kimj110

I have a 2016 MacBook Pro. I use Lightroom Classic and my pictures are currently stored on my hard drive and backed up in iCloud. I am about to move my catalog to a 4 TB external hard drive to free up my laptop hard drive. Since I previously had a house fire that destroyed my computer and backups, I still want to maintain a backup of my catalog in the cloud that will include all my metadata, keywords, folders, etc. Since I pay a monthly subscription to Adobe for my Lightroom and photoshop, and currently pay for 1 TB of storage through Creative Cloud, I spent about 45 minutes in a chat with Adobe to confirm that my entire catalog data would be saved and not just my photos. It appears that only photos would be saved and all processing and folder information would be lost. Please advise me on the best online storage options that would allow me to recreate my Lightroom Catalog in the unlikely event of an external hard drive crash or destruction of my external hard drive.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

I use Carbonite. Saves everything

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Ditto.
I also added additional directories and includes documents and spreadsheets - anything I want backed up.
The initial backup will take a WHILE depending on the amount of information you backup.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Know that your catalog is a distinctly different file than your image files. Backing up your catalog does not back up your image files. They remain where you have stored them (or backed them up). You need to copy your image files to the cloud if you want them backed up there.

One way to do that is to put your images into Collections in Lightroom Classic and click on the synch icon to left of each Collection name. And then ensure (upper left) that you have enabled synching.

Once you have done that you can access your images using Lightroom CC or Mobile. Changes will synch across all platforms. I’m not clear on how such changes also affect your Catalog in Lightroom Classic.

There may be other ways to upload your image files directly to the cloud but I haven’t checked that out.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Backing up your LRCAT file is both fast and easy. Just save the file by whatever backup method you use for your other files.

I use two external hard drives (one off site at my office) and a backup of the latest LRCAT on my Dropbox.

Andy

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

You can save your LR catalog file on a thumb drive! It is not a large file. Hard to figure why Adobe would not want to back up the catalog.

LarryFB Loc: Depends where our RV is parked

I use a 2017 MacBook Pro. I back up my entire hard drive to two different portable hard drives. That way my entire hard drive is backed up, photos, Lightroom catalog, all my apps, all my documents, and anything else I forget to mention. I do this using Time Machine.

A better approach would be to use 3 external, portable hard drives. One for use daily, one for use weekly, and one to use monthly. At least one of those drives would be stored in a safe deposit box or a secure place outside of your home or office.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Be careful what you backup (or don't).
As IDguy said, the catalog is only a LIST of you images for Lightroom.
Saving the catalog will not save your actual images.

ColonelButler Loc: Niagara-on-the-Lake ON Canada

Here is the backup scheme I have implemented for my photo and media collection (80,000+ photos). I have two 4Tb external drives that contain all media that are connected to my iMac. One is the main drive and the other is a duplicate that is incrementally backed up every night using a program called SuperDuper!! Lightroom Classic is set up to store the Lightroom Catalog on the external media drive. This gives a local backup of all of my photos. The media drive (which also contains the Lightroom catalog) is also continually backed up to a cloud service, Backblaze (about $50.year), for unlimited storage. The reason I chose this cloud service is they will provide a copy of your backup on a hard drive should you go through a house burn down scenario. Hopefully never have to use this feature but it would be much easier to deal with than waiting weeks for a restore via the internet.

The iMac's drive is backed up using Time Machine to another external drive which is also backed up to Backblaze.

Another nice feature of this is when I go away for the winter, I can take the two external drives with me and connect them to my MacBook Pro and have my entire photo collection with me.

kimj110

Thank you. This sounds like a very workable solution. I already pay $48 to Apple for their storage, mostly due to the size of my photo catalog, and they won't provide a hard drive for download. I'll definitely research this company.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

I recently switched to iDrive for my online backup. I had been using Mozy for many years. Carbonite bought them and I had bad experience with them in the past. I get 5 terabytes for far less than I was paying. The backups are scheduled and automatic. If you have a large amount to backup, they have a program where you can send your data on a hard drive and they will load it into your account. You can also perform an image backup and other options.

kimj110

is iDrive the same as iCloud drive?

morkie1891

I have used both iDrive and Backblaze. Both will provide a hard drive if you request. I prefer Blackblaze as the UI is easier for me. Both are quality services.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Don't think so.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I use a 8TB internal drive and an 8TB external drive on my home computer. I have backed up all my data again on smaller external drives and store them in my fire resistant gun safe. If I have a fire in the house and my computer is destroyed, I will lose about a years worth of pictures because I don't drag out one of the old drives and do a backup but once a year or so. But the internal drive and external drive are kept current.