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Participant
Mar 16, 2025 10:48 PM UTC
Question

How to Move Lightroom Classic to External SSD

I've been using the Adobe Photography plan (Lightroom Classic and Photoshop) for years but I have exhausted the mac's internal drive space. Previously I moved all of my photos, catalogs and backups to an external SSD but I am still getting warnings about insufficient disk space so I would like to move these apps to the external SSD also. My question is how should that be done? Should I just uninstall the apps from the internal drive then download and install them on the external SSD and then open LR from the lrcat file or is something else required?

 

Thanks!

macOS 15.3.2, LR Classic 14.2

 

6 replies

dj_paige
Legend
Mar 17, 2025 9:49 AM UTC

You move the photos and catalog file, and then once you are sure everything has been moved properly and everything is working, then go ahead and make sure your previews and other similar files that LrC creates are deleted from the internal HD. You would not normally want to move/reinstall LrC itself.

 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/move-photos-another-hard-drive-leaving-catalog/

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/find-move-rename-catalog/

 

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heinelgAuthor
Participant
Mar 17, 2025 12:16 PM UTC

Thanks, but you have missed my point. I have an internal 500 GB drive with less that 40 GB available and I am constantly getting out of memory warnings. I have already moved all music and all of the LR  catalogs and backups to the external SSD and LR works fine. I have also moved some large apps to the external SSD, and MS Office must remain on the system drive, and the remaining large apps are LR and PS, so can they be installed on the external drive? And if so, what is the best way to do that?

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Ian Lyons
Community Expert
Community Expert
Mar 19, 2025 4:13 PM UTC

@heinelg 

 

You can specify a non-default different location for application(s) via the Creative Cloud app's Preferences > Apps tab. See attached screenshot

 

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