Are my LR CC image edits saved onto external backup volume?

[RogerG40767081]

If I edit my images in Lightroom CC and then backup onto an external volume are all my image edits also saved and visible? In other words if I recall an image from an external backup volume will the latest edits be apparent, or will it be the original raw/tif before edits? Do I have to export as a final step to save before backing up?

[kglad]

[moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Lightroom Classic — The desktop-focused app]

[dj_paige]

Please clarify: there is no longer any program named Lightroom CC. You might have either Lightroom Classic (or some earlier version which was named just plain Lightroom) or you might have the new Lightroom (which is confusing, it's the same name as an earlier program, but its not that earlier program). So what software are you using?

[RogerG40767081]

Lightroom Classic

[dj_paige]

Edits are saved to the catalog file. That's where you find the edits. And so, any backup strategy must include making backups of the catalog file, and backups of the photos. Exporting copies of the photos is not a part of the process of creating and using backups.

When you need to use the backup, you can copy them to the EXACT original location, and Lightroom's catalog will apply the edits properly. If the original location is no longer available (disk unusable, for example), you can point Lightroom's catalog to the location of the backups, and the edits will be applied (if you need to do this, please ask for instructions).

Also, Importing photos from the backup drive is completely wrong, and is not the solution. DO NOT IMPORT. This is so important, I am going to say it four more times, in capital letters, so you know I really mean it.

DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT. DO NOT IMPORT.

[RogerG40767081]

Thanks but I am still unsure.

dj_paige  wrote

Edits are saved to the catalog file. That's where you find the edits. And so, any backup strategy must include making backups of the catalog file, and backups of the photos. Exporting copies of the photos is not a part of the process of creating and using backups.

When you need to use the backup, you can copy them to the EXACT original location, and Lightroom's catalog will apply the edits properly.

The above I understand.

dj_paige  wrote

If the original location is no longer available (disk unusable, for example), you can point Lightroom's catalog to the location of the backups, and the edits will be applied (if you need to do this, please ask for instructions).

Also, Importing photos from the backup drive is completely wrong, and is not the solution. DO NOT IMPORT. This is so important,

This I do not understand. Please advise further. I am currently backing up everything on my iMac to an external hard drive which includes my pictures folder incrementally as changes are made. I assume any images imports will have to be directed to the appropriate folder for past edits to be applied.

However, you are quite emphatic on the demerits of importing images. Please enlighten me on how I backup to an external volume without the distinct possibility of recalling an image at some time, for whatever use. I only use the external volumes as insurance against disk failure as my iCloud backup does not have enough capacity. More help needed please.

[dj_paige]

RogerG40767081  wrote

dj_paige   wrote

If the original location is no longer available (disk unusable, for example), you can point Lightroom's catalog to the location of the backups, and the edits will be applied (if you need to do this, please ask for instructions).

Also, Importing photos from the backup drive is completely wrong, and is not the solution. DO NOT IMPORT. This is so important,

This I do not understand. Please advise further. I am currently backing up everything on my iMac to an external hard drive which includes my pictures folder incrementally as changes are made. I assume any images imports will have to be directed to the appropriate folder for past edits to be applied.

It's not clear what your question is, or why you are now discussing "any images imports". In the process of making backups of your photos and backups of your catalog file, and then later using those backups in Lightroom, there is no importing. (Yes, of course images must be imported into Lightroom to do anything with them in Lightroom, but that is not part of the process of making backups and later using them).

However, you are quite emphatic on the demerits of importing images.

I am emphatic about not importing images IN THE PROCESS OF USING YOUR BACKUPS. (Importing of photos originally so you can use them in Lightroom is necessary)

Please enlighten me on how I backup to an external volume without the distinct possibility of recalling an image at some time, for whatever use. I only use the external volumes as insurance against disk failure as my iCloud backup does not have enough capacity. More help needed please.

To use a backup photo (or an entire folder of backups), you COPY the backups to the exact ORIGINAL folder that they were in. And that's all you need to do to use your backups. There is no importing. If you can't put them in the exact original folder (for example, if the disk crashes) you can still use the photos by telling LR where the backups are (we can provide instructions); this is not an import, that is not the purpose of importing.

