Back up Lightroom Catalogs

[visualsbywazeer]

Hello, I need help setting up a backup for my lightroom catalog. Recently, I have bought a new computer. I still have my old PC though and I need to transfer all the photos to my new PC. ( Note : Both computers run on Windows 8.1 and I have Lightroom 5.7.1 )
Is there a way of doing this? I heard that I needed to backup the catalog which I did. But when I opened the catalog on my computer it showed all the photos but all of them said that the photo is missing, I could not locate the photos as none of them were on my PC. The same happened with all my Lightroom Presets. I spent a lot on presets and I do need them for work. I would highly appreciate if you could provide me with a Step by Step tutorial on how to backup my photos and restore them.

Thank You,

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

You use the built-in feature in Lightroom to make regular backups of your catalog file.

You use third party backup programs (or do it manually, not recommended) to make regular backups of your photos.

All backups MUST go on a different physical disk than the originals (this is not optional).

To restore everything from the backups: copy the photos back to their EXACT original locations; copy the backup of the catalog file to the default location (or any other location), double-click on the file to open it in Lightroom.

Presets: make a copy to create a backup, then to restore copy them in the default location as specified here Where to find preference files for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5

[visualsbywazeer]

Thank you, could you enlighten me on how to relocate the photos. Because it did not work though I followed your instructions.

[dj_paige]

It is what I said earlier

"copy the photos back to their EXACT original locations".

Did you do this? What happened?

[TheDigitalDog]

This is one scenario where considering placing ALL your images, Lightroom catalog and  associated files onto a dedicated hard drive make so much sense. You can clone that all from drive to drive for multiple backups. You can dedicate a big fast drive to all your images which I suspect will grow over the years. You can hook up that drive to any computer with LR and have access to all your images. One trick that's necessary is to use the "Store Presets with Catalog" preference so those important files are also on this drive. When you back up this drive (clone it), you're backing up the catalog and all your images and the preferences and presets you build in LR! Simple, fast, kind of elegant.

[ManiacJoe]

You are saying "backup" but what you are needing is to transfer your files from the old computer to the new computer.

See this link;

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/