Media Management with only a 512GB SSD

[SahebCreations]

I've scoured the threads and can't find anything regarding this subject so please help me wrap my head around this.

I have a laptop with 512GB of SSD storage and a 25TB Raid drive at home.

I really like storing my photos on my 512GB-SSD because I work remotely a lot of the time and its fast and efficient that way.

BUT It all falls apart when those projects become finished and I try to back up those photos to my 25TB Raid drive.

My dream is to work off my laptop then (merge?) that catalog to a master LR catalog living on my 25 TB RAID without losing any keywords, tags, organizational conventions and file names.

Any ideas?

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

The way to do this is to use 'Export as catalog' and 'Import from Another Catalog'. Export those photos you want to work on as catalog and copy that catalog to the laptop. If you include smart previews, you don't even have to include the master photos ('negatives'). When you return, import the catalog from the laptop into the master catalog.

[SahebCreations]

Hi Johan.

Thanks for your input!

How would this be different than DJ's method?

[JohanElzenga]

SahebCreations  wrote

Hi Johan.

Thanks for your input!

How would this be different than DJ's method?

It's a different method, that uses two catalogs. A main catalog, and a smaller 'travel' catalog on the laptop, that gets imported into the main catalog when you get home again. If your main catalog is a big as mine, it may be the only way because the main catalog folder could become too big for the laptop SSD. This explains it in more detail: https://www.slrlounge.com/270206-2/ 

[dj_paige]

Make your life simple, use ONE catalog for all of your photos. Keep some of the photos on the SSD so that they are accessible when you travel, the rest of the 25 TB raid disk. When you travel, the photos not on the SSD will be shown as missing, when you come home and connect the computer to the 25 TB RAID drive, then the photos there will not be shown as missing. You could also create smart previews of the photos on the RAID drive and then Lightroom will not show these photos as missing, and you can do most of the work that you want on the Smart Previews. All of this is done with one catalog.

Make your life simple, use on catalog for all of your photos. I know I said that already, but it is worth repeating.

Make your life simple, use on catalog for all of your photos. I know I said that twice already, but it is worth repeating.

BUT It all falls apart when those projects become finished and I try to back up those photos to my 25TB Raid drive.

If this is part of the problem, then you need to provide a lot more details about what you have done that makes something "fall apart" ... in fact, what does "fall apart" mean with reference to LR?

[JohanElzenga]

Using one catalog is indeed easier, but it all depends on the size. My catalog folder is 275 GB, so I don't think I would want that on a laptop with 512 GB SSD.

[dj_paige]

JohanEl54  wrote

Using one catalog is indeed easier, but it all depends on the size. My catalog folder is 275 GB, so I don't think I would want that on a laptop with 512 GB SSD.

True, but so far, this is not a complaint by the original poster. All he said was something "falls apart", undefined in meaning and not terribly useful in helping figure out a strategy.

[JohanElzenga]

Yes, it is indeed unclear what 'falls apart', but he also said "My dream is to work off my laptop then (merge?) that catalog to a master LR catalog living on my 25 TB RAID without losing any keywords, tags, organizational conventions and file names." You can do that by exporting and importing catalogs. That is how I work when I travel.

[SahebCreations]

Thanks DJ.

I can understand what you say but am having a hard time putting what you say into practice.

Does this ONE AND ONLY catalog live on my laptop? and that catalog then references my master photo collection living where?

When using LR on my laptop, how do I import photos to my laptop? Then how do those photos move to the 25TB RAID?

[dj_paige]

Yes, one catalog on your laptop, which references photos on your laptop AND photos on the RAID drive.

You can move photos from one disk (laptop SSD) to another disk (RAID drive) via these instructions: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders and they stay in Lightroom, with all of your edits and user-provided metadata still associated with the photos.

[JP Hess]

SahebCreations  wrote

Thanks DJ.

I can understand what you say but am having a hard time putting what you say into practice.

Does this ONE AND ONLY catalog live on my laptop? and that catalog then references my master photo collection living where?

When using LR on my laptop, how do I import photos to my laptop? Then how do those photos move to the 25TB RAID?

What I would recommend that you do is import the images to the SSD/internal drive and keep them there until you feel you are finished with them. Then use your operating system to copy that folder to the RAID drive. Then, in the library module in Lightroom, locate that folder on the SSD and right-click on it and choose the option to update the folder location. Point Lightroom to the folder In its new drive location. Thar will keep all the edits and keywords and everything else intact. After that's done, then you can delete the folder on the SSD.

[SahebCreations]

I can see how that would work. Could that become messy though? As in, would files go offline? I don't think I know about the "update"  function you speak of.

[JohanElzenga]

SahebCreations  wrote

I can see how that would work. Could that become messy though? As in, would files go offline? I don't think I know about the "update"  function you speak of.

When you right-click on a folder in Lightroom, you get a contextual menu. One of the menu items is 'Update Folder Location'. That allows you to tell Lightroom that from now on it should use the same folder in another location (that you select in the dialog that follows).

[JP Hess]

I moved an entire library that way once. All files were organized within one master file (with subfolders). I copied the subfolder from an internal hard drive to a secondary internal hard drive and used the update folder location to point Lightroom to the new location just as I described. One simple redirect command. Everything relinked immediately, and I was able to clear everything from the original location. It works seamlessly.