[RogerG40767081]

dj_paige  wrote

..... if the disk crashes) you can still use the photos by telling LR where the backups are (we can provide instructions) ...

Yes instructions please. If my Mac hard disk crashed, I have the images and the lrcat files saved externally so how would I do that?

[dj_paige]

dj_paige  wrote

..... if the disk crashes) you can still use the photos by telling LR where the backups are (we can provide instructions) ...

Yes instructions please. If my Mac hard disk crashed, I have the images and the lrcat files saved externally so how would I do that?

You have to point Lightroom to the new location of your photos. The instructions are here: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

[RogerG40767081]

dj_paige  wrote

dj_paige   wrote

You have to point Lightroom to the new location of your photos. The instructions are here: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders

Thanks to everyone for your input. I need to read and digest the LR info in the link above.

[richardplondon]

In case it's helpful, I like to think of importing a file to Lightroom, as like someone becoming a new citizen of a country.

So, the person is issued a unique Social Security number (or whatever) and some information starts to accumulate tied to this: their name, address, etc. Such matters as tax, welfare, passport can then start to happen - all tied to this same unique personal ID.

Now something happens which means the accuracy of official records about the person, come into question. For example, it is thought the person may have moved address since official mail gets returned undelivered - file not found.

There are three ways to resolve that:

1. not worry about it for now - maybe she's just away visiting her aunt (disconnected external drive, say)
2. substitute a corrected address etc if / as needed in the official records, but still tied to this same unique Social Security number which all the other citizenship, tax, welfare, passport etc stuff continues to refer to.
3. to issue the same person with an entirely new Social Security number, as if they were a new arrival - attaching their current address. But this Social Security number links to no evidence of having ever paid any tax, of having any right of residence, etc. Those things belong to someone else officially speaking.

3 is importing a file that you've recalled from backup. It creates more problems than it fixes, and sorting it all out is a nightmare.

If you can restore an image file to its original location from backup, say after a disk problem, that is like the person returning home from her aunt's house: the official letters sent to the person's normal address can once again get through, and the official paperwork all turns out to be perfectly fine with nothing to fix or do.

[DdeGannes]

I agree with dj-Paige, just a couple of points to focus on.

a. Lightroom’s default function is to store all the work you do in Lightroom, metadata, edits etc in the Catalog File.

b. You can also select the option in your to ‘automatically write xmp to file’ or use the menu option Metadata > Save Metadata to file. This will create a xmp side car for raw files and to the file header for dng, tiff and jpeg files.

c The Lightroom does not your original images inside the Catalog file.

d. Lightroom backup option available when you exit Lightroom only creates a backup of the Catalog file. There is no option in Lightroom to backup your image files.

[JP Hess]

With any version of Lightroom it is necessary to export a copy of the image in order to have one that includes all of the editing that you have completed. To confirm this, open one of the images that you have backed up using another program such as Photoshop or another image editor other than Lightroom, and you will discover that all of the work that you have done using Lightroom will not be reflected in the backup of the image.

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi Roger,

As Paige has suggested, would you mind sharing more details on which exact version of Lightroom you're working with? You can check that by going to Help > System Info. It would be helpful for us to help you out further.

Also, as you're looking to back up the images on an external drive you may have to export them out of Lightroom after editing them.

Regards,
Sahil

[Just Shoot Me]

RogerG40767081  wrote

If I edit my images in Lightroom CC and then backup onto an external volume are all my image edits also saved and visible? In other words if I recall an image from an external backup volume will the latest edits be apparent, or will it be the original raw/tif before edits? Do I have to export as a final step to save before backing up?

If you have the option to Auto Write changes into XMP, which is in the Catalog Settings dialog window, and then make a backup of your image files to an external drive then the answer is YES. But you also need to back up the LR catalog to some other physical hard disk drive than where your Working catalog is stored.

The Edits made in LR will only be visible in either LR or, with the Auto Write changes option checked, in Adobe Camera RAW.

