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E
Elli2248888876po
Participant
August 26, 2024
Question

Best practice for working off multiple external hard drives with 1 Lightroom Classic Catalog

  • August 26, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 398 views

Looking for advice from those who work on multiple external hard drives.

 

I have a 14TB External Harddrive at my office that I do not move (it's huge). I use that for the bulk of my photos (Lightroom catalog is on my Macbook Pro). I also have a smaller 2TB external harddrive that travels with me. 

 

My question is - is it best practice/ok to open lightroom and work off the 2TB drive when I'm away from my office and work in the catalog even though the bulk of my photos are saved on the 14TB drive? I know obviously I won't be able to edit the photos that are saved on the 14TB drive when I'm not connected, but I need a solution for when I work remote/am away from my office (which is where the 2TB drive will be used). Seeing the little 'exclamation' points in LrC gives me anxiety lol. 

 

When I'm back in the office, I would use Lightroom's internal system for moving the photos from the 2TB to the 14TB.  

 

Is this best practice? Or am I asking for corrupted data because of all the files that would be moving around?

 

Thank you!

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2 replies

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
August 26, 2024

No need to get exclamation point icons in this procedure. No need for "anxiety lol".

 

Using your operating system, Copy (not MOVE) the folder(s) that you want to work on to the 2TB. In LrC, right click on the folder(s) in the Folder Panel and select "Update Folder Location" and select the location of the folder on the 2TB drive.

 

When you get back, launch LrC, and perform the "Update Folder Location" again and point to the folders on your 14TB drive.

E
Elli2248888876poAuthor
Participant
August 26, 2024

Wouldn't I still see the exclamation points for all the other photos in the LrC catalog when I open it and the 14TB is not connected? Not that they are bad but I just don't know if that's not good practice be working in the LrC Catalog without being connected to my main external hard drive?

 

My workflow (when working remotely/away from my 14TB drive would be like this):

  1. upload photos from memory card to the 2TB drive
  2. Open LrC Catalog and edit/export
  3. Once back in the office, MOVE the photos from the 2TB drive to the 14TB using the LrC catalog so everything is in the 14TB drive. 

 

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
August 26, 2024

Wouldn't I still see the exclamation points for all the other photos in the LrC catalog when I open it and the 14TB is not connected? Not that they are bad but I just don't know if that's not good practice be working in the LrC Catalog without being connected to my main external hard drive?

 

Yes you would see them. There is nothing wrong with this. No need for "anxiety lol".

 

My workflow (when working remotely/away from my 14TB drive would be like this):

  1. upload photos from memory card to the 2TB drive
  2. Open LrC Catalog and edit/export
  3. Once back in the office, MOVE the photos from the 2TB drive to the 14TB using the LrC catalog so everything is in the 14TB drive. 

 

You import the photos from the memory card to the 2TB drive. No need to export at all. Step 3 should be: copying (not moving) the folders (not photos) containing your raw photos, using your operating system, to the 14TB drive, then in the LrC folder panel choose "Update Folder Location" and select the proper folders on the 14TB drive.

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