Restore Lightroom Catalog from backup. Best practice.

Question

I need to restore my Lightroom Classic catalog from backup. My most recent backup is 5 weeks out of date. I have maybe 800 photos that are not backed up. Once I restore the catalog, what is the best way to restore my most recent photo folders? Can I simply relink the non backed up folders that are on my hard drive or do I have to re import photos from the camera SD card? I would certainly prefer to just relink the folders if there are no disavantages to that. I'm on Mac OS.

Thanks for any advice!

dj_paige · Answer

Why do you need to restore a backup? What prompts you to do this?

You unzip the backup and then copy the unzipped backup to the same location as the original catalog. Then you double-click on it to open it. Photos that are not in the catalog 5 weeks ago have to be re-imported. No other re-importing is needed or helpful.

In addition, you need to start making regular and automated backups from now on so that your most recent backup is no more than a week old. I consider this mandatory — not optional — and so no excuses should be made.

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