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Question

Lightroom Catalog

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
September 12, 2023
3 replies
235 views

Hi !

Lightroom catalog takes a big space of memory but to remove it creates a lot of configuration problems.

Is there an alternative?

macOS

This topic has been closed for replies.

GoldingD

Legend

And a few links to view:

WHY DOES LIGHTROOM CLASSIC TAKE UP SO MUCH SPACE? (PART 1).

WHY DOES LIGHTROOM CLASSIC TAKE UP SO MUCH SPACE? (PART 2)

GoldingD

Legend

I made a copy of the preview folder in an external HD and deleted the folder in My HD. The lightroom was desconfigurated

A second point to bring up.

While you can delete the preview folders to save HD space, They will be recreated upon LrC restart, some of them bit by bit as you edit or view the photos.

While, theoretically you could relocate the preview folders (library previews) to another HD, that is not recommended, and very iffy. Per Adobe guidance the Library Preview CACHE files (the previews) should be in the same parent folder as the catalog, and if not, the previews will get recreated upon LrC start (a bit confusing as to where)

See "Keep the catalog and preview cache in the same folder" in

Optimize performance

Actually, read that entire document.

AxelMatt

Community Expert

Which space of memory do you mean? Space in RAM or on the hard drive?

I think it isn't the catalog file but the previews.

How much space we talk about. Please give us more informations, also your configuration about the previews.

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 5 - Topaz Photo

Marco Antonio SáAuthor

Known Participant

No, it's not RAM. It's the HD memory and yes, I think that you are right about the preview comment.

Where is usually the preview files located?

dj_paige

Legend

Previews are in subfolders of the folder that contains your catalog file. The main previews are in a subfolder whose name ends with previews.lrdata. Smart previews are in a subfolder whose name ends with smart previews.lrdata

Of course, if you are having space issues, perhaps you could give us more information about this, like how much free space is available on the disk where your catalog file is located. While you can delete the previews, this does cause problems as you have said.

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