Photos In pictures folder on imac and catalog

[justint95335778]

I recently noticed the imac was running slow. I had little less than 10 GB left on a 1TB HD. I noticed 90% of the storage taken up was in the pictures folder. When I did some digging there were folders by year. Opening the folders I noticed they were images that were in Lightroom. I thought I was copying them into Lightroom catalog, not the pictures folder. It seems like LR if finding them there

[Rob_Cullen]

You have a severe mis-understanding of how Lightroom works.

Your photos are never IN Lightroom.

Your photos are stored in a folder on your hard drive (of your choosing). The default would be the {Pictures} folder.

Lightroom only ever makes an index of your photo files, and that is the Catalog. The Catalog only contains Previews of your photos, NOT the physical photo files.

When you import photos from a camera card, Lightroom does two things- 1) copies them to your hard-drive (Pictures folder?), and  2) Makes a reference preview in the catalog.

If you are running short of drive storage I suggest you investigate an external drive to store your photos.

But before you do, read some good info-

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/where-store-your-photos/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss...

And while you are there, request a copy of the free ebook Lightroom Classic-CC Quick Start Guide.