Lightroom Catalog Backup
Oct 11, 2018 13:57:31 #
Lightroom currently stores my Catalog on C:\pictures, which according to Scott Kelby is where it belongs so I'm fine with that. What I would like to know is if there is a way within LR to do periodic catalog backups to an external drive. I am uneasy having my catalog and my backup catalog on the same drive.
Oct 11, 2018 14:12:59 #
That is a good question - I'd like to do that also. I have a feeling that it would be a manual operation but I'm curious to see what others have to say. The one thing I do though is a cloud backup with Crash Plan Pro but even that makes me a little nervous.
Curmudgeon wrote:
Lightroom currently stores my Catalog on C:\pictures, which according to Scott Kelby is where it belongs so I'm fine with that. What I would like to know is if there is a way within LR to do periodic catalog backups to an external drive. I am uneasy having my catalog and my backup catalog on the same drive.
Oct 11, 2018 14:15:57 #
No, you need to be doing this yourself or set up automated processing external to LR. You should backup the entire "Lightroom" folder, not just the LRCAT file.
Oct 11, 2018 14:22:19 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
Lightroom currently stores my Catalog on C:\pictures, which according to Scott Kelby is where it belongs so I'm fine with that. What I would like to know is if there is a way within LR to do periodic catalog backups to an external drive. I am uneasy having my catalog and my backup catalog on the same drive.
The LR catalog is one of tens-of-thousands of files that get backed up during my backup regimen. All data on your PC should be backed up to an external destination, more than once.
My backup software backs up all data (accounting, photographic, documentation, scans, etc., etc.) to an external drive. Then, at 5:00 PM every night, that external drive gets backed up to another external drive. On top of this, throughout the day, CrashPlan puts a copy of all that data on a server somewhere in case my house burns or gets blown away. Because of this, I turned off the catalog backup option in LR. No need for it.
The key to having a good backup when you need it is redundancy.
Oct 11, 2018 14:27:49 #
DGStinner
Loc: New Jersey
Lightroom asks when you exit to backup the catalog, unless you've turned this off in the Preferences. When the dialog pops up, you could choose an external drive as the location where it's saved. Make sure to keep the last few backups.
Oct 11, 2018 15:17:14 #
DGStinner wrote:
Lightroom asks when you exit to backup the catalog, unless you've turned this off in the Preferences. When the dialog pops up, you could choose an external drive as the location where it's saved. Make sure to keep the last few backups.
Good observation. I'd never noticed, at exit, you can specify where the back-up is placed. I just tested that it remembers that alternative location the next time you're prompted to back-up on exit.
Oct 11, 2018 15:33:02 #
Oct 11, 2018 19:56:52 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
Lightroom currently stores my Catalog on C:\pictures, which according to Scott Kelby is where it belongs so I'm fine with that. What I would like to know is if there is a way within LR to do periodic catalog backups to an external drive. I am uneasy having my catalog and my backup catalog on the same drive.
Back up to a specified location as set by you on closing, see preferences for how often. With your LR catalog folder in your Pictures folder it should also get backed up to a separate location when you back up your computer.
Oct 11, 2018 23:39:17 #
Oct 12, 2018 06:50:30 #
You can keep it very simple. Let LR do its thing by default but make sure you back up to the cloud automatically and in real time. Forget about some these complicated methods without a sound rationale.
Oct 12, 2018 07:15:32 #
brucewells wrote:
The key to having a good backup when you need it is redundancy.
Definitely! One copy of a backup is not sufficient.
Oct 12, 2018 09:05:47 #
gvarner
Loc: Central Oregon Coast
DGStinner wrote:
Lightroom asks when you exit to backup the catalog, unless you've turned this off in the Preferences. When the dialog pops up, you could choose an external drive as the location where it's saved. Make sure to keep the last few backups.
This is what I do with my Elements catalogue, same process as LR uses. Just tell it where you want the backup to be.
Oct 12, 2018 09:11:14 #
JennT
Loc: South Central PA
All of my LR catalogs are on an external hard drive---autumatically. No images deliberately stored on my computer--
Images and edits are stored on another external along with all sorts of other information--
My computer (Mac HD) has 211TB and shows 2.01 TB free. LR and photoshop pop up almost immediately, all images easy to find tho there are many and the searching takes awhile. For editing I allow 3/4 of the hard drive--
think about it---Should I need another computer it is plug and play---
Images and edits are stored on another external along with all sorts of other information--
My computer (Mac HD) has 211TB and shows 2.01 TB free. LR and photoshop pop up almost immediately, all images easy to find tho there are many and the searching takes awhile. For editing I allow 3/4 of the hard drive--
think about it---Should I need another computer it is plug and play---
Oct 12, 2018 10:22:20 #
DGStinner wrote:
Lightroom asks when you exit to backup the catalog, unless you've turned this off in the Preferences. When the dialog pops up, you could choose an external drive as the location where it's saved. Make sure to keep the last few backups.
Oct 12, 2018 11:39:26 #
Lots of good comments. But how and where are you backing up your actual photos? Lightroom's backup command does not do that.
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