No other program can read and display those edits

Not sure what you mean by "Recall an image from an external backup volume". You Never Recall an image into LR. They are either in the LR catalog file, Really a Database file as there are NO Images INSIDE LR, or they are not, have not been imported, into LR.

LR is a Database program and References the images you import into the Database file, the catalog files, as to where, what drive and in what folders, they are stored in.

So if for some reason you need to Restore images images from a backup to the original location they were stored you just Copy over from the backup to the original location. Original drive name or letter and in the same folder names

[RogerG40767081]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Just+Shoot+Me  wrote

If you have the option to Auto Write changes into XMP, which is in the Catalog Settings dialog window, and then make a backup of your image files to an external drive then the answer is YES. But you also need to back up the LR catalog to some other physical hard disk drive than where your Working catalog is stored.

The Edits made in LR will only be visible in either LR or, with the Auto Write changes option checked, in Adobe Camera RAW.

No other program can read and display those edits

Sorry but don't understand the above, please explain.

I think I have not explained clearly. I recall images from my external drive to the pictures folder where they were originally and then import to LR. So theoretically they should be allied to the edit info, so long as the file name is the same, right?

[Just Shoot Me]

RogerG40767081  wrote

Sorry but don't understand the above, please explain.

I think I have not explained clearly. I recall images from my external drive to the pictures folder where they were originally and then import to LR. So theoretically they should be allied to the edit info, so long as the file name is the same, right?

Whatever edits you did to any image in LR only exists in the LR catalog file when that image is actually IN the LR catalog file.

If you remove that image, whether you just Remove from the Catalog or Delete from Disk, from the catalog file all the edits you did are also removed, Deleted.

Sorry to say but you clearly do not have proper knowledge on how LR works and how to properly work with LR.

You should look into some of the good online tutorial on how LR  works and how to work with LR

Once you import an image into LR, other than if it is a Dud, bad, no good, you should NEVER remove it from the LR catalog or remove/delete it from your hard drive. Whetehr or not you have a so called Back Up of that image. If you are running out of internal hard drive space you can move some of those images to an external drive but do NOT remove them from the LR catalog (Please note this is NOT a Backup. You should also have another, Second or third external drive, that holds all your images and that is the actual backup of your images).

There should never be a reason to Re-Import images into the LR catalog. All images you want to keep should be in the catalog.

I have images, printed picture, negatives, and slides, taken from 1969 to the early 2000's that have been scanned and digital images from 2004 onward in my catalog. All of them are on one of my internal drive and I have 2 backups of them on 2 different external drives.

[dj_paige]

RogerG40767081  wrote

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Just+Shoot+Me   wrote

If you have the option to Auto Write changes into XMP, which is in the Catalog Settings dialog window, and then make a backup of your image files to an external drive then the answer is YES. But you also need to back up the LR catalog to some other physical hard disk drive than where your Working catalog is stored.

The Edits made in LR will only be visible in either LR or, with the Auto Write changes option checked, in Adobe Camera RAW.

No other program can read and display those edits

Sorry but don't understand the above, please explain.

I think I have not explained clearly. I recall images from my external drive to the pictures folder where they were originally and then import to LR. So theoretically they should be allied to the edit info, so long as the file name is the same, right?

No.

Importing is not a step in this process. Importing will not link the photo with its edits. (Linking the catalog with the photo — instructions have been provided — will link the photo with its edits).

You have a major misconception about importing what Lightroom does. Importing is needed only once, so that Lightroom knows about the photo, this is done the first time you want Lightroom to do anything with a photo. After that, you do not import that photo again, because Lightroom already knows about the photo, it know the edits and other work you have performed on this photo. It is extremely black-and-white, there is no gray area. Import once, after that do not import that photo again.

You need to throw away this misconception about importing. It will only harm you in the long run.

[Just Shoot Me]

So the answer to your original question is NO.

The backup of your images, or what you thinks is a Back UP and that is actually the only copy of those images, do not contain the edits you have done to them in LR if at any point you Remove those images from the LR catalog file.