What happens to my LR development adjustments when my computer dies?

[amier63989633]

Firstly I am a photographer and not an I.T. guru.

I have been using LR for many years and have an enormous library of photos that I have imported into LR.

My photos are saved on an external hard drive. My computer and LR see this drive as my "G Drive".

A few weeks ago I needed to buy a new card reader. When I plugged it in and imported photos from an SD into LR, my computer gave the SD card the "G Drive" name and changed my external hard drive to the "L Drive". As I import my photos into LR via the C Drive, it wasn't straight away that I picked up on the change in drive name. When I discovered the problem and couldn't access my photos on LR started researching about what happened. Eventually I fixed the problem, and my computer is back to normal.

This little drama made me worried and I started to wonder what happens to my LR when/if my computer dies?

If I buy a new computer, load LR and plug my external hard drive in, how will I access my development adjustments???? I am very worried.

Can anyone spare me some advice please?

[99jon · Accepted solution]

If you make regular catalog backups (I do this each time I quit Lightroom after editing or skip if I have just been browsing or exporting) you can easily launch it on a new computer. Ensure you backup to a separate location e.g. an external or thumb drive. Even if drive letters change, it is simple to update Folder Locations and point LR to the image files.

[amier63989633]

Ok great! Thanks so much for your advice. I will change the back up location to my external drive where my photos are. I also back this drive up on another drive.

[ManiacJoe]

Your edits are stored in the Lightroom catalog file (*.LrCat). Like all other important files on your computer, you should be making backups for the catalog and your preset files.

LR will create a local backup of the catalog on the schedule of your choice. The default is weekly. Unfortunately, the default location of the catalog backups is the same drive (in a subfolder to) as the main catalog.

If you need to restore a catalog from a backup, or need to install LR on a new computer, you just need to go into the catalog and tell LR what the drive letter is for the external drive. If you use a letter like "L" or higher, Windows will usually not change the letter on you as any removable drives come and go.

[amier63989633]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I have one more question for you. If I need to restore a catalogue from a backup, or need to install LR on a new computer, how do I restore the backed up catalogue? Do I go to library, click import, then search from there?

Many thanks

[ManiacJoe]

Restoring a catalog from a backup is just simply extracting it from the zip file and using it from the LR menu /file/open/

[99jon]

The default location for backups is normally the Pictures folder but you can change this by starting an immediate back up from the LR menu:

Edit >> Catalog Settings (Windows)

Lightroom >> Catalog Settings (Mac OS)

Change the bottom pull-down menu (if necessary) to every time Lightroom quits, then quit Lightroom.

When the backup catalog dialog automatically appears, you can choose a new location before clicking the Backup button. It is recommended that you keep a checkmark in the boxes to test integrity and optimize catalog.

[amier63989633]

Right. Ok yeah I see what you mean. I have changed this to back up each time I exit LR and have changed the back up location to my external drive. Wow thank you so much for your help, sharing your knowledge and for replying to me twice. I think my photos will be safe now. Fantastic advice!! Thank you!!

[JP Hess]

Just remember that the catalog backup does not make your images safe. You need to make sure you have your own process in place to back up the images as well. Your images are NOT in the catalog.