the same drive or not. But it is absolutely essential to distinguish between the two purposes of the "backup". Backup will easily get misunderstood.
In my opinion one should not have a separate backup strategy for the catalog "backups" that is different than for the rest of the system. Everything including catalogs, RAW and associated image files, documents, etc. should be backed up on several copies on different media and be in different physical locations.
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We don't differ much, Hans, but I'd take a belt and braces approach and insist that the Lightroom-made backups should also be separated.
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We don't differ much, Hans, but I'd take a belt and braces approach and insist that the Lightroom-made backups should also be separated.
Probably not and I do agree on a belt and braces approach. My approach is just different in that I don't see the Lightroom catalog or it's consistent backups as anything special wrt. backups. I run Time Machine backups on at least two different HD's each day and I also will make Lightroom "backups" regularly and especially if I have made large changes to the catalog. So maybe once a week except in the special cases with big changes. The Lightroom catalog itself is included in the Time Machines backups and I exclude the previews from the backups. A proper backup strategy is way too often neglected by photographers from my experience.
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We don't differ much, Hans, but I'd take a belt and braces approach and insist that the Lightroom-made backups should also be separated.
I wish I could separate previews from catalogue from within LR.
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I wish I could separate previews from catalogue from within LR.
You tried symbolic links / aliases?
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I should have been more explicit and said "from within LR, so not having to use workarounds like symbolic links/aliases"