Move Lightroom Classic CC library and catalogue to external HD?

[scott@lithicimages]

Hello All,

I have been reading for a while now and I still can't find the best way to setup and brand new MBP with Lightroom Classic CC. I have been running Aperture on my old MBP. It had dual internal HDD's, and multiple external drives handling the storage. The new machine I bought has the 512 GB internal SSD,  and my plan is to keep storage on the internal drive to an absolute minimum. So here are my questions.

1. Is it wise to keep both the library and catalogue on an external drive?
   1. if so, what are the concerns here? Aside from needing the drive plugged in to work on anything.
   2. Does the library hold the smart previews and all edits of a catalogue? Is that why it's so big already?
2. I have imported two sets of images already. I think I already screwed up and am seeing almost 30 GB on the internal HD. I attempted to setup the catalogue on the external drive, which seems to be working but if I double click on the new .lrcat it says
3. I have attached my smug mug account to LR and it has been "Syncing Hierarchy and Media" for over a day now. Seems a little excessive. I haven't shut down LR as I'm sure that would screw something up. Should it take this long?

Now is my chance to do this right, before I start importing my images from the old aperture library.

Thank you for all your help!

This is how I set up my external drive and catalogue structure. Please ignore the clutter in the top menu, this will all be transferred to a new thunderbolt drive when I buy it.

Here is what my catalogue looks like in LR.

[dj_paige]

scott@lithicimages  wrote

my plan is to keep storage on the internal drive to an absolute minimum.

Unless you are traveling without the external disks, don't bother putting photos on the internal drive, there is no benefit.

Is it wise to keep both the library and catalogue on an external drive?

1. if so, what are the concerns here? Aside from needing the drive plugged in to work on anything.
2. Does the library hold the smart previews and all edits of a catalogue? Is that why it's so big already?

The usual advice is to put the photos on an external drive and the catalog file on the internal if you have enough space, there are speed benefits from this. Yes, edits are stored in the catalog file. Technically, smart previews are NOT part of the catalog file itself, so Smart Previews cannot make the catalog file bigger, although they do take up space on your hard disk. So when you say "Is that why it's so big already?", we don't really know how big it is, and we don't know what you are referring to via the word "library". And let's not use the word "library" anyway, let's talk about the catalog file (if indeed that is what you are talking about) and let's talk about the photos, and let's talk about previews and smart previews, and not talk about "library" which is meaningless in the context of Lightroom..

I have imported two sets of images already. I think I already screwed up and am seeing almost 30 GB on the internal HD. I attempted to setup the catalogue on the external drive, which seems to be working but if I double click on the new .lrcat it says

That could be the photos on the internal HD. But you have to investigate what is taking that space, we have no way of knowing. From your screen captures, it does appear that the photos and catalog are on the external (assuming LaCie is the external drive).

[scott@lithicimages]

This is what I see on my internal HD when I track through the Lightroom Library. I use the word Library since that's what it's called in the filing nomenclature. Library and catalogue must be different since there is both a library and a catalogue, no? I don't care about library if it's not where photos are stored I'm just trying to keep my internal drive as clean as possible.

It looks to me like I mistakenly added some of the initial photos to the internal library. I can delete these photos out of here no problem. That should clean up the majority of the 28.93 GB I see there.

Any other recommendations?

Cheers

[ManiacJoe]

Moving the catalog and the images files to an external drive is simple.

After exiting LR, using Mac Finder:

- On the external drive, create a folder to hold your catalog and supporting files, say "Lr_catalogs"

- Copy folder containing the *.LrCat file and the *.LrData folders to the new folder on the external drive.

- Copy the folder tree that contains your images to the new drive.

In LR, open the catalog on the external drive.

In the Library module, Folders panel, right-click on the top-most folder, select "relocate", navigate to the external drive location. Repeat as needed.

Verify that the system is working with the files on the external drive.

If you are happy, delete the originals from the internal drive.

[scott@lithicimages]

Thank you very much dj_paige and ManiacJoe! Deleting the .lock file worked perfectly. Now I have the image files on the external hard drive, and Lightroom is referencing the catalogue on the external drive. I deleted the image files off the internal drive but am still seeing about 10 GB in the Lightroom folder "Lightroom Catalogue Previews.lrdata.". Can I delete this file? I checked on the external hard drive and it has the same file in the catalogue folder, albeit smaller in size.

[dj_paige]

Yes you can delete the previews from the Internal drive.

[scott@lithicimages]

Thanks. Ok, last question hopefully. I've never used LR before a couple days back, I was always an Aperture user, so I am learning things as I go about the system.  In your opinion is it wise to have the catalogue on an external drive? I was just watching some Terry White videos and it seemed like he kept the catalogue on his hard drive, but the majority of the images were located on an external HD.

Correct me if I am wrong. If I had the library and catalogue files all on the laptop in the internal HD then all smart previews, edits, etc would be saved to my internal HD, even if I keep the images on an external HD. But I'd see my internal HD space be used by the smart previews and edits. So I thought the best way to set LR up would be to have everything on the external HD to avoid filling up the internal HD. The drawback to this I assume is that if I do not have the external HD attached, I won't be able to edit anything, no smart previews since they'd be on the external HD correct?

I guess what I am contemplating  is should I/do I need to leave the smart previews on the laptop so I can edit when I am not attached to the external HD? How quick will that fill up a 512 GB internal HD? I work with multiple TB's of images and would have liked to rebuild the catalogue on my new machine but that may just eat up space unnecessarily.

Opinions? Once again, thank you very much for your time and insight!

[dj_paige]

Thanks. Ok, last question hopefully. I've never used LR before a couple days back

No, don't stop asking questions if you are a beginner.

In your opinion is it wise to have the catalogue on an external drive?

Depending on the speed of the external drive and speed of the connection, you may notice the catalog operates slower (or not). If you have the space on the internal drive (and you don't intend the catalog file to be portable to other computers by putting it on an external drive), then the catalog file itself should go on the internal drive.

Yes, you are correct, without smart previews, when the external HD with the photos is disconnected then you can't edit the photos. How quick will that fill up your internal HD? I don't know, you can probably do a few experiments and get a decent answer.

[scott@lithicimages]

New problem. Now I try to start up with the external drive catalogue and I get this warning.

I go to choose a different catalogue and have no choice but to select the file that exists on my internal HD. If I try to select the one on my external HD is just loops to the above warning. Ideas?

[ManiacJoe]

Using Finder, in the folder that contains your LrCat file, there may be a *.Lock file with the same name as the LrCat file.

If there is a Lock file, delete the Lock file but no other.

The Lock file is part of the single-user enforcement of the SQLite database.