Inspiring

Question

Are my LR CC image edits saved onto external backup volume?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
July 3, 2019
6 replies
1801 views

If I edit my images in Lightroom CC and then backup onto an external volume are all my image edits also saved and visible? In other words if I recall an image from an external backup volume will the latest edits be apparent, or will it be the original raw/tif before edits? Do I have to export as a final step to save before backing up?

edits backup archive

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Just Shoot Me

Legend

So the answer to your original question is NO.

The backup of your images, or what you thinks is a Back UP and that is actually the only copy of those images, do not contain the edits you have done to them in LR if at any point you Remove those images from the LR catalog file.

Just Shoot Me

Legend

RogerG40767081 wrote
If I edit my images in Lightroom CC and then backup onto an external volume are all my image edits also saved and visible? In other words if I recall an image from an external backup volume will the latest edits be apparent, or will it be the original raw/tif before edits? Do I have to export as a final step to save before backing up?

If you have the option to Auto Write changes into XMP, which is in the Catalog Settings dialog window, and then make a backup of your image files to an external drive then the answer is YES. But you also need to back up the LR catalog to some other physical hard disk drive than where your Working catalog is stored.

The Edits made in LR will only be visible in either LR or, with the Auto Write changes option checked, in Adobe Camera RAW.

No other program can read and display those edits

Not sure what you mean by "Recall an image from an external backup volume". You Never Recall an image into LR. They are either in the LR catalog file, Really a Database file as there are NO Images INSIDE LR, or they are not, have not been imported, into LR.

LR is a Database program and References the images you import into the Database file, the catalog files, as to where, what drive and in what folders, they are stored in.

So if for some reason you need to Restore images images from a backup to the original location they were stored you just Copy over from the backup to the original location. Original drive name or letter and in the same folder names

RogerG40767081Author

Inspiring

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Just+Shoot+Me wrote
If you have the option to Auto Write changes into XMP, which is in the Catalog Settings dialog window, and then make a backup of your image files to an external drive then the answer is YES. But you also need to back up the LR catalog to some other physical hard disk drive than where your Working catalog is stored.
The Edits made in LR will only be visible in either LR or, with the Auto Write changes option checked, in Adobe Camera RAW.
No other program can read and display those edits

Sorry but don't understand the above, please explain.

I think I have not explained clearly. I recall images from my external drive to the pictures folder where they were originally and then import to LR. So theoretically they should be allied to the edit info, so long as the file name is the same, right?

Just Shoot Me

Legend

RogerG40767081 wrote
Sorry but don't understand the above, please explain.
I think I have not explained clearly. I recall images from my external drive to the pictures folder where they were originally and then import to LR. So theoretically they should be allied to the edit info, so long as the file name is the same, right?

Whatever edits you did to any image in LR only exists in the LR catalog file when that image is actually IN the LR catalog file.

If you remove that image, whether you just Remove from the Catalog or Delete from Disk, from the catalog file all the edits you did are also removed, Deleted.

Sorry to say but you clearly do not have proper knowledge on how LR works and how to properly work with LR.

You should look into some of the good online tutorial on how LR works and how to work with LR

Once you import an image into LR, other than if it is a Dud, bad, no good, you should NEVER remove it from the LR catalog or remove/delete it from your hard drive. Whetehr or not you have a so called Back Up of that image. If you are running out of internal hard drive space you can move some of those images to an external drive but do NOT remove them from the LR catalog (Please note this is NOT a Backup. You should also have another, Second or third external drive, that holds all your images and that is the actual backup of your images).

There should never be a reason to Re-Import images into the LR catalog. All images you want to keep should be in the catalog.

I have images, printed picture, negatives, and slides, taken from 1969 to the early 2000's that have been scanned and digital images from 2004 onward in my catalog. All of them are on one of my internal drive and I have 2 backups of them on 2 different external drives.

Sahil.Chawla

Adobe Employee

Hi Roger,

As Paige has suggested, would you mind sharing more details on which exact version of Lightroom you're working with? You can check that by going to Help > System Info. It would be helpful for us to help you out further.

Also, as you're looking to back up the images on an external drive you may have to export them out of Lightroom after editing them.

Regards,
Sahil

JP Hess

Inspiring

With any version of Lightroom it is necessary to export a copy of the image in order to have one that includes all of the editing that you have completed. To confirm this, open one of the images that you have backed up using another program such as Photoshop or another image editor other than Lightroom, and you will discover that all of the work that you have done using Lightroom will not be reflected in the backup of the image.

dj_paige

Legend

Please clarify: there is no longer any program named Lightroom CC. You might have either Lightroom Classic (or some earlier version which was named just plain Lightroom) or you might have the new Lightroom (which is confusing, it's the same name as an earlier program, but its not that earlier program). So what software are you using?

RogerG40767081Author

Inspiring

Lightroom Classic

dj_paige

Legend

Edits are saved to the catalog file. That's where you find the edits. And so, any backup strategy must include making backups of the catalog file, and backups of the photos. Exporting copies of the photos is not a part of the process of creating and using backups.

When you need to use the backup, you can copy them to the EXACT original location, and Lightroom's catalog will apply the edits properly. If the original location is no longer available (disk unusable, for example), you can point Lightroom's catalog to the location of the backups, and the edits will be applied (if you need to do this, please ask for instructions).

Also, Importing photos from the backup drive is completely wrong, and is not the solution. DO NOT IMPORT. This is so important, I am going to say it four more times, in capital letters, so you know I really mean it.

DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT.