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freeing up space in lightroom?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
May 13, 2016
5 replies
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Hi I am a fairly busy commercial and corporate photographer. I routinely edit 20K images per month in lightroom. My system is to import, edit, export, deliver and backup. I don't really need the lightroom catalog/collection system because I have all my unedited and finished work backup up on external hard drives and online. My machine has 2TB of memory and is is filled with images in lightroom, I have about 30GB free and my machine is bogging down and I can't import any new work. I can find tons of tutorials about how to organize and backup catalogs and collections, but not how to actually delete them. I have a project to get done and I don't think I have time for an overnight or 24 hr backup project, I just want to delete a few dozen jobs and free up 300-400 gb to get back to work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much- Scott

How to

Correct answer F. McLion

If you ae working with multiple catalogs, then you can delete older ones together with it's associated preview and Smart-preview folders.

However, this will not free a lot of disk space. To really free up disk space, you'll need to move the image files itself.

Make sure to also check on the Backup folder because this is filling up and LR does not remove older ones.

How to create and manage catalogs in Photoshop Lightroom

O

Oliver Sparrow

Known Participant

Well, that's me in my place. Your insight into what "most" people do, including OP, is no doubt revealing. However, have a a look at your /user/ files and find a couple of Gb of duplicated images.

My remark on .raw files is that if I have tweaked them in the filter, taken them into P/shop and done stuff to them I want to save them. I am not permitted to overwrite the source file, or even save in .dng format. This is pretty sad, as it makes .raw an alien that get partially updated and acquires masses of .xml files as sidecars. This is a stupid limitation on workflow, and as most take hundreds of pictures for each one that they use, it is a nonsense to treat the as holy relics.

Now snub away. I don't use LR any more, btw.

JP Hess

Inspiring

There is no program, Photoshop or otherwise, that can edit or save raw or DNG files. That's why Photoshop needs the camera raw plug-in, and that's why Lightroom is needed. Whenever a raw file or a DNG file is sent to Photoshop it is first converted to an RGB file which must then be saved to an alternative file format. That's why Lightroom exists. And for those people who only use Photoshop, that's why the camera raw plug-in exists. Without the plug-in, Photoshop cannot do anything with raw or DNG files. They have to be converted to a format that Photoshop understands.

scottg92539156Author

Participant

Hi thanks for all of the responses. I am learning that a lot of people seem to use LR as an organizing system, most of these responses talk about catalogs and how to organize them, which is not useful to me. I use LR as an editing tool, my only goal is to import a few thousand photos at a time, edit them, then export and deliver them, then I want to do the same thing every day without filling up my computer storage and memory. I have 30 GB left on a 2 TB machine. Is there a quick or easy way to simply free up space? LR appears to be hoarding over half a million images against my will. Where can navigate or click to remove these? The most frustrating thing is that there is not a clear way to just select something and delete it, I keep hearing how that won't free up very much space....which is my main goal right now. I do not need a an event from two years ago in a catalog or on my machine, I have it delivered to the client and backed up to the cloud and on a hard drive, I can access it in 2 minutes if I need to. Thanks very much, I appreciate all your help- sorry for not adapting to the catalog system, it is not useful to me, I am only interested in using LR for the editing capabilities. Sincerely, Scott

dj_paige

Legend

Is there a quick or easy way to simply free up space?

This was explained by McLion in reply #1 ("To really free up disk space, you'll need to move the image files itself.") and also by Just Shoot Me in reply #4 ("Since you have backups of those image files you can Delete them from the internal drive of your computer. You can do that In LR or outside of LR with the File Manager program for your OS. If done outside of LR you will them have to Remove them from the LR catalog.")

I use LR as an editing tool, my only goal is to import a few thousand photos at a time, edit them, then export and deliver them, then I want to do the same thing every day without filling up my computer storage and memory.

As I said in reply #5, if you don't want to fill up your internal HD, don't put the images on the internal HD in the future. Put them on an external HD or network drive.

scottg92539156Author

Participant

Hi thanks very much for the reply.

Answer #1 says to free up space, I should move the file itself, but not how to do it. That is my question. It also tells me to check on the backup folder, but not how to do that. If there is a way to delete a backup folder, my question would be how to do that.

In your answer you correctly identified the fact that I don't want to fill up my hard drive and should put images on an external drive, but not how to do it. If there is a quick or easy way to do that, I would like to learn about it. I have a brand new 4TB external drive sitting here and my main goal would be to find where any of these catalogs, collections, previews, images etc exist and just drag them out of LR, off my computer onto the external in case I ever need them, then delete them from my computer and get back to work. LR seems determined to force me into saving and organizing old work I was done with long ago, but no way to find or delete it. Is it naive to ask if there is an easy way to do that? Would adobe consider a version of LR for people who simply want to edit photos with it? Is there a reason it is so difficult to delete photos from Lightroom? It would be like a pocket calculator saving and organizing all the information I have ever put into it, until it is choking on it, and assuming I want it all organized, when I just want to use it as a tool to do some math problems as they arise.

sorry for not getting what seems to be very obvious and intuitive to the rest of you. When I make time to sit in front of my computer I only want to power out an edit and get to the next one, not spend lots of time housekeeping and organizing. And I do appreciate very much all of you taking the time to help. It seems like a simpler version of LR would appeal to a huge market. Bring a job in, edit it, deliver it, back it up somewhere and delete it, repeat as necessary. Am I crazy to want that level of simplicity? I would gladly pay someone to come in here and talk me through it maybe I should do that.

Thanks very much again for your help. Maybe I should explain I am 51 years old, and had to make the traumatic switch from analog/chemical photography in 2001-2002 to digital after 25 years in a darkroom. I have always learned digital tools as I need them, and this is my project for today.

Thank all of you very much - Scott

Just Shoot Me

Legend

What is taking up space on your hard drive is not the LR catalog or catalogs you have. Those are just Database files and relatively small in size compared to the actual image files.

The thing that IS taking up space it the actual image files, whether they are referenced in the LR database file (The Catalog File) or not.

Since you have backups of those image files you can Delete them from the internal drive of your computer. You can do that In LR or outside of LR with the File Manager program for your OS. If done outside of LR you will them have to Remove them from the LR catalog.

Just deleting LR catalog files, if you have more than one, will not free up a lot of hard drive space. LR does not store images inside the catalog file. It is just a Database file that References, Creates a Record in the database of, where the actual file is located on your hard drives.

dj_paige

Legend

In the future, don't put new photos on the internal drive. Put them on an external or network drive.

Rudi Spitzers

Known Participant

Why don't you start a brand new catalog? After restarting you can delete the old one.

F. McLion

Correct answer

Community Expert

If you ae working with multiple catalogs, then you can delete older ones together with it's associated preview and Smart-preview folders.

However, this will not free a lot of disk space. To really free up disk space, you'll need to move the image files itself.

Make sure to also check on the Backup folder because this is filling up and LR does not remove older ones.

How to create and manage catalogs in Photoshop Lightroom

--- Got your issue resolved? Please label the response as 'Correct Answer' to help your fellow community members find a solution to similar problems. ---

Rob_Cullen

Community Expert

Can I suggest you read-

Catalog Strategies | dpBestflow

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .

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