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Lonny34553405e09x
Known Participant
January 2, 2024
Answered

Transfer catalog and photos to external drive?

  • January 2, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 15002 views

I have read about this on several sites and Im still confused.

I have a lightroom classic catslog and all associated photos on my Macbookpro (4tb drive). The main folder is all my photos from 2023. I want to back these up to an external drive and free the space on my computer for this years (2024) photos.

 

1. I used the EXPORT AS CATALOG from the File menu.

 

This appears to have backed up the photos on my external drive.  However they are still on my macbook. 

 

Im just very confused about what seems like it should be a simple procedure.  Im reticant to delete anything without understanding how this works. in iphoto its so easy (Move your photolibrary to an external disk-1 step!).

 

Can I please get some solid, step by step direction to backing up my ohotos and catalog so I can remove 2023 from my laptop to make space? I intuit that I keep the same catalog (am I correct) on the laptop but point it to 2023 files on the back up disk. Then save the 2023 files on the computer. Will I then see a 2023 AND a 2024 folder and be able to access all my work? Each Year I move the files off but they still show up in the same catalog so that in ten years one catalog will access ten years of hotos on different external disks?

 

THank you!

    Correct answer dj_paige
    quote

    How do I let the catalog on the internal disk know to now look for the photos on th external backup? If I do this are all the edits preserved and ranking, favorites, tags etc?

     

     

    Good that you have backups. I am consistently shocked by how many people don't have backups.

     

    Regarding the question above, have you actually looked at the exported catalog and tried to use it? I am assuming from your description that this exported catalog ought to work properly without any other effort on your part.

    2 replies

    dj_paige
    dj_paige
    Legend
    January 2, 2024

    I want to back these up to an external drive and free the space on my computer for this years (2024) photos.

     

    Can I please get some solid, step by step direction to backing up my ohotos and catalog so I can remove 2023 from my laptop to make space?

     

    Let's stop right here. Backup means you have (at least) two identical copies of your important files, meaning Catalog file and photo files. If you free up the space on your computer, then you are not making backups. This is not recommended as a backup process, and these are not backups. Maybe you have other backups somewhere else that hasn't been mentioned, which is fine.

     

    To move photos, there is no exporting in this process. You simply use your operating system to move everything to somewhere else. Then you will have to reconnect the photos in Lightroom Classic's Library Module, see this document (particularly Figure 4)

     

    Next, as mentioned by @Bill Sprague , leave your catalog on the internal disk of your computer, and all photos are imported into this one catalog (not separate catalogs for separate years). Furthermore, make your life simple, put the photos on the external drive straight out of the camera, use the Import panel named Destination to put the photos on the external drive when importing and then you won't have to move the photos once a year; rather than putting the photos on your internal hard drive and then doing this move (which clearly is causing you problems) every year.

    L
    Lonny34553405e09xAuthor
    Known Participant
    January 2, 2024

    1. I have all the originals always on the cards I shot them on Labeled by Date range.

    2. I also have regular time machine Back ups of the computer. I know this wont cover If I delete the photos on the computer but it does give working backups of current photos and the catalog. Then I have the photos Backed up on the external 4TB NVME SSD which is instantly backed up in a raid configuration so its duplicated. This is a fast drive I can work off of in real time. Lastly I have the very same photos backed up to another Spinning disk in a raid configuration so I literally have like 5 backups (I run apublishing company and am crazy this way). 

    Since I have used the EXPORT AS CATALOG feature and my 2023 photos seem to have been moved to the external disk do I just back up my catalog by dragging and dropping? AND..........How do I let the catalog on the internal disk know to now look for the photos on th external backup? If I do this are all the edits preserved and ranking, favorites, tags etc?

     

    THank you both VERY much!

    L
    Lonny34553405e09xAuthor
    Known Participant
    January 2, 2024

    1 last: Since I have preferences set to back up every time I leave light room is that saving a duplicate Catalog in a separate location in case of corruption? I know my time machine backups will do this. But it looks to me like using the backup feathure in LR just saves the catalog to one location (not as a duplicate in case of a problem.)

    B
    Community Expert
    Bill SpragueCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 2, 2024

    You probably know this first part. 

    Backups come in parts.  Inside Lightroom Classic you should be creating periodic catalog backups to ensure you have a recovery plan for a rare corrupted catalog. 

     

    That backup catalog, all your photos, videos, word documents, reference files, etc need a backup plan outside of Lightroom.   That's a hardware and operating system thing.  Many (including me) use a program like GoodSync to keep backups on dedicated external drives.  Others use cloud storage like Backblaze.   The idea is that when your computer itself fails, burns up, gets lost or stolen you can recover.   Remember that your photos are not "in" Lightroom, they are separate and referenced (or "cataloged") by Lightroom.  

    Part two is moving photo files to an external drive to make room on your computer.   You must do this within Lightroom.  If you don't Lightroom won't know where they are.   There are a couple ways to do this but my favorite is to "drag and drop" in the Folders section on the left in the Library module.   You pick images or folders and drag them to your external drive.  It seems slower that moving files in your operating system, but Lightroom does not get confused!

     

    My catalog remains on my fast primary drive.  My current image files are there too.  Older image files are on my external drive that has to be replaced every few years with a larger model!   My single Lightroom Classic catalog keep track of all of them.

     

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