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Moving Lightroom Question
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Sep 29, 2022 12:39:12   #
jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana
 
I am contemplating moving my Lightroom program (v6, and I am not interested in moving to a subscription) and all my photos to a new external drive. I have an iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6 (I cannot upgrade my machine to a higher system version).

Two questions: 1: how much trouble might I get get myself into with such a move, and 2: what size and speed hard drive should I consider?

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Sep 29, 2022 12:59:44   #
Rongnongno Loc: FL
 
go to the Folders panel in the Library module. Go to the files or folders you wish to move, then drag and drop them to the new location.

Simple search with Google (Your friend that even offers videos to show how...).

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Sep 29, 2022 14:11:14   #
alvin3232 Loc: Houston, TX
 
Hello
As far as drives go, consider SSD.
Inland Professional 1TB SSD 3D NAND SATA 3.0 6 GBps 2.5 Inch 7mm Internal Solid State Drive $74.99
https://www.microcenter.com/product/508183/inland-professional-1tb-ssd-3d-nand-sata-30-6-gbps-25-inch-7mm-internal-solid-state-drive

Al

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Sep 29, 2022 14:21:35   #
CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City
 
jaymatt wrote:
I am contemplating moving my Lightroom program (v6, and I am not interested in moving to a subscription) and all my photos to a new external drive. I have an iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6 (I cannot upgrade my machine to a higher system version).

Two questions: 1: how much trouble might I get get myself into with such a move, and 2: what size and speed hard drive should I consider?


You've given us 'what' you want to do, but not 'why'?

You said the 'program', is that what you really mean? The software executables don't get bigger, mostly because you can't make updates to the software.

Your original image files, the LR previews, and the LR catalog do get bigger, especially when you don't proactively purge (delete) old catalog back-ups that Adobe prompts you to make, but provides no automated method to prune. These are the types of details I'd like to understand behind your thinking of 'why' you even want to mess around with this idea.

Although you can move the image files inside LR, it's much more efficient to do this outside LR and just update the catalog afterward. I keep all my images on a USB Western Digital (WD) connected 4TB drive. The LRCAT remains local to the computer's disk, but this can be on the USB-drive too. You just copy the files onto the connected drive and then tell LR that's where they are. Once you're satisfied, you can delete the originals still on the computer.

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Sep 29, 2022 16:20:35   #
13 Loc: I am only responsible to what I say..not what
 
CHG_CANON wrote:
You've given us 'what' you want to do, but not 'why'?

You said the 'program', is that what you really mean? The software executables don't get bigger, mostly because you can't make updates to the software.

Your original image files, the LR previews, and the LR catalog do get bigger, especially when you don't proactively purge (delete) old catalog back-ups that Adobe prompts you to make, but provides no automated method to prune. These are the types of details I'd like to understand behind your thinking of 'why' you even want to mess around with this idea.

Although you can move the image files inside LR, it's much more efficient to do this outside LR and just update the catalog afterward. I keep all my images on a USB Western Digital (WD) connected 4TB drive. The LRCAT remains local to the computer's disk, but this can be on the USB-drive too. You just copy the files onto the connected drive and then tell LR that's where they are. Once you're satisfied, you can delete the originals still on the computer.
You've given us 'what' you want to do, but not 'wh... (show quote)


Amen ë¿ë

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Sep 29, 2022 20:13:36   #
DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA
 
jaymatt wrote:
...2: what size and speed hard drive should I consider?


I assume you mean for your images. The size of the program will not change.
There is not enough information to answer that question, and you probably don't have a handle on the information anyway.

How many years have you been amassing digital images and how many more years do you expect to continue doing so?
What is the rate at which the number and size of your image files will increase?
Does your keeper rate increase or decrease with time? (More experience -> better photos -> more keepers, more burst shots -> fewer keepers as a fraction of the total).
How often do you plan to upgrade your storage?

If you're young, you have a lot of images ahead of you. If you want a 10 year interval between storage upgrades and if you plan to upgrade your camera body at some time during that interval (newer bodies -> larger files), you probably want to have an increase of 3-5 times your current storage requirements. (Hand-waving estimate).

For the image files, I don't believe there is much advantage to using SSD over a spinner. The data are loaded into the editing program at the beginning of the editing and maybe written to another file at the end of the editing. The editing is what will take the time, not the data transfer. The program is being used throughout the editing, so the program will benefit from an SSD.

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Sep 30, 2022 07:37:13   #
Alan361
 
CHG_CANON wrote:
You've given us 'what' you want to do, but not 'why'?

You said the 'program', is that what you really mean? The software executables don't get bigger, mostly because you can't make updates to the software.

Your original image files, the LR previews, and the LR catalog do get bigger, especially when you don't proactively purge (delete) old catalog back-ups that Adobe prompts you to make, but provides no automated method to prune. These are the types of details I'd like to understand behind your thinking of 'why' you even want to mess around with this idea.

Although you can move the image files inside LR, it's much more efficient to do this outside LR and just update the catalog afterward. I keep all my images on a USB Western Digital (WD) connected 4TB drive. The LRCAT remains local to the computer's disk, but this can be on the USB-drive too. You just copy the files onto the connected drive and then tell LR that's where they are. Once you're satisfied, you can delete the originals still on the computer.
You've given us 'what' you want to do, but not 'wh... (show quote)


What happens to sidecar files (edits associated for the images) if you only copy the image files? I don't want to loose my work.

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Sep 30, 2022 07:40:49   #
tcthome Loc: NJ
 
CHG_CANON wrote:
You've given us 'what' you want to do, but not 'why'?

