P: Allow Catalog to be stored on a networked drive.

The scripted solution may or may not be useable for your situation.

I doubt I'll be robustening it enough for prime time (any time soon), since I presently have no need for it, but if you like to dabble in Python - you could do it yourself.

Given kada jawi's experience:

"I have had a few corrupted catalogs due to having the thing on a network drive. It works... most of the time, in snail mode. But it can go wrong. Terribly wrong. Are you sure you want that?"

I don't think I'd risk using it directly on the network. Plus, as John Ellis pointed out, its not just the network communication speed but the incessant overhead for constant random accesses that may be the network performance killer.

Note: A small catalog can be transferred over a fast net within a few seconds.

Also, if the catalog is the only file you need (that would NOT be the case for me, but may be for you), and if you can keep things straight without a script, then you can set Lightroom to backup the catalog to the net and fore-go the script. PS - The script requires you to exit Lightroom before the catalog can be copied (as does a Lightroom catalog backup) - this may be the deal breaker (?)

PS - The script can be modified to auto-start Lightroom after releasing a catalog, which may help in your situation.

I would love if Adobe would permit the catalog to be temporarily unlocked for reading, so a plugin could do SQL queries, or catalog backup... - doubt it will happen though. Maybe even the ability to simply close a catalog without exiting - again, don't hold your breath...

Merry ho-ho,
Rob

Thanks- I'll take a look at your script.
I don't think the network performance is too big of an issue for our situation.
We have a wired Gigabit network, no wireless, so that helps.

We are a portrait studio, and use a separate catalog for each client/session.
This helps keep the catalogs small.

We do the ingestation of photos into lightroom on the server.

We typically export a lower resolution image for proofing. They are good up to an 8x10 print.

What we really like network access for the following tasks.
--Image selection/rating (picking of favorites), while another client is being imported into lightroom at the server.
--If a client orders a larger print it would be nice to be able to export it from the retouching workstation and not have to go back to the server.

This might work for you: http://www.robcole.com/Rob/ProductsAn...

(copies shared catalog from net to local host, if free (and reserves it for exclusive access)... when done for now, copies it back and frees it so others can use...).

Good for infrequent hand-offs, and/or small catalogs.

There is another option I can think of for keeping a shared catalog on the network, but you're not going to like it:

- A home-brewed lock-file kept on the network alongside the catalog, and use a batch file to startup Lightroom, which:

Checks if this machine has the rights to the catalog, and if so - proceeds to do the normal Lightroom startup (if local copy of catalog is stale, then copy catalog from network first).

If this machine does not have the rights to it, then startup is denied (or at least discouraged...).

When Lightroom exits, the batch file that started it relinquishes the rights to the catalog, and copies it back to the network.

There are some variations of this theme that may be better suited for different situations, but the idea is: copy catalog from network before using locally, then copy back to network when finished using locally, and institute some means to keep two computers from screwing each other up.

I used a similar scheme to share an iTunes music library amongst multiple computers (one-at-a-time) a decade ago when iTunes insisted the library be on local machine (dunno how it is now).

example of "lock file" contents:
- who has catalog rights now, if anyone.
- who was last to copy catalog back to net.

These two pieces of info determine whether one can use the network cat, and whether it needs to be downloaded first.

Rob

I have had a few corrupted catalogs due to having the thing on a network drive. It works... most of the time, in snail mode. But it can go wrong. Terribly wrong. Are you sure you want that?

What you _can_ do, and what I do, is to have the files on the network (my notebook HDD isn't big enough, + my desktop/file server is backed up), but the catalog on the laptop. I figured that I'd only be using my laptop for Lightroom, so that works for me. The catalog is backed up to the desktop once in a while, but feel free to use software to keep them in sync once a day or something like that (I'd do some versioning in that case, just in case).

This also helps the performance a lot. Since the thumbnails and the database are on the drive, it speeds up things when scrolling through the library. It's not as good as having the photos on the internal drive too, but at least it's something.

The performance on USB and even Firewire 800 drives is quite disappointing. Thunderbolt will likely help some users but we could use some help from Adobe. This is a real issue for pro users with multiple computers and photography studios with multiple computers. Craft a solution that power users will love.

The suggestion in the second half of the article for linking directly to a folder on the server does not work on Mac OSX....

Mark wrote, "Unfortunately that's a windows only solution. It requires the 'subst' DOS command."

The second half of the article shows how to use "mklink" to make a symbolic link to a network drive so that the entire catalog folder is stored on the server.

Maybe this will help?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/li...

I've seen his posts on moving the preview folder and using sym links so that lightroom will find it. Nothing about moving the entire catalog to a network drive (at least that I could find).