Backups

[swiftflo3028]

I  have a seagate external 2TB external drive, can someone please tell me how and what is the best way to backup my photo's in LR CC to this drive.

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[dj_paige]

Your original photos are not in Lightroom. Your original photos reside on a hard disk somewhere, it could be an internal disk, external disk, or network drive. You need to find where the original photos are located, and then using your operating system make a copy of all of them to a different physical disk. Do not change the folder structure or file/folder names, just copy the whole folder hierarchy intact to a different disk. Ideally, this should be done using some automated software at some regular interval (daily, weekly, etc. it's up to you), but if you don't have such software today, you can do it manually using your operating system right now.

You also need to make a backup of the catalog file, also to a different disk than the original. This can be done inside of Lightroom by selecting the proper catalog backup frequency (daily, weekly, etc.) under Catalog Settings.

I consider all of this mandatory. It is also a good idea to make backups to "the cloud" so if your house were to be flooded or hit by some other natural disaster, your photos and catalog are still stored in the cloud.

[swiftflo3028]

So what you are saying is that when I import my photo's from my CF card to my mac I should then back them up to my Seagate drive, but when the CF card is loaded the photo's automatically are showing in LR.

Sorry for my ignorance on this, but if they are in LR are you saying they are somewhere else on my mac. Perhaps you would be kind enough to detail me exactly how to do the backup.

Thanks.                                                                                              

[dj_paige]

Your photos are not stored in Lightroom. Your photos are always stored on one of your hard disks (internal or external) or a network drive.

I have already explained how to do the backup. I said:

Do not change the folder structure or file/folder names, just copy the whole folder hierarchy intact to a different disk. Ideally, this should be done using some automated software at some regular interval (daily, weekly, etc. it's up to you), but if you don't have such software today, you can do it manually using your operating system right now.

You must additionally make regular backups of your catalog file, this can be done in Lightroom via the option in Catalog Settings.

[swiftflo3028]

Thanks, I will try again for the backup.

[Just Shoot Me]

You do the copying from the internal where the images are stored to the external using the File manager for your OS. Since you are using a Mac that would be Finder.

You do not use LR do do this.

[Brad_Polt-Jones]

It may help for you to understand that the images you see in Lightroom are not the original images you imported. Lightroom creates a JPEG preview of each imported image (or a DNG preview if you are using Smart Previews.)

As the others have explained, your original files are not stored in Lightroom, but are in a folder structure you have choosen during the import process.

[swiftflo3028]

Thanks for all your help, I am now beginning to see the light.

However I have found where the photo's are (pictures>LR) the problem facing me now is that there are 13 photo's missing in the folder but they are showing in LR.

[Just Shoot Me]

swiftflo3028  wrote

Thanks for all your help, I am now beginning to see the light.

However I have found where the photo's are (pictures>LR) the problem facing me now is that there are 13 photo's missing in the folder but they are showing in LR.

That is because you probably deleted those images. Do they have a ? mark or ! mark on them, anywhere?

If they do then you somehow deleted them using the File Manager program for your OS from outside of LR.

If they don't have a ? or ! next to them then Right click on one and select Show In Finder to find out where they are.

[swiftflo3028]

Yes they do have a ! in the top right hand corner of the photo, so I guess that is the end of them as I have deleted then off my CF card.

[Just Shoot Me]

Yes sorry that is correct. To remove them from LR select all of them that have the ! and then Right Click on one of the selected images and Select Remove Photos from the pop up menu. Then Remove From Catalog.

[Just Shoot Me]

The best thing you can do is COPY all your images, including the base folder or folders they are in over to the external drive as a backup of them. You can also COPY the LR catalog file, along with the folder it is in, over to that drive.

Please note that no images are "IN" LR. LR is a Database program that only References your images into the catalog file, A Database File, from where they are stored on your hard drive.

[swiftflo3028]

Thanks to both of you.