bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

Is there a way to change where the catalog is stored on my hard drive? TIA.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Just move it to where desired, with the LR software closed. Double-click the LRCAT file and LR will launch with that LRCAT file as the current catalog at that new position. It will remember that file and position going forward.

But, ask yourself, why do you want it someplace else? Does your back-up approach create back-ups of your files with the catalog located in this new position? I don't mean the LR 'backup' processing when the software closes, rather I mean your processing where you make back-up copies of your image files, important documents, software install files, and the entire folder that contains your LRCAT.

While LR is closed and you're making a copy of the LRCAT to 'move' to a new location, consider too renaming the LRCAT file to include identification of this new 'master' version, say with MAY2022 or something unique / identifying in the name to clearly identify this file version.

sandiegosteve Loc: San Diego, CA

Yes. For me, I close LR. Move the lrcat file then double click the file top open it with LR then it will open it in that location.

I like the setting to store the settings with catalog which creates a preferences folder you would also want to move.

The other files are cache that will be recreated.

bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

I want to move it as my HD is getting filled up so I want to move it to an external HD.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Consider a closer look at your other options beyond moving the LRCAT. The 'ideal' configuration is your LRCAT resides on your local / fasted drive where the USB port is not a limiting factor / bottleneck to LR's internal operations.

If running out of space, the likely cause(s) are not the LRCAT, rather the actual image files and other software. Placing your images onto the connected HD is the more effective overall corrective action, leaving behind the LRCAT.

Look too at your use of the LR 'back-up'. How often do you run this processing? How often do you manually purge these resulting back-up files? There is no automated process to purge the back-ups. As well, you really only need to perform this LRCAT 'back-up' maintenance on a weekly basis. Then, remember every month or so to manually delete all but the most recent date-stamp back-up within the \backup subfolder.

Look too at your 1:1 previews. During that LRCAT 'back-up', have LR purge the 1:1 previews at a month's age. All these actions help to minimize the already low storage requirement of the LRCAT and all the previews stored with the catalog.

bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

Thanks. My backups are going to another drive. How do I have LR purge the 1:1 previews at a month's age?
Thanks again

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

See your edit / catalog settings / file handling. Even though I just said a month, when I open mine to navigate to the panel, I find mine are being deleted after 1 week. That explains something I thought I noticed recently, but couldn't explain on why I seemed to need to build mine during extended editing / multi-week culling.

This is an aside, but if interested, I import and create just minimal previews via the import. I have a lot of develop presets that I apply to my images after import, then I manually run a 1:1 preview in batch, based on the application of thrse presets, sometimes too even some synced editing of a few images. If I need to do some detailed pixel-level compares and culling, I start that only after the 1:1 previews are built.

bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

Thanks

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

When you move the .lrcat (catalog) file to a new location also move the preview files, a folder .lrdata with it. This folder contains all of the previews you see in the Library module. They must be in the same folder as the catalog. If it is lost LrC will rebuild them when it needs them but this can take along time. In my case they are in all in a folder names with under the catalog “name” which is where I put mine when I create a catalog. I don’t remember what LrC does by default since it has been ten years since the first time I fired up LrC. I would move the entire folder to a new location. BTW the .lrdata folder contain a bazillion small files and copying or moveing all those can take a while regardless of how fast your storage drives are.

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

If most of your LRC post processing takes place where you have consistent internet access, consider moving the LRC catalogue to a reliable cloud storage app such as Dropbox. Scott Kelby recommended this several years ago and I followed his advice and have been very happy. As long as you have internet access, it is always available and memory is not an issue.