Change default LrC catalog location to avoid automatic iCloud/Dropbox sync corruption

The default location for Lightroom Classic catalogs is the user's Pictures/Lightroom folder. Modern operating systems and users frequently sync the Pictures and Documents directories automatically using services like iCloud Drive and Dropbox.

When Lightroom is open, these services constantly try to sync the .lrcat and .lrcat-data files in the background while they are actively being written to. This causes frequent write-conflcts, locked databases, and critical catalog corruption.

Please update Lightroom Classic to default to a local, non-synced directory (such as a dedicated folder directly in the User Home directory) to protect user data from automated cloud-syncing mechanisms.

I have my .lrcat and .lrcat-data files in Pictures and I was about to update to the new Apple File Provider for Dropbox and upon researching it I found Apple will no longer also Pictures to be backed up by Dropbox. I had a double backup, one to iCloud and one to Dropbox.  I didn’t realize it would be backing up changes while I was making them. About 6 months ago I had a corrupt file and I had no idea why. I have a brand new MacBook Pro M4 Max with 6 TB open space, so I was puzzled.  I lost about 6 hours of editing because my last backup was from the day before.  I wasn’t happy.  

Prior to updating to the new Apple File Provider, I need to uncheck the pictures folder from my dropbox selective backup and move my LrC Catalog files to a place that isn’t being backed up, then move my backup .zip files into dropbox.  Glad I got this information (thanks ai) and I wanted to share it with Adobe and you all…. Lorinda