removing folders seems to generate more than 40GB data

[MiralysXX]

I have an armarda of external drives and have used various sources to import pictures without copying them to lightroom. Now I wanted to clean up and to remove several of those drives from lightroom. (this is how it looks at the moment:)

I want to keep only three of those sources. However each time I try to remove folders, it takes ages and then suddenly Lightroom tells me there is not enough space left on my computer. I checked before, I had 46GB left. Next I get a warning from my computer that I have to delete files. Only when I force quit lightroom I'm able to work again.
Any ideas?

[Just Shoot Me]

You keep saying Sources. The only Source panel is in the Import dialog window. What I think you are showing in the screen shot you included is the "Folders" section of the left hand panel in the Library module. Is that correct?

The only Drives and Folders that show up there are those that you have imported images from.

Please understand that NO Image Files are Ever "IN" LR. LR is a Database program and only References images into the LR Database file, IE the Catalog file.

If you are talking about the Source section of the LR Import dialog window, the left hand side of that window, then what is shown is any and all drives that are currently connected to your computer. There is no way to remove any of them except to Unplug them from your computer.

Please post back whether you are asking about the Import dialog window or the Folders section in the Library module.

[MiralysXX]

I was talking about the folders section. Sorry for being unclear. I know Lightroom only references to the actual files, however all the genereated preview pictures obviously also take up space so I wanted to get rid of those that I don't need anymore.
I have to apologize, though, Lightroom wasn't the culprit for my main problem, it was the Mac CalenderAgent running amok and creating data. Which is probably also why Lightroom was extremely slow - and producing error reports. As Lightroom was the only app running on the surface and force quitting it cleared up enough space for me to able to use the computer again naturally I suspected it.

Thanks for your answer!

[Just Shoot Me]

As far as I know the only way to get rid of previews is to delete the Previews folder or the folders underneath the top level Previews folder.

If you delete the whole Previews.lrdata folder LR will just recreate it the next time LR is opened (Yes have LR closed when deleting the Previews folder).

The previews folder is in the same folder the catalog is in. It has the Catalog Name and then Previews.lrdata

If you create Smart Preview you might want to look into getting ride of those also as Smart Preview take up more more space than the standard and 1:1 preview in the regular Previews folder.

[cmgap]

Are you all set then? Or are you still having trouble consolidating to the three EHDs as you originally posted?

[MiralysXX]

Although still weirdly slow - considering I was just removing references to external drives that weren't even connected - Lightroom did as expected.
One related problem though: As soon as CalenderAgent had filled up my hard drive I got a problem report from Lightroom that there wasn't enough disk space left to operate. When I clicked ok the same message popped up again and again and I had to force quit Lightroom - it wasn't possible to quit Lightroom as usual. The problem report essentially froze Lightroom.

[DdeGannes]

From the screen capture in your first post it appears that you only have free disk space of 45.5 gb on a 500 gb drive and this is probably the reason for the sluggish behavior. You need to maintain at least 25% of your drive as free space.

[Just Shoot Me]

MiralysXX  wrote

Although still weirdly slow - considering I was just removing references to external drives that weren't even connected - Lightroom did as expected.
One related problem though: As soon as CalenderAgent had filled up my hard drive I got a problem report from Lightroom that there wasn't enough disk space left to operate. When I clicked ok the same message popped up again and again and I had to force quit Lightroom - it wasn't possible to quit Lightroom as usual. The problem report essentially froze Lightroom.

Did you think about freeing up some disk space before you clicked the OK button on the warning dialog box? Sure if LR can't function because of Low disk space just clicking OK isn't going to make it function again. So the warning Pops Up again.

You should of first made some more space by deleting files and then clicked the OK button.

[DdeGannes]

@ just shoot me, exactly the point I was trying to make!

It has been my experience that when the free disk space drops to less than 25% you will start to get progressively reduced performance! This has nothing to do with Lightroom per say but your operating system, needs lots of breathing space.

Think about it like this, you have a large HDD drive of 2 TB with 100 GB of free space, how much searching has to be done to the find space to write to! Your OS needs space to swap data and files.