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marilynm59775119
Participant
September 5, 2025
Answered

Lightroom Classic taking too much space on hard drive.

  • September 5, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 360 views

Lightoom now has taken up over 153 GB on my hard drive, and I only have 165 GB available on my hard drive. What can I do to lower the amount of space LR is taking up? 

Thank you! 

Correct answer Conrad_C

I'm betting dj_paige is correct that the thing taking up the most space in your Lightroom Classic folder is the previews cache (the filename ending in …previews.lrdata). It’s probably taking up a lot more space than the catalog itself, right?

The previews cache is expendable, so a quick way to free up space is to throw out just that file. It will be regenerated as you browse images.

 

Then in the future you can either throw out the previews cache again when it gets too large, or set the option to limit its size.

2 replies

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
September 5, 2025

I'm betting dj_paige is correct that the thing taking up the most space in your Lightroom Classic folder is the previews cache (the filename ending in …previews.lrdata). It’s probably taking up a lot more space than the catalog itself, right?

The previews cache is expendable, so a quick way to free up space is to throw out just that file. It will be regenerated as you browse images.

 

Then in the future you can either throw out the previews cache again when it gets too large, or set the option to limit its size.

marilynm59775119
Participant
September 16, 2025

THANK YOU SO MUCH! This did the trick. I appreciate your help so very much, you both were right, and it was so exciting to see the space regained on my hard drive!

dj_paige
Legend
September 5, 2025

One thing you can do is reduce the size of the previews, by using functions in LrC. Go to Edit->Catalog Settings->Previews and change these settings as desired.

 

If your photos are on your hard drive, you can move them somewhere else. See "Part 2 — Updating Folder Location" here for instructions.

 

If you want to move your catalog and associated files also, see https://www.lightroomqueen.com/find-move-rename-catalog/

marilynm59775119
Participant
September 16, 2025

THANK YOU SO MUCH! This did the trick. I appreciate your help so very much!