No compression (zip) on backup

[theoldwizard1]

Can this be turned off ?  Disk space is cheap and I actually have a separate disk just to hold backups.

While dreaming, it would be nice if Lightroom managed/cleaned up old backups.

[JP Hess]

Compression cannot be disabled. That is a "feature" of the Lightroom backup system. It's a good idea to maintain a few backups. But it's up to you to determine how many of those previous backups to keep. If you were to allow Lightroom to delete all of the previous backups, and then the one backup that was on the final happened to be corrupt, then what would you do? It only takes a few seconds to do a little housekeeping occasionally and decide how many backups you want to keep.

[theoldwizard1]

Jim - As stated, with disk drives so cheap, it seems that zipping should be an option.

[JP Hess]

But it isn't. What is the problem with compression?

[theoldwizard1]

Jim - When you have large catalogs (multiple GB) it takes a long time.

[JP Hess]

Since this is primarily a user to user forum, here is a link to the forum where the developers monitor and consider suggestions. It might be better for you to express your concern and opinion on that forum.

Lightroom Classic CC | Photoshop Family Customer Community

[cmgap]

How frequently do you backup?

[dj_paige]

You can't turn off the zipping of backups.

It is your responsibility (and in my opinion, should never be any program's responsibility) to mange and clean up backups. Only you (the human user) can make the decision about how much backups to keep, and where to keep them, etc.

[theoldwizard1]

dj - Notice I used the term "manage".  Lightroom could delete by age or number of backups.

[dj_paige]

theoldwizard1  wrote

dj - Notice I used the term "manage".  Lightroom could delete by age or number of backups.

I know of no software that makes these backup decisions for you. Even so, with an issue as critical as backups, I'd prefer to manage it myself.

[theoldwizard1]

I know of no software that makes these backup decisions for you. Even so, with an issue as critical as backups, I'd prefer to manage it myself.

Acronis True Image

[TheDigitalDog]

The entire LR backup schema with or without compression is kind of a sad joke. It only backs up your catalog; not very useful in isolation. Back up the catalog, all images, presets, templates or ANYTHING you cannot afford to lose at any time.

I use a dedicated back up application, this is all done unattended every night on ALL new or altered data files. All! That's the way to start a good backup schema. Then rotate those backups and consider backing up to a cloud as well (belt and suspenders approach). Just using LR to backup a catalog that's compressed and keeps every old ZIP around is a pretty sad idea of a backup routine and I have to wonder why Adobe took such half baked steps in giving some users the impression their data is safe. A backed up catalog without backed up images isn't very useful.

[theoldwizard1]

thedigitaldog  wrote

The entire LR backup schema with or without compression is kind of a sad joke. It only backs up your catalog; not very useful in isolation. Back up the catalog, all images, presets, templates or ANYTHING you cannot afford to lose at any time.

I use a dedicated back up application, this is all done unattended every night on ALL new or altered data files. All! That's the way to start a good backup schema. Then rotate those backups and consider backing up to a cloud as well (belt and suspenders approach).

I agree 100%  !  The problem is, the backup software I use (Acronis) wants to start at a specific time.  If I am editing at 2AM, the whole Lightroom "database" is NOT in a quiescent state.  I don't want to have to remember to MANUALLY start an Acronis backup when I exit LR for the evening.

Is there someway for LR to trigger a third party backup software ?

thedigitaldog  wrote

Just using LR to backup a catalog that's compressed and keeps every old ZIP around is a pretty sad idea of a backup routine and I have to wonder why Adobe took such half baked steps in giving some users the impression their data is safe. A backed up catalog without backed up images isn't very useful.

Again, I agree  100%

In a "previous life" I was a UN*X system admin.  We used a source code version control product (Clearcase) for our "product" and from the backside (system administration) point of view looked a lot like LR's "database".  Although we were using a commercial backup product I wrote some elaborate scripts to close and lock each "database" before it was backed up.  Guaranteed to be in a quiescent state !

[TheDigitalDog]

theoldwizard1  wrote

The problem is, the backup software I use (Acronis) wants to start at a specific time.

As does the software I use. But it does so in the middle of the night when I'm not working and even IF I were, the backup would occur the next night so I don't see this as an issue. Depending on the software, you could set it to back up twice a day. I can with the product I use but seems kind of pointless. Set the backup when you least expect to be altering the data and even if so, next day, it will get backed up if there were changes to the file(s).

[TheDigitalDog]

Is there someway for LR to trigger a third party backup software ?

Doable on the Mac with an Apple script.

[bob frost]

In the distant past, LR didn't compress backups - it was considered too risky. But so many people asked for compression, or like me used other compressors, that Adobe decided to include compression.

There have been complaints recently of problems with the decompression of LR-compressed catalogs. It seems not all 3rdparty decompressors are compatible with LR's compressed catalogs. I have suggested that Adobe include a decompressor in LR for its compressed catalogs.

I can't think of any reason why it couldn't be an option in the backup dialog?

Bob Frost