When I read your post it sounded like me writing it. For several years I have been doing almost exactly as you do. I have two homes and do a lot of foreign travel. I use one catalog that resides on a 4TB Samsung T7. My previews and cache also reside on that drive. I currently have two years of images on that drive. I have a second 4TB Samsung T7 that is for backing up which I do using Goodsync. I travel with a MacBook Pro to my second home and while traveling. At my primary residence I have a Mac Studio. When switching from one machine to the other all I need to do is plug in the main 4TB T7. It is best to open the catalog from within it rather than from the Lightroom icon on your desktop. That way you always know you are opening the correct catalog.

When I shut down Lightroom I back-up the catalog to whichever machine I am on.
I also have two 14TB drives for my other images, one of which I keep in my primary residence and the other in my second residence.

In addition I use Smugmug to cloud store images I have rated 3 and above in Lightroom.

This system works seamlessly and I do not detect any slowdown from keeping the catalog and images on the external drive.

Nothing was ever said about deleting the RAW file.

I did not say anything about discarding the original Raw file. I specifically did say that I had multiple backup copies.
What I did ask, was, why also store them in the cloud?

When your camera converts the Raw image it actually took to the jpeg (what you actually see) it uses algorythms to do so and they tend to remove the extremes of the capture. In many cases the software you use in editing your photos can find some usable info in the parts that would have be cut out.

I use LRC only. I have a solid backup system on external hard drives in two locations. I use Goodsync to assure that my working drive and b/u drives are identical. I also use SmugMug to display and share galleries, host my web site, and store JPEG versions (unlimited storage) of my images that are meaningful to me.

Now, SmugMug offers a separate subscription service called “Source”, a platform that cloud stores your Raw images.

My question is, if you have edited your Raw images and extracted from them the info they contain that jpeg’s would not, what benefit would there be to also store the Raw’s in the cloud at additional expense in both $ and time (slow uploads)?

A good synopsis indeed. She confirmed my doubts and added several new ones. I really like the interface and concept of no catalog but it is too short on features I use regularly. Thanks for the referral.

I double checked and you seem to be correct. It did come up with images that matched my keyword but the images were NOT keyworded. That means that AI is doing it's job but keywords are NOT being searched.

You can invoke plug-ins by edit-in photoshop and then filters. It’s an extra step but does work.

I found a very small search symbol all the way to the right of Browse. It opens a dialog box that will allow searching by keyword and it even seems to use AI to find images that are not keyworded. I did not yet try other metadata searches. I am trying to find a way to use it but it still leaves some gaps like collections and printing. I know I can print from Photoshop and use outside editors from there but it is another step in my workflow.

Thanks for your quick responses. I am looking hard for a good reason to switch over since I understand the catalog but am frequently annoyed by it. Especially trying to consolidate and clean up folders within folders. What I would miss the most would be collections and search capabilities. Since none of you answered re a comparable way to search, I guess I am correct that it cannot do what I want it to.

For the time being I will stay with Classic and suffer the catalog.

Lightroom, as opposed to Lightroom Classic, now has a "Local" option that allows you to browse through your local drives rather than have everything go up to the Cloud. Lightroom is included as part of your monthly Adobe subscription. It is a non-destructive workflow, as Classic, but does not use the Catalog. It seems like the answer to the prayers of those who hate the Lightroom Catalog.

My question is, when searching from it, it seems as if you have to know exactly what folder your old photos are in. It is supposed to recognize keywords and other search parameters but for me it only does so within what you point it to. Can anyone explain how you can do complete searches if you do not know what folder your image is in?

I’m running the setup I described earlier on a Mac Studio. Yes, my images are also on the SSID which is a Samsung 2TB T7. This setup is simple and works flawlessly. When I do a catalog backup I do it on the Internal hard drive. I keep a copy of the Samsung T7 on a 2nd T7 which I copy to using Goodsync.

I have a similar situation and use both a laptop and desktop regularly. I keep my entire Lightroom catalog and cache on an external SSHD. That way once you have moved your catalog to the ext. HD, you never have to think about it again. Just connect the drive to either device, or any other device that contains LR and you are set to go.

For Mac only users take a look at Pixelmator Pro. It can be as easy as you would like it to be but can do most anything. You can do a one button “machine learning” correction or specific edits. The item removing and cloning tools are especially good.It is not free but not expensive.

I understand I need unzip software. I was asking which I should choose.