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Catalog Previews file is huge after 2 imports

New Here ,
Nov 14, 2016 Nov 14, 2016

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Hello,

I am new to LR and have imported only 2 folders of photos: one folder with 5 photos and the other with 489 photos. I believe I created Standard Previews during import. Already my Catalog Previews (.lrdata) file is 571.9 MB but the Catalog (.lrcat) is only 7.4 MB for these 494 photos.  With 20,000+ more photos to import it is clear that the .lrdata file will exceed the capacity of the hard drive space on my laptop before I import many more photos.

During those two imports my settings in Catalog Settings>File Handling were set at:

Standard Preview Size: Auto (1920px)

Preview Quality: Medium

Automatically Discard 1:1 Previews: After 30 days

After reviewing more tutorials I realize that I should have probably created Minimal Previews. Is there any way to go back to these 2 folders and change the previews to Minimal? I did go into both folders and clicked to discard 1:1 Previews and Smart Previews hoping that would free up some space (incase I had created that type of preview by accident) - it did not.

I didn't notice before I started importing photos but is the .lrdata file large even in its unused 'virgin' state?  Is that the explanation?

Any information would be welcome. Thank you!

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Community Expert ,
Nov 15, 2016 Nov 15, 2016

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You can simply delete the contents of the preview folder while LR is closed.

They will be recreated as needed.

--- Got your issue resolved? Please label the response as 'Correct Answer' to help your fellow community members find a solution to similar problems. ---

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New Here ,
Nov 15, 2016 Nov 15, 2016

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Thank you for your prompt assistance! I need some clarification, please, is the preview the image I see in the Grid and Loupe views? If so and I delete the previews would I see greyed out 'images' for each photo in those files? Is there a tutorial on how to 'rebuild' the previews if needed in the future?

I have an additional question regarding deleting the contents of the preview folder.

When I open the .lrdata folder I see this:

Screen Shot 2016-11-15 at 1.02.48 PM.png

So I right-clicked on Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata > Show Package Contents and I see this (expanded to show subfolders/files):

Screen Shot 2016-11-15 at 1.03.40 PM.png

Exactly what should I delete? I am afraid to drag the entire .lrdata file to the trash. Aren't the previews.db and root-pixels.db files required as part of the LR software program? Sorry if these are stupid questions...

Thanks!

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 15, 2016 Nov 15, 2016

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Delete the lrdata file as a whole you don't need to open it up. Lightroom will rebuild the previews on demand when needed automatically.

There is no danger of loosing anything as long as it is just the lrdata file you delete.

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New Here ,
Nov 21, 2016 Nov 21, 2016

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Apologies for the tardy reply - many thanks for your help!

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LEGEND ,
Nov 15, 2016 Nov 15, 2016

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.lrdata is actually a folder with many subfolders. Just delete that .lrdata folder and LR will recreate it the next time you open LR.

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New Here ,
Nov 21, 2016 Nov 21, 2016

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Thank you very much for your assistance.

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