Does backing up the "Settings file" for images in LR cloud actually achieve anything?

Question

I’m a bit obsessive about backups, and the local copy of my LR Cloud images is part of my normal backup routine. I also periodically download or export the images with their “Settings” files.

I sometimes wonder if there is any point in me doing the Settings file backup. In the unlikely event of data loss on Adobe’s servers, I’m not aware of any means of re-uploading my backed-up Settings files with the images. If I can’t to that, then why am I backing them up? Maybe it would possible to do something with them via LR Classic, but I’m not sure whether Classic’s sidecar files are the same thing as the Cloud Settings files.

Does anyone know whether backing up the “Settings” files serves a useful purpose? If not, I’ll save a few minutes of my time each month.

JohanElzenga · Answer

The ‘Settings’ file is indeed an XMP sidecar file, just like in Lightroom Classic. Adobe likes confusing people with inconsistent names. Whether backing them up is useful is debatable. A big company like Adobe will not all of a sudden lose all your files. It’s usefulness may be more in the idea that you could do something stupid that could be repaired by having these files.

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