You said the 'program', is that what you really mean? The software executables don't get bigger, mostly because you can't make updates to the software.

Your original image files, the LR previews, and the LR catalog do get bigger, especially when you don't proactively purge (delete) old catalog back-ups that Adobe prompts you to make, but provides no automated method to prune. These are the types of details I'd like to understand behind your thinking of 'why' you even want to mess around with this idea.

Although you can move the image files inside LR, it's much more efficient to do this outside LR and just update the catalog afterward. I keep all my images on a USB Western Digital (WD) connected 4TB drive. The LRCAT remains local to the computer's disk, but this can be on the USB-drive too. You just copy the files onto the connected drive and then tell LR that's where they are. Once you're satisfied, you can delete the originals still on the computer.
You've given us 'what' you want to do, but not 'wh... (show quote)


If taking this approach. Before deleting any of your original photos, after moving them, confirm & make sure all, (& I mean all) of your photos are there & make a back up & make sure they are all good. Then you can proceed to delete the original location files. Good luck.

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Sep 30, 2022 07:57:37   #
davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel
 
jaymatt wrote:
I am contemplating moving my Lightroom program (v6, and I am not interested in moving to a subscription) and all my photos to a new external drive. I have an iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6 (I cannot upgrade my machine to a higher system version).

Two questions: 1: how much trouble might I get get myself into with such a move, and 2: what size and speed hard drive should I consider?


When I asked the folks @ Apple a similar question they responded and advised me to load the program on the computer's hard drive and put the photos on the external. They were adamantly against programs on external drives. I, like you was out of up-gradable options. I sold the IMac and replaced it with an M-1 chipped machine and went subscription. As far as an external hard-drive 8 TBs are very reasonably priced, get two and keep one as an isolated back-up. What you are doing will limit your over-all ability to process. V. 6 lacks too many new features to continue using. You will restrict your creativity severely.

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Sep 30, 2022 08:10:41   #
jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana
 
davidrb wrote:
When I asked the folks @ Apple a similar question they responded and advised me to load the program on the computer's hard drive and put the photos on the external. They were adamantly against programs on external drives. I, like you was out of up-gradable options. I sold the IMac and replaced it with an M-1 chipped machine and went subscription. As far as an external hard-drive 8 TBs are very reasonably priced, get two and keep one as an isolated back-up. What you are doing will limit your over-all ability to process. V. 6 lacks too many new features to continue using. You will restrict your creativity severely.
When I asked the folks @ Apple a similar question ... (show quote)


Thanks. That’s the kind of answer I was looking for (except for the subscription suggestion--not going there yet).

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Sep 30, 2022 08:57:29   #
CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City
 
Alan361 wrote:
What happens to sidecar files (edits associated for the images) if you only copy the image files? I don't want to loose my work.


If you use sidecars, you'd copy those files along with the images. These copies would (should) be done at the folder-level, not individual files, so the sidecar XMPs would come along automatically. The sidecars contain edit-instructions and metadata, but not a 'path' to the image as they have to sit in the same folder. So, moving them around in / from the same folder as the image has no negative impact.

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Sep 30, 2022 09:50:01   #
Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana
 
davidrb wrote:
They were adamantly against programs on external drives.


They certainly are. I just had a similar conversation with an Apple advisor. It was not photography related, but I did want to put some programs on an external drive and they told me very clearly not to do it. Leave them in the Applications folder!

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Sep 30, 2022 10:04:52   #
jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana
 
Rab-Eye wrote:
They certainly are. I just had a similar conversation with an Apple advisor. It was not photography related, but I did want to put some programs on an external drive and they told me very clearly not to do it. Leave them in the Applications folder!


That sounds like the advice I needed. Thanks to you also.

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Sep 30, 2022 10:18:51   #
BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA
 
jaymatt wrote:
I am contemplating moving my Lightroom program (v6, and I am not interested in moving to a subscription) and all my photos to a new external drive. I have an iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6 (I cannot upgrade my machine to a higher system version).

Two questions: 1: how much trouble might I get get myself into with such a move, and 2: what size and speed hard drive should I consider?


Whoa there. The application itself is best left on the boot drive. Presuming you have all your LR 6 images in one folder system you can just drag that folder to a new external drive. Then when you open LR 6 you can File->Open Catalog to navigate to the new location. This new location should be sticky. Once you have checked to see that all is working correctly, you can go back to your internal drive and delete the original catalog.

As to sizer of the hard drive/SSD: How much storage do you currently use? Double it at a minimum. Maybe triple depending on your rate of increase. A RAID array also adds some level of safety in case of HD failure. Also you will find that an SSD drive is far faster than a spinning disk.

As for upgrading the iMac check [url=https://eshop.macsales.com/configure-my-mac/imac]Mac Sales (aka Other World Computing)[url] for their line=up of used iMacs. They do have some recent model iMacs listed a very reasonable prices. Be sure to get at least 40-64 GB RAM if available.

Just my thoughts.

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Sep 30, 2022 11:19:22   #
tennis2618
 
I just upgraded from a vintage 2013 computer which couldn't be upgraded to the macStudio. I had the Apple store make the transfer and most everything came over with no problem. However I am a big user of the Apple Cloud as I have two homes, each with their own desktop and a few other devices--and I did not have the LR instructions stored in the Cloud. But I did have a backup in Dropbox and another in on of my photo hard drives so I was able to correct things. I learned how important back up is--either cloud, another drive or a third party system (in my case I use all three). The most recent instructions are what is most important for LR

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