Help with Catalogue migration and organization :/

Some Observations from your screenshot

First up, the subfolder named backups. Is this the actual location you are placing your backups of your catalogs, and perhaps photos in?

Backups should not b located on the same hard drive as the working files. What if that hard drive breaks? They should be on other media, in fact they  be on several other media. Commonly a 3-2-1  (creating three copies of your Lightroom catalog, storing them on two different types of media, with one copy kept off-site to ensure maximum protection against data loss) A different hard drive, a  external hard drive, perhaps the cloud. etc.strategy

Also, the various catalogs shown in that screenshot, are they backed up? Make sure that you have backups of catalogs before deleting old ones.

Second up, all those old data files for older catalogs

Why are you keeping those? And are they included in backups anyhow? Those old data files do not support the newer , and even if you needed them, for say an old catalog, and you had deleted them, LrC catalog would just recreate them. So space to be had.

Third up, those old catalogs

If they are backed up, then why are you keeping those working copy's? Space to be had.

Fourth up, a bit of confusion, perhaps just some info cutoff in the screenshot

Is that last file, that last catalog, your current catalog? If so, why keep the once older catalog (working file) if it is backed up? Space to be had.

Some references:

• https://mastering-lightroom.com/secure-photo-backup-strategy/
• https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-classic/catalogs/backups/
• https://fstoppers.com/business/youre-probably-not-backing-all-your-lightroom-classic-data-526597
• https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/create-catalogs.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/lightroom-catalog-basics.html
• https://mastering-lightroom.com/lightroom-classic-hard-drive-space/

Why is my Catalogue folder so full of files? It's also 107GB in size. Is this overlap from the various moves to different computers? Can anything be safley deleted from here? Any suggestions to reduce the size greatley appreciated. Any videos I've seen of others Cat folders have just one cat file inside not this big mess!

 

By @Alex 12

The Previews.lrdata folder, which contains your Library previews, is responsible for the majority of the 107 GB.

You can limit the size of this folder in Catalog settings > Previews, but there have been reports that indicate that this feature might not be working properly.

See https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/create-catalogs.html?trackingid=TY6XKS59&mv=in-product#customize-catalog-settings

Below is a screenshot of my Lightroom folder when LrC is not running.

The whole folder is 40 GB, and the Previews.lrdata folder is 37 GB.

My advice: ignore anything Scott Kelby says about organizing. The advice he gives is horrible.

I do agree with @JohanElzenga, re-organizing your photos and folders isn't necessary, its time consuming and potentially even harmful. Let your keywords and collections be the organizing, leave the photos in whatever folders they are in now (and continue to use dated folders for new photos). Dated folders is a VERY GOOD thing to do, if it fits into your organizing and workflow.

Also, when you are switching to a new computer, this is the WORST possible time to go in and re-organize and move stuff around within the folder hierarchy. You want to get what you have working on the new computer as it exists; and only then when every thing is working (if you must) re-organize, but as stated re-organizing the photos and folders isn't necessary.

Do not make a new catalog on the laptop and import the images! That would be a very bad idea. Lightroom stores its edits as metadata in the catalog, so if you create a new catalog and import the images again, then you will lose all your edits and added metadata. This is how you move Lightroom to a new computer: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-move-lightroom-to-new-computer/

Storing your images in dated folders is not a bad idea at all. Lightroom Classic has this option for a very good reason. If you work with collections like you plan to do, then the physical location of your images is irrelevant. My advice would be to not waste your time (and risk making mistakes) on reorganizing images. Leave them in the folder hierarchy as they are.

Finally, your catalog folder contains a number of old catalogs. You can safely delete these and their accompanying files. It looks like 'Catalog-2-2-V13-3.lrcat' is your current catalog, but it may be wise to temporarily move the other stuff to an external hard drive before you delete these.