How To Archive in laymen's terms!

[paulb15933341]

Hi

I would like to tidy up a organise my Lightroom pictures. ideally I would like to keep currant projects on my internal drive and all old projects - original RAW files and edits, on external storage. Could someone please explain in easy to understand terms how I can safely achieve this.

Many Thanks in advance.

[dj_paige]

paulb15933341  wrote

Hi

I would like to tidy up a organise my Lightroom pictures. ideally I would like to keep currant projects on my internal drive and all old projects - original RAW files and edits, on external storage. Could someone please explain in easy to understand terms how I can safely achieve this.

The simple answer: don't do this. How simple is that?

In general, there is no need to store current projects on one disk and older projects another disk. You are making extra work for yourself, that has no benefit. Put all of your photos on one drive, and you eliminate the potential step of "archiving".

Now, what should you do if you already have photos on the internal disk and you are running out of space? You use your operating system to copy (not move) all of your photos (not some of the photos) to the external drive and then re-link in Lightroom and once all of that is working you can delete the copies on the internal drive. The full instructions are here (scroll down to the section entitled "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location"): Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

Also, I add just to avoid confusion: you use the work "archive", which is relatively in the context of Lightroom, but it is not the same as making a backup. Archiving is not making a backup. You need to have backups (exact duplicates) of ALL of your photos and your catalog file on a different physical disk than the originals.

[Just Shoot Me]

The best way, but not always perfect, is to create a folder on the external drive and move the images from the folder they are in to that folder on the external from INSIDE LR.

That way LR never loses track of them.

To do that click the Plus sign to the right of the word Folders in  the left hand area and select Add Folder. Browse to the External, click New folder, type in a name then OK (or whatever), Then Select either all the images you want to move, or the Folder they are already in (If you are using separate folders for dates or project) and Drag it to the new folder on the external drive.

You can also do it outside of LR but then you have to Reconnect them as they will show as Missing in LR.

Problem doing it Inside LR is sometimes LR gets confused and your images go missing, into electronic Hell, gone forever.

So ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP OF ALL YOUR IMAGES.

[dj_paige]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Just+Shoot+Me  wrote

The best way, but not always perfect, is to create a folder on the external drive and move the images from the folder they are in to that folder on the external from INSIDE LR.

...

Problem doing it Inside LR is sometimes LR gets confused and your images go missing, into electronic Hell, gone forever.

this is a serious problem, people keep reporting bugs when moving photos from one drive to another within Lightroom. That is why I recommend you copy (not move) the photos in your operating system and then reconnect in Lightroom and then delete the originals. It is a much safer (and apparently bug free) method.