Lightroom Classic and disaster preparedness

[ymc226]

Using LR Classic subscription, MacPro 2013 and an OWC Thunderbay external drive.  I am just thinking of what to back up in case my Mac or external drive (has all my raw files) fails or are stolen.  I do back up all my raw files on the cloud but also on two separate NAS drives off site.  This means bringing an external SSD back and fourth from my office to home as I tried the Synology transfer function via the internet but was not stable enough to ensure all my files were transferred.  Other than the raw photo files, what other file(s) are necessary if my computer or external hard drive irreversibly fails?  My goal would be to replace the external drive, download LR Classic to a new computer and have LR back to where I left off.  I'm a hobbyist so there would be no urgency in getting back to form quickly.

[mcbroomf]

Unless you just didn't mention it the obvious extra is to backup Lightroom itself (ie catalog, previews etc).  If you don't do that then when you download LR again you'll be starting your catalog again from scratch (ie you'll have lost all the adjustments).

[digitaldog]

Backup EVERYTHING you can't ever afford to lose. For me, in respect to LR, that's all images, catalog, presets, profiles: everything to at least 3 differing drives, one ideally offsite.
LR's backup schema is lame and doesn't backup most of the important items listed above. Forget it.

[simon.garrett@iee.org]

The other question: how often to backup? 
Answer, well another question: how much data are you prepared to lose?

My answers: I'm not prepared to lose images, so I don't wipe a memory card until I've imported into Lightroom, and backed up the files.  As for edits to images: well, I can recreate edits, so I don't mind losing a day or two's edting work at the very worst, so I could back up only every day or every other day if I hadn't imported any new images. 

In practice, I have a hourly backup (Windows File History backup). 

But YMMV

[ymc226]

Thank you for all of your replies.  Just for clarification, I would copy and back up the following files in the LR file:  Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata, Lightroom Catalog.lrcat.  It's easy enough but do I also need:  Lightroom Catalog Helper:lrdata

[ymc226]

I just looked at the LR files.  There seems to be various back ups and LR Classic catalogs.  Which ones should I save and which ones can I delete?  Below is a screen shot of all the files in my LR Classic folder.

[digitaldog]

I just looked at the LR files.  There seems to be various back ups and LR Classic catalogs.  Which ones should I save and which ones can I delete?  Below is a screen shot of all the files in my LR Classic folder.

The old, backed up zipped files are not really necessary. Keep the newest one.
Then consider turning OFF the silly LR backup that made all those old catalog copies and copy everything you can't afford to lose. Get a good backup program that backs up all data that has been updated since the last backup. Being on a Mac, look into SuperDuper or for more options and control, ChronoSync. Both can do all this easily and automatically while you sleep!

[simon.garrett@iee.org]

Thank you for all of your replies.  Just for clarification, I would copy and back up the following files in the LR file:  Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata, Lightroom Catalog.lrcat.  It's easy enough but do I also need:  Lightroom Catalog Helper:lrdata

No need to back up the previews folders or the helper folders.  They cache image previews and other information for speed of access, but if they are not there then they are recreated when needed.  No need to delete them unless you are very short of space, but no need to back them up. 

[ymc226]

Thank you Andy and Simon.

[Brad Smith]

I found this link, Lightroom Classic File Locations, to be helpful. She gives links for both Mac and pc.

[pflower]

I would slightly disagree with that comment - it is not fatal if you don't back up the previews file but it is time consuming and annoying if you don't.  I had a massive computer failure in which several disks died completely.  All my photos were properly backed up over several duplicated disks but for some reason my most recent catalog was fine but the previews file which was on my main drive was unrecoverable - I had backups but for earlier versions of LR which were unusable by the current version. (and that is another point - make sure your most recent catalog is backed up and you are not relying on an earlier incompatible version).  My previews file is currently 46Gb and to recreate it in Lightroom took a very long time.  Lightroom will build it again but it takes a very long time and whilst it is re-building LR is very slow since it has to generate a new preview for every photo you look at.

I back up my catalog and my previews file weekly on an external SSD and make sure that all  my photos are backed up on at least 2 disks weekly and don't erase cards until I have done a full back up.

When disaster strikes it is a pain, not just for Lightroom but for everything.  I was able to recover everything but it was still a pain and a pain made a bit worse by not having a previews file.

No need to back up the previews folders or the helper folders.  They cache image previews and other information for speed of access, but if they are not there then they are recreated when needed.  No need to delete them unless you are very short of space, but no need to back them up.

[digitaldog]

I would slightly disagree with that comment - it is not fatal if you don't back up the previews file but it is time consuming and annoying if you don't. 

+1. It isn't fatal but a PITA to have to reconstruct depending on the number of images and kind and size of previews. It can take DAYS to regenerate. A backup: minutes if that.