Using one or multiple catalogs?

Question

Hi, I've been using Lightroom Classic for many years and I'm actually still at version 6 (non-subscription).

At that time I was advised to create a catalog per year to keep the performance of Lightroom as good as possible.

I'm now at the point that I'm interested into moving to the new version of classic alongside CC so I can continue editing on other devices. However, when doing a test with my Lightroom mobile subscription I got notified I can only sync 1 catalog.

Would that also be the case if I would go for the classic + CC package?

Also, as Lightroom is mainly for my family activities over the years, is it still advised to this in multiple catalogs (per year)? Or is it ok to have everything in 1 catalog?

dj_paige · Answer

At that time I was advised to create a catalog per year to keep the performance of Lightroom as good as possible. I disagree with that advice. Catalog size has no effect on performance (except for the time it takes to make backups, in which case larger catalog take longer). However, when doing a test with my Lightroom mobile subscription I got notified I can only sync 1 catalog.Correct! Only one Lightroom Classic catalog can by synced with the cloud. Lightroom (the cloud based application) (which is not named CC) has no such concept of catalogs, so you can sync every single photo you have with the cloud, because it stores the photos in the cloud. Or is it ok to have everything in 1 catalog? Not only is it ok, it is highly recommended and has so many advantages and so few disadvantages that there are really very few reasons (in my opinion) not to use one catalog.

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