P: Set Maximum # Of Catalog Backups, and Auto-Replace Oldest

Agreed Adobe Product Managers including @6963551 it would make sense for the next evolution of the Catalog Settings to specify a POLICY for backup retention that would automate the process of pruning old backups ex.  Minimum number of backups to keep, Maximum age of backups to keep over Minimum number of backups to keep  (Delete any backup older than 30 days keeping at least 3 valid backups).   Set reasonable defaults 3 generations and 30 days.  This would make backups work out of the box without filling up users hard drives indefinately. 

Today I set myself a calendar reminder to do this manually every month but that is wasteful and doesn't add any value to my photography.  A great digital asset manager like Lightroom Classic should not add administrative work for creators.  Let the computer do that! 

Add an option to delete old catalog backups within Lightroom. This isn't currently available (v13).

I had accumulated a huge number of zip catalog backups, taking up valuable space.  Through the Community I was able to learn I must delete using Finder manually outside Lightroom (Mac). I was assured this wouldn't cause any issues within Lightroom, and decided to delete backups beyond 3 months. 

It would be most reassuring and very helpful to add an option within Lightroom Catalog Backup to automatically delete older backup with different timeframes - say: None, 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, yearly or Custom. If you want to be really helpful, alert the user to upcoming space constraints, and ask.  I was one of those caught out, having filled my storage. 

This thread is being merged into an existing authoritative thread for better tracking and response. Please review the official answer (if any) in the second post on the thread for more information. 

A Backup Cleaner plugin for automatically removing old backups.

Another thread here for the same Lightroom: Set Maximum # Of Catalog Backups, and Auto-Replace Oldest | Adobe Photoshop Family

I don't know if this plugin still works: https://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/mdawson/tpglrbackup/

I use a utility on my Mac called 'Hazel' to do what you want.

Most of the people I know that have a Backup strategy use third party softwares (TimeMachine on MAC  or SyncBack on PC)  and don't use the LRC catalog Backup neither the 2nd copy because this is a endless storage usage and there is no process in LRC to manage the deletion.  Me i use SynchBack that backup on a NAS and the NAS Backup on the cloud

One can quickly eat into storage capacity if one neglects the deletion of old catalogue backups and 2nd copies of imported images.  There is provision for automatic deletion of previews after a set time but not old catalogue backups nor imported 2nd copies.  Catalogue backups are best deleted by number, that is to say, keep the most recent one, two or three and delete any older.  Imported 2nd copies are really not needed after the images are processed so one could have a setting of automatic deletion after so many days.  I wouldn't have thought this not difficult to implement.

currently, it's quite easy for people to unknowingly have a folder of Lr catalog backups that's 100+GB, as Lr merrily creates and adds new backups based on one's setting.

it would be great to have options to limit the folder size, to automatically delete backups older than a certain age, or to have a limit on the number of backups.

or, at least warn the user that the folder size is getting large