Skip to main content
Participating Frequently
December 22, 2024
Answered

moving photos (lightroom images) to new hard drive and preview not working

  • December 22, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 502 views

Hi I'm unable to save anything because I have no hard drive space (and I wasn't able to change the save location in LR/PS). I had thought the default save location was on my pc but everything has been saved to one drive/pictures. So I bought an external hard drive and was planning to move all my files there to make space.

 

From my understanding I need to move my catalog (and photos?) so I have space on my internal harddrive. So far I've copied every file in the lightroom folder except for one of the previews.lrdata as I get the below message.

 

 

So that plan didn't work, is there another option like exporting the entire catalog? When I click export catalog, the diaglogue shows e.g. exporting 37 images when there are hundreds of photos, so I'm not sure if it's correct. I'm a bit scared to touch anything at the moment because now LR looks like the below, all the previews are gone and only appears when I click to develop a photo. I accidentally created a new catalog and now it looks like this when I open the catalog in the original file location.

 If anyone could help me out that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer F. McLion

I recommend leaving the catalog on the internal drive.

Move the photos to the external drive. Here's how this can be done: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/move-photos-another-hard-drive-leaving-catalog/

 

2 replies

F. McLion
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 22, 2024

I forgot the most important: Do not re-import!

Also, there is no need to export the catalog.

 

--- Got your issue resolved? Please label the response as 'Correct Answer' to help your fellow community members find a solution to similar problems. ---
F. McLion
Community Expert
F. McLionCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
December 22, 2024

I recommend leaving the catalog on the internal drive.

Move the photos to the external drive. Here's how this can be done: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/move-photos-another-hard-drive-leaving-catalog/

 

--- Got your issue resolved? Please label the response as 'Correct Answer' to help your fellow community members find a solution to similar problems. ---
kou-rinaAuthor
Participating Frequently
December 22, 2024

Both catalog and the photos are on the onedrive unfortunately. So should I move the catalog too?

F. McLion
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 22, 2024

If you mean the cloud storage from MS with OneDrive, then yes, absolutely.

LrC does not work with the catalog on a cloud service or a network drive. Using the locally synced copy is very, very prone to errors.

 

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