Save all LR photos w/ edits and folder structure to external drive

First, let me say that Jeffrey Friedl's Publisher Plugin is the ideal answer for what you need!

But then to adderss your reply to my suggestion-

"So on the arhival drive, I would have all my original LR folders (containing unedited images), each of which will have subfolder with the edited JPEG images, right?"

Yes! But! The exported JPGs are within the Folder structure that Lr-Classic is referencing (not an "archival"? drive). You would still need your backup procedures to backup the entire referenced folder structure to a Backup disk location to include the 'Edited JPGs'.

"Could I later reorganize the folders on the archival drive so that I just keep (or separate) the folders with the edited JPEGs, so it's obvious to a future user that's where to look for the edited images?"

Do NOT re-organize. "Separate" only with much work (as stated by others). I presumed that looking in the sub-folders named "Edited" might be the "future user" method.

So big disadvantages with my suggestion. 😞

"Could I later reorganize the dolers on the arhival drive so that I just keep (or separate) the folders with the edite JPEGs, so it's obvious to a future user that's where to look for the edited images?"

Yes you could, it would be manual and slow and tedious and you'd have to re-organize the folders one by one (and don't make a mistake and skip a folder or put it in the wrong place...). And if you took more photos and wanted to include them in this manually modified folder structure, its more slow tedious work (and don't make a mistake).

I guess I don't understand your reluctance to use a Publish service here, it seems to do exactly what you want with no drawbacks that I can see. It's all automated, no manual or tedious or mistake-prone work for you to do, easily updated via the plug-in, you click the mouse on Publish and then you can walk away and let the computer do the work.

That seems like a great alternative!

So on the arhival drive, I would have all my original LR folders (containing unedited images), each of which will have aubfolder with the edited JPEG images, right?

Could I later reorganize the dolers on the arhival drive so that I just keep (or separate) the folders with the edite JPEGs, so it's obvious to a future user that's where to look for the edited images?

Thanks so much!

Here is another idea-

Requires disk space with the original files!

1. Select photos-  (could be ALL Photographs)

2. Export as JPG to sub-Folders of the Originals.  (Thus exported JPGs with edits applied remain in the same folder structure)

Export to: 'Same folder as original photo'

Put in Sub-Folder -named as required.

Rename, or not,

You could Resize, (to limit pixel dimensions) or not!

Folder structure is unchanged with originals and edited JPGs in sub-folders of their originals.

I have to partially disagree with both of the other replies.

If you want your Edited in LR images to be available to others in the future then IMHO you have only one option and that option includes using one of 2 file formats, JPG or TIF.

You Export your edited images to either format and store them on one of your external drives and then copy them to the other and even a third external drive.

If you want them to have access to ALL of your images then the ones you haven't bothered to edit export them as JPGs (that is if they aren't JPGs already)

The 2 other options listed above is based on someone in your family (Friends) having LR Classic to View either your published copies or the Exported catalog.

Your original images, whether they are JPG or RAW files contain No edits. All the edits you have done are stored in the LR catalog file. Only at the time of Export, as either a JPG or TIF files, are the edits burnt into, included in, that exported image file.

Even if you have the option check to "Auto Write Changes to XMP" the only programs that can read those edits, from the Sidecar XMP file, is one of the Adobe RAW file editors.

I am in the proccess of doing basically the same thing as I don't think in the near future I will have access to LR Classic, PS and Adobe Camera RAW anymore.

Thank you for the helpful reply.

I ran across the publish option (and the related plug-ins) earlier and briefly looked again at it now.  Perhaps that will work, but I'm not sure.

The goal is to have an organized permanent archive of all my edited LR photos on a spearate drive that my wife or kids can access later with whatever program (Phjotos, etc.) they have handy.  If I publish my LR photos/folders to a separate drive, will they be able to access/download/copy when they plug the drive into a different computer?  Are the images/folders permanently published and accessible there?  (Something about "publish' sounds a bit temporary and possibly restricted to me, but I don't really know.)

The Export as Catalog approach sounded like a a more customary way of "saving" images permanently, but as I said, it seemed that mnight only work to export selected images (not my entire LR catalog) and the folder structure wouldn't be preserved, so I'd have a mass of saved images without folders to organize them.  However, if there's a way to use Eport as Catalog to achieve my goal, I'd love to hear it.

Any other ideas are welcome too!  Thank you!

For this purpose - maybe consider using a Publish method. This in effect provides a single "update" button which, on demand, automatically evaluates which qualifying images have been added or changed since the last time you used it (if ever) - and exports (or, re-exports) whatever images are required to bring things up to date within a destination folder on disk (you can also Publish into an online location, such as a Flickr account).

Publish can refer to a special Publish Collection, or else it can follow a Smart Publish Collection method drawing from your entire library (whereby you can set up rules for which images should qualify, e.g. only those which are both rated 3 stars or above, and lack the keyword "private"). 

Jeffrey Friedl offers two Publish plugins with added function, which may be of interest to you:

One organises the published image versions into subfolders within the designated location, according to your folders structure seen in  Lightroom http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/folder-publisher

Another organises them according to your LR Collections http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/collection-publisher .