Getting adjustments back after macOS clean install

[philipn95815980]

I plan to clean install macOS on my iMac. I have the whole drive backed up, so I should be able to get to any Lightroom files that presently exist.

But I'm confused as to how the non-destructive aspect works, especially with regards to putting everything back together again.

The NEFs in the Finder don't have the careful adjustments I've made, of course.  But if I put back all the files in my Lightroom folder from the backup, with paths remaining identical, will all my adjustments just re-appear?

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

The catalog file contains your adjustments. You need to restore a backup of your catalog file, restore the backups of the original photos to their exact previous location, and all of your edits and user-provided metadata will be intact.

[philipn95815980]

Thanks, that's reassuring.

[philipn95815980]

When you say "the catalog file contains your adjustments", do you mean all adjustments, without regard in any way to presets and so on that might have helped make them, and which may no longer be present?

[dj_paige]

Catalog file contains all work you did on these photos, regardless of whether or not a preset was used or whether or not the preset is present.

[Just Shoot Me]

The edits are stored in the LR Catalog file so make sure you save, backup, the catalog file just before you wipe the drive. Do not depend on Time Machine to Restore your system back to it was or even place or replace some files on your drive. Make a Copy of the Catalog file on an external drive of some type before you wipe the internal drive.

If you have the option set to Auto write changes to XMP enabled the edits, but not collections or certain other things, are also store in a XMP Sidecar file. So if you see XMP files in the folders with your images back them up as well as the images.

Please remember that 99.999999% of drive backup programs, Time Machine or any of the other imaging/backup programs, backup all the JUNK you are trying to get rid of.

[philipn95815980]

I don't use Time Machine - couldn't really use it for a clean install in any case!  I shall be clean installing Sierra from a flash stick, and then placing important files back manually from a clone on one of the external backup drives, so no re-installing "junk" (the idea being to get rid of that).

[Just Shoot Me]

Well you are right about using TM for a Clean install. Unless you created a separate TM backup of a clean install of the OS and program and never added anything to that separate TM backup.

But you can Restore your system from a TM backup once you boot the Mac to the Recovery console.

[philipn95815980]

This is not the "correct answer" ! TM cannot be used for a clean install !  BY definition you're not going to have your TM data after a clean install !

[Just Shoot Me]

philipn95815980  wrote

This is not the "correct answer" ! TM cannot be used for a clean install !  BY definition you're not going to have your TM data after a clean install !

If you do a Fresh Clean install of OS X on your Mac then right after it finishes you do a TM backup to an external drive then NEVER us that external drive for any other TM backups, or anything else, you can Restore your Mac from that TM backup and have a Fresh Clean install of OS X.

You do know that you can boot all newer Mac computer from across the internet and use the Internet Recovery System to restore the system from a TM backup.

[philipn95815980]

"If you do a Fresh Clean install of OS X on your Mac then right after it finishes you do a TM backup to an external drive..."

Right after it finishes you're not going to have your data to back up!  It's gone!

But I think we must be talking about different scenarios.  You must mean, right after the clean install, prepare that fresh install for future backup and clean installs, or something like that, which is not what I meant.

[Just Shoot Me]

A Clean install is one where just the OS is installed on the drive. No other data remains. Yes we must be talking about different things.