Basic Lightroom Classic Mac OS installation question

[tm255]

I want to be sure that I am doing this correctly as I don't want to lose my LR catalog.  Thanks in advance for any help!

I texted and talked to Adobe Support and I did not understand their response.

I am running PS CS5 and LR 6.0 on a Mac OS 10.13.6.  I want to change to the subscription LR Classic with Photoshop.  My old LR/PS software will not run on OS newer than 10.13.6 which has been holding me back as far as OS updates, so the other piece of this puzzle is upgrading to the newest Mac OS.

My question is, what steps should I follow and in what order?  The Adobe rep said to update the OS first, and while that may be correct it seems kind of counterintuitive as I would think that install of the new software, either over the old or after deleting the old, would come first.  It also seems as though some kind of "safety" backup of the LR catalog might be a good idea but the rep said that is not necessary.

Anyway, just hoping to get some guidance to minimize my chances of disaster!  Thanks!

[kglad]

<moved from download&install>

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

The current Lightroom Classic runs on OSX 10.15 or later. So you cannot install it on Mac OS 10.13.6. You have to install it after you upgrade the operating system.

Please before you go ahead and do this, make sure you have backups of your catalog file and all photos (and any presets) on a different disk (which you should be doing on a regular basis anyway).

[tm255]

Thank you for taking the time to answer!

I have an external HD making Time Machine backups, and I also have Backblaze making cloud backups, so I have not been periodically backing up catalog/photos/presets on a separate external HD.  I think that it makes sense to do such backup before I do the upgrade.

I have an extra external HD that I can use for this -- can you tell me, or point me to a source, of exactly how to do the backup of the catalog/photos/presets?

[dj_paige]

I have an extra external HD that I can use for this -- can you tell me, or point me to a source, of exactly how to do the backup of the catalog/photos/presets?

By @tm255

You just use your operating system to copy the files to the external HD ... but if you have cloud backups and Time Machine backups, I would not bother making a backup on the external HD because you already have two forms of protection.

[tm255]

OK thanks I thought that TM and BB backups may be sufficient, but I'll go ahead and copy those files (provided that I can find them) onto the spare HD since I have it; might be easier to find that way if I need to.

I'm a belt + suspenders type, I guess ...... who has been burned in the past by doing computer "servicing" with just kinda sorta knowing what I was doing.

Again, thank you for helping!

[tm255]

I have Lightroom Photo Library which I will copy onto my backup HD.  I also have a Lightrom folder with contents as in the screen shot.

Within the Lightroom folder I don't know the difference between Backups and Download Backups, and for this purpose it probably doesn't matter.  I'm guessing that LightroomCatalog.lrcat is the key thing to copy, but I can copy all of it to be sure.

I'm not finding any presets within, and I don't think that I have any other than the "standard" ones that came on LR6.

[TheDigitalDog]

My two cents: do NOT use Time Machine for this kind of backup. 

DO use Backblaze and also consider a local backup to some kind of external hard drive. Even a few in rotation (one that maybe lives in a fireproof media safe). Backup any and everything you can't afford to ever lose, meaning a lot more than just the catalog. Images presets (Store Presets with Catalog pref), DCP camera profiles and more. 

That's my belt and suspenders backup. 

[tm255]

Thanks thedigitaldog!  Good suggestion.  I'm going to add backup to a local hard drive to the TM and BackBlaze routine.  But, and sorry to sound like a broken record, let me ask specifically which of my files need backing up (it looks like my screen shot did not work) to the external HD (I don't see anything labelled Images presets, DCP profiles, etc.?  I have found all the following files related to LR:

Photo Library folder

Another separate folder that contains:

Backups folder (contains files dated from 2013 to the present day)

Download Backups folder (contains files dated from 2015 to 2018)

Plus these files that are separate from the above two folders:

Lightroo...talog.lrcat

Lightroo...iews.lrdata

Lightroo...talog.lrcat

Lightroo...at-journal

Lightroo...lrcat.lock

It looks like there is some redundancy, as in 2 items labelled Lightroo...talog.lrcat and two folders containing multiple backups from 2013 to 2022 (I would guess that the most recent is the one to copy, but if I knew I would not be asking).

Thanks again for the help!

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/backup-lightroom-files/

[tm255]

Excellent!  Thanks very much!

[tm255]

Just a follow up ...... Upgraded to OS Monterey, insatlled PS and LRC.  Unfortunately am gettting the message that there is not access to folders, and the fix via System Prefererences does not work.

Will address in another post.  Thanks again for the installation help here!

[dj_paige · Accepted solution]

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-give-full-disk-access...

[tm255]

Great, looks like that solved it!  Those instructions are better than the ones thatI was linked to from within LRC when I encountered the problem.

Something odd, however.  Attached are a snapshot of what Adobe says Files and Folders should look like, and with the ability to add more apps via the "+" sign ...... along with a snap of what my Files and Folders looks like, plus my "+" sign is grayed out i.e. I can't add any other apps (LRC and BackBlaze appeared in Files and Folders once I gave them full disk access).

Any idea on what's going on with Files and Folders?

And again, thanks for the great help!