P: Create the initial catalog outside of OneDrive on Windows

[jrobnz]

I see so many reports and threads of corrupted catalogs caused by the catalog being stored in a cloud sync directory, most often it seems to be OneDrive. LrC causes this scenario by placing the catalog on Windows in the Pictures folder that is under OneDrive by default.

I suggest that LrC create the catalog somewhere else. And to make it even better if LrC warned the user when the current catalog is stored on OneDrive or perhaps any cloud-sync directory.

[Cletus]

I think Adobe can at installation time determine if a Windows OS is using OneDrive.  If this is the case, then instead of automatically defaulting to the cloud based OneDrive, the install shoud pause, warn  the user and ask to store the catalog and images in a folder outside of the OneDrive environment.  

Also it is pointless to default the Backups folder to a location on the same drive that the Lightroom catalog is stored.  When the drive fails, you lose not only the master catalog but every backup of that catalog and no hope of recovery.

[GoldingD]

While user should have enough knowledge to do this by their self's, I agree that the defaults should not be into such a folder (any that will automatically be associated with OneDrive)

Also i recognise that not all users are Info Tech savvy, and rely on defaults. So yes Adobe should attempt to prevent such failure.

By the way, I blame this more on Microsoft than Adobe. And I understand users of MS Windows have little knowledge about the pro's and con's of accepting Microsoft default account creations (ad in a MS account instead of a local account)

Note that the association of the catalog on the folder the catalog is inmight not actually result in the catalog being completely located on OneDrive, but instead being automatically syncd to oneDrive (a problem that can lead to corruption )

Also, Adobe needs to document the pro/con of LrC vs OneDrive.

[jrobnz]

I received the following reply to my original post about this subject on Lightroom Queen's forum at https://www.lightroomqueen.com/community/threads/lightroom-woes-with-onedrive-suggestion.52920/post-...

I think it helps explain nicely how the issue might be implemented:

1. LrC knows the full path to the catalog and if "OneDrive" is a node in that path could certainly pop up a warning message each time when Lrc is launched (unless "don't show again" is in effect). Something like
   
   "We have noticed that your catalog is being kept in a "OneDrive" folder. Please be advised that having the LrC catalog under control of OneDrive is known to cause catalog corruption for many users. It is suggested that you move your catalog to a folder that is not under OneDrive. See https:\\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for more informaton and instructions on how to do this"
   
   
2. It would also be nice to have a "Move catalog" option in the file menu along with "Rename Catalog"
   
   
3. At initial setup, LrC could pop up a dialog box asking the user to select a folder and a name for the catalog. If the user selected a folder under OneDrive a similar warning could be shown

[vbnut]

Also it is pointless to default the Backups folder to a location on the same drive that the Lightroom catalog is stored.  When the drive fails, you lose not only the master catalog but every backup of that catalog and no hope of recovery.

While I agree it is less than ideal to have the Backups folder on the same drive as the catalog (for the reason you mentioned), I think it is an overstatement to say "it is pointless".  There are other reasons folks need to use a backup besides drive failure, and a backup on the same drive works fine for many of them. Keep in mind that not everybody has multiple drives.

The most important thing is to create backups sufficiently often (e.g. every time LrC exits) and a second priority is to make the backups survive a disk failure. There are multiple ways to accomplish that.  One is to put the backup folder on a different drive.  Another (maybe even better) is to use  backup software to backup the catalog backups following the 3-2-1 rule (three copies of your data, stored on two different types of media, with one copy kept off-site).

That said, I agree that Adobe should do something to encourage new LrC users to follow good backup practices.

[gnits999]

Explore the possible solution when creating the Lightroom Catalog folder of insisting the folder is created and flagged as Local.

This would not change the fundimentals or principles of storing in the Pictures folder, but by setting the Catalog Folder as 'Local' means that it protected as local.  This ties in with the Sqlite requirement of not placing catalogs on 'network' type drives (ie non local).

Also.. option to move Catalog is a good idea.