Large catalogue advice

[laurentc48856771]

Hello,

I have Lightoom CC and i have one large catalogue where I have 3 years of work, divided in 3 main folders (2014-2015-2016) and then divided in daily subfolders. The original files are stored in an external 3TB G-technology HD (that i back up with TM on another external HD) and the catalogue is stored in the computer (Imac 5K). I like this setup because i have all my pictures together and it is easy to modify old pictures if i need to. I have now filled the external drive and the time machine drive too.

What would you advise me to do now? I don't pretend to have all years together because i don't think i will need to modify 2 years old pictures anymore but I would like to have together 2016 + 2017. So my idea is to make a brand new catalogue with 2016 and 2017 and keep my old catalogue '14-15-16 separated. Of course I will need to get two new external drives..

First question, what do you think of this solution? Any other idea?

Second question, how can i copy only 1 folder (year 2016) from the whole catalogue and put it in a new catalogue?

Thank you very much,

Laurent

[99jon · Accepted solution]

I have two G Drives connected using my two separate thunderbolt ports (USB3 also possible) and using a single catalog. In fact I only need to keep one connected with the most recent photos unless I wish to search the whole database (catalog). Some G drives with two thunderbolt ports also permit daisy chaining.

[dj_paige]

One catalog!!! One catalog!!! Do not go down the path of splitting up your photos into separate catalogs, this would be a major mistake, there are 100s of disadvantages and zero advantages.

Even if one drive is filled, and you have to put new photos on a different drive, Lightroom has no problem with photos on multiple drives.

Not only are there no benefits to multiple catalogs here, there's also no reason to do so.

[Guido Pipers]

Hi, maybe you an help me.

Whenever I make a backup of my catalogue, I receive a message saying that my catalogue is larger then 4GB.

Now I have just created a new catalogue for testing. It contains no photograph, no nothing....

But when I make a backup of this catalogue, I receive a message saying that it is larger then 4 GB!

How is this possible.

iMac 27" MacOSsierra 10.12.3

Software CC2017

[Rob_Cullen]

Error- larger then 4 GB!

A bug for Mac users-

Mac Users on Backing Up: “Your Catalog Size Is Larger than 4 GB” | Laura Shoe's Lightroom Training, ...

[Guido Pipers]

Many thanks, my catalogue appears to be 11.5 MB.

Problem solved.

Kind regards and thanks!

[ManiacJoe]

Organizing the photos into yearly folders as you have done is great organization and makes for easy archiving.

LR handles multiple drives (internal and external) easily, so you can easily have your newer years on separate drives.

There is no normal need for multiple catalogs. I do use multiple catalogs to keep my professional work separate from my personal photos, but dividing my personal catalog buys me nothing even with the multiple drives it is referencing.

[laurentc48856771]

Thank you everybody for your comments, I will follow your advice!!