+ How to Correctly Back Up LR Catalog for when Uninstall/Reinstall LR +

[mk45755108]

Hi -

I'm going to be taking my laptop to the apple store. It is probable that it will be wiped out and fresh start.

I previously created my LR catalog by importing images from external drives, built smart previews, and proceeding to add a lot of metadata, keywords, ratings (colors, stars and flags) to the images. I back-up almost every time I make changes.

My questions are,

to uninstall and then re-install LightRoom to my computer,

+ what steps do I need to take beforehand so that my database is restored with all the information/keywords/metadata/etc?

+ will I need to locate the images in the external drives again?

+ what if I've changed the name of one of those drives?

I'm running on an older version of Lightroom CC 2015.12 release for now.

Thank you -

[dj_paige]

If you have the backups of your catalog file, and backups of your photos, and backups of your presets, I think that is everything. All backups must be on a different disk than the original. If the backups are on the same disk as your originals, then you don't have a backup at all.

If you are going to change the name of one of those drives — DON'T DO THIS. Make your life simple.

[mk45755108]

backups catalog file = check

backups photos = check

backups of presets = ??

How do I back up the presets?

Thank you -

[dj_paige]

The location of your presets are here: Preference file and other file locations | Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom 6

You can copy them to another drive using your operating system

[mk45755108]

Great! so when I reinstall LR, what are the steps I should take?

Thank you

[dj_paige]

Use your operating system, copy everything back to where it is now. Exact same locations.

[JohanElzenga]

As you take it to the Apple store, I assume it's a McBook (Pro). In that case, simply use Apple Time Machine to backup your entire disk, and if the hard disk does indeed get erased or replaced, use Apple Migration Assistant to restore the computer after this from the Time Machine backup. Couldn't be easier.