Lightroom Catalogs and going on the road: I currently use Lightroom CC. I use the following configuration at home. Lightroom runs on my laptop but to save space my catalogs and images...

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

I currently use Lightroom CC. I use the following configuration at home. Lightroom runs on my laptop but to save space my catalogs and images are all stored on an external hard drive backed up on a second external and blaze cloud. The problem with this set up is when I go on the road and edit anything I use a catalog on my laptop which is not the same as my main catalog. The other problem I am having is I can not create smart previews to take on the road and work on my laptop when I am not connected to my hard drive. So the question first is to use smart previews does my main catalog need to reside on my laptop? Is it a better practice to keep the catalog on my laptop?

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

All the major Lightroom "leaders" from Laura Shoe and Julieanne Kost to Victoria Brampton and Tim Grey have detailed instructions on traveling with a light laptop and then transferring to a primary computer at home. It usually involves "Import from another catalog.."

In your case, it seems logical that you would carry your external drive on the road. Compared to cameras, lenses and a laptop, an external drive is a small addition to the kit.

If you must have smart previews of your entire library and don't want to carry an external drive , you will have to learn a procedure that puts you catalog (with previews) on you laptop.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

I do exactly what you do, but my main hard disk is small enough to fit easily in my laptop backpack. Perhaps pick up one like that and put your photos on it, then sync to your current main drive when you come home. LaCie makes a good, tiny drive (it's what I use) and you can pick up at least a 2TB drive for barely $100.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

I am sorry I should have clarified this. My main external hard drive is a 5 tb "powered drive" not easy or convenient to carry. I back that up with 1 Tb passport and cloud. I do carry a 1 tb with me however it is not where my catalog resides. It resides on the 5 tb

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

bsprague wrote:

All the major Lightroom "leaders" from L... (show quote)

It would seem logical only if the external hard drive were portable. It is not it is a 5 tb powered drive I should have clarified this in my original post I do carry an external drive with me a 1 tb passport. However that is not where my main catalog resides. It is on the 5 tb which is neither convienent or easy to carry.
So maybe the answer for me as you say is transferring or moving images from the catalog on my laptop to the hd where the main catalog resides?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Just be careful with LaCie and WD Passport, or any "packaged" drive solutions. These can and often do fail. I have had much better results buying an enterprise or datacenter quality drive and putting it into a $30 enclosure.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

Jaackil wrote:

It would seem logical only if the external hard drive were portable. It is not it is a 5 tb powered drive I should have clarified this in my original post I do carry an external drive with me a 1 tb passport. However that is not where my main catalog resides. It is on the 5 tb which is neither convienent or easy to carry.
So maybe the answer for me as you say is transferring or moving images from the catalog on my laptop to the hd where the main catalog resides?

In my limited understanding of Lightroom, that's the answer. Definitely wait for confirmation from someone with more experience.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Jaackil wrote:

It would seem logical only if the external hard drive were portable. It is not it is a 5 tb powered drive I should have clarified this in my original post I do carry an external drive with me a 1 tb passport. However that is not where my main catalog resides. It is on the 5 tb which is neither convienent or easy to carry.
So maybe the answer for me as you say is transferring or moving images from the catalog on my laptop to the hd where the main catalog resides?

"So maybe the answer for me as you say is transferring or moving images from the catalog on my laptop to the hd where the main catalog resides?"

Not quite. There is an easier way to do that.

Assuming (1) there is space on your laptop (2) it is your primary computer and (3) you use a single master catalog, I would move that catalog to the laptop. It will run faster and it can keep track of your photos both on your computer and your 5TB drive. Lightroom has no trouble keeping track of images on multiple drives. When you return from a trip, you can move the image files from your laptop drive to your 5TB drive from within Lightroom with simple drags and drops.

If you use multiple computers, use multiple catalogs or your laptop is short on space, this won't work.

Jaackil Loc: Massachusetts

Gene51 wrote:

Just be careful with LaCie and WD Passport, or any "packaged" drive solutions. These can and often do fail. I have had much better results buying an enterprise or datacenter quality drive and putting it into a $30 enclosure.

Those drives fail too. Any drive can fail just as your camera's cards do as can your shutter curtain you cameras sensor etc. Seriously who wants to carry around a "data center" quality drive! It is not the drives that are an isssue as much as back up protocol and procedure. Proper back ups will mitigate any drive failure. I have had drives fail and never lost a single bit (pun intended) of data. Redundancy is the key.

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

Jaackil wrote:

Those drives fail too. Any drive can fail just as your camera's cards do as can your shutter curtain you cameras sensor etc. Seriously who wants to carry around a "data center" quality drive! It is not the drives that are an isssue as much as back up protocol and procedure. Proper back ups will mitigate any drive failure. I have had drives fail and never lost a single bit (pun intended) of data. Redundancy is the key.

...and at least 2 physical locations. I dont sleep until the files are backed up to a drive from the SD/CF cards and then replicated to a backup drive...then I sleep....but will then xfer to cloudstorage fairly soon after that.....THEN I erase the memory cards.....

And every year, I buy a 1T drive and backup the last years photos and vid and drop it off at my relatives house when I go back to the east coast so I only keep 1T of storage on the cloud (Dropbox).

A little OCD perhaps but thats me....lost all my family Ski pictures to Big White in BC as a result of bad backup methods (long story....lost sectors on the maindrive and the auto-SW began erasing files from my secondary drive thinking I had erased the files on the main drive....bad rules setting on my part)
...now I backup manually (copy paste skip).

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

bsprague wrote:

All the major Lightroom "leaders" from Laura Shoe and Julieanne Kost to Victoria Brampton and Tim Grey have detailed instructions on traveling with a light laptop and then transferring to a primary computer at home. It usually involves "Import from another catalog.."

Their method is what I do I create a new traveling catalog for every trip