Sorting Lightroom files.

[martyns96992618]

Hello Folks

Need some advice. I'm soon going to be moving from Windows to Mac and have been looking at how to move my catalogue. I believe all I need to move are the catalouge and the previews. Looking at my files I also have a smart preview file as well, will this need to be copied over?

Also as you will see I have a lot of older catalogues from previous versions of Lightroom and backups, which are now and done on an external hard drive. My other question what can I delete?

I believe Lightroom catlog-2 is my current one.

Thanks in advance for you help.

Regards

Martyn

[dj_paige]

martyns96992618  wrote

I believe all I need to move are the catalouge and the previews.

AND THE PHOTOS THEMSELVES. You need to move the photos.

And there's no need to move the previews or smart previews, you can if you want to, but if you don't move them, Lightroom will re-create them.

I believe Lightroom catlog-2 is my current one.

If I were you, I wouldn't feel safe "believing" this information, I would confirm which one is your current catalog.

Also as you will see I have a lot of older catalogues from previous versions of Lightroom and backups, which are now and done on an external hard drive. My other question what can I delete?

If you are 100% sure you don't need those other catalogs, you can delete them ... but YOU have to be 100% sure, we can't really help you here from across the Internet, we don't know which catalogs you really need.

As far as backups go, I would think you'd want to save a few recent backups just in case. And as long as we are discussing backups, your backups of your catalog file and your backups of your photos MUST be on a different physical disk than the originals. MUST is a strong word, and I mean MUST, as in mandatory, required, not optional.

[martyns96992618]

Hi thanks for your reply.

I thought the catalogue are the photos? If not, what else will need to be moved over?

Thanks

Martyn

[JohanElzenga]

No!!!! The catalog only contains information about the photos, and the edits. It's like an address book. Your friends are in your address book, but that doesn't mean they physically live in there. Your images are (probably) in another folder in your Pictures folder. You decide where they go when you import them.

It's possible that you stored them in the same folder however. I see some folders with a year name. Those could well be your pictures, but I don't see anything for 2014 - 2017...

[dj_paige]

You need to move catalog(s), photos and any user-created presets

[martyns96992618]

Thanks dj_paige

That makes sense. I seem to have my images split between two locations, Pictures and another folder on the C drive. I will merge the images all to the same location and ensure the catalogue know there location.

I'm thinking when I migrate onto the Mac to keep the images, Catalogue and presets under one folder then just copy that whole folder to the Mac, Which I believe will be the equivalent Pictures folder - Default Lightroom location? Then Lichtroom will just run as before?

Another question, out of interest, What is backed up? Images, Catalogue and Presets? This I currently do to an external HD on close down.

Thanks again for you knowledge and advice.

Martyn

[dj_paige]

That makes sense. I seem to have my images split between two locations, Pictures and another folder on the C drive. I will merge the images all to the same location and ensure the catalogue know there location.

Completely unnecessary, unless you have low space issues on the C drive.

I'm thinking when I migrate onto the Mac to keep the images, Catalogue and presets under one folder then just copy that whole folder to the Mac, Which I believe will be the equivalent Pictures folder - Default Lightroom location? Then Lightroom will just run as before?

That's one approach, but again not required. Especially if the Pictures folder is on a disk that doesn't have a lot of space.

Another question, out of interest, What is backed up? Images, Catalogue and Presets? This I currently do to an external HD on close down.

We can't possibly know what is backed up on your computer. You have to know. In my opinion, it is not acceptable to NOT know what is backed up, and where the backups are.

[richardplondon]

As to what is backed up, when you exit LR you may be prompted to make a backup but this only addresses the Catalog database.

The images that have been imported, are a separate matter as has been explained.

So far as your presets etc, there are two ways your LR might be set. The default way is to store them centrally. If you right-click in the Presets panel you can view this central folder of presets (such as user defined develop presets). That is within a "Lightroom" parent folder.

Backing up this "Lightroom" folder will cover all kinds of LR stuff including develop and import presets. watermark graphics etc.

There's another folder alongside this, called "CameraRaw". Backing up this also, will protect all your customisations of processing defaults, lens profiling, camera calibration etc.

Things can be set such that LR's presets are held "with the catalog" instead. This means, LR looks for a dedicated set of per-catalog presets alongside the catalog and not in the central location. But I'll recommend NOT checking this option, unless you have a compelling need.

The CameraRaw folder location will not I think alter, if you did choose LR's own presets etc to be held "with catalog". CameraRaw is shared between LR and ACR, and ACR can't know anything about LR's own internal settings.

[martyns96992618]

dj_paige

Moving the images to one location is just an attempt to tidy up. They are all on the C drive but split in different locations.

The Idea of keeping everything in one folder is again just to clean things up and possibly make it easier moving to the Mac.

Lastly the question regarding backing up was just to try and confirm if the Images, Catalogue and Presets are backed up. I know they are backed up on my external hard drive and this is in a Zipped file, containing the latest Catalogue I backup and also previous ones. It just seem to me if I lost my C drive I would need at least the images and the catalogue to be backed up?  I know you cant possibly know what is backed up, but I didn't know if there were default files back up by Lightroom when you click to back up.

Once again thank you for you advice and straight to the point replies.

Martyn

[dj_paige]

martyns96992618  wrote

dj_paige

Moving the images to one location is just an attempt to tidy up. They are all on the C drive but split in different locations.

Make sure you have completed the "tidy up" and everything is working in LR before you transfer everything to a new computer.

Do not attempt to transfer and tidy up at the same time in one great big global move, this is a recipe for confusion. Keep it simple.

[Just Shoot Me]

Look here.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

[martyns96992618]

Thanks to all your advice and links. Things are a lot clearer on the inner working of LR.

My next problem will be swapping from a windows user to a Mac user, but everyday is a school day.

Cheers

Martyn