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C Drive Memory Issue after changing External Drive letters

Community Beginner ,
Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022

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Hello

After encountering the issue whereby Lighroom would mix up my external hard drives for one time to many, I decided to fix the problem permanently by changing the letters in my drives to O and above. 

So I did this (changed my work drive to Z, personal to O) and very frustratingly I can't remember what I did next for solving the issues born from the intial mixing up... I'm pretty sure I mostly used re-importation... with occassional use of the Find Missing Folder option... (sorry I know that's not very unhelpful) 

My work drive got sorted issue free and then I moved onto my personal drive, which was in the process of creating/finding previews etc (I think this only happens during re-importation rather than Find Missing Folder?) and halfway through the process I started getting notifications that my C-Drive was running low on memory... and by the time everything was done, I went from having over 100GB of free space on my 475GB SSD C-Drive to less than 1GB. Prior to the aforementioned external drive mix-up issue both external drives were fully integrated with Lightroom and had no new content put into them before or after my changing the drive letters/reimporting/finding missing folders. Also, since all this happened my C-Drive space seems to be fluctuating, going up and down to up again with no clear reason. 

Any ideas? Very frustrating as I thought I had finally nailed a very annoying problem only to have created a new one that is much harder to solve. 

Thank You Everyone

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LEGEND ,
Jun 08, 2022 Jun 08, 2022

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Please post your System Information as Lightroom Classic (LrC) reports it. In LrC click on Help, then System Info, then Copy. Paste that information into a reply. Please present all information from first line down to and including Plug-in Info. Info after Plug-in info can be cut as that is just so much dead space to us non-Techs.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 09, 2022 Jun 09, 2022

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Hello GoldingD

Thank you for replying. Here is my System Information, as requested.

Lightroom Classic version: 11.3.1 [ 202204181225-f90ebff5 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition
Version: 10.0.22000
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 2.2GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 14249.6 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 14249.6 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1135.9 MB (7.9%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 1254.8 MB
GDI objects count: 617
USER objects count: 2044
Process handles count: 3046
Memory cache size: 522.9MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 14.3 [ 1072 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 93MB / 7124MB (1%)
Camera Raw real memory: 94MB / 14249MB (0%)
System DPI setting: 120 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 1920x1080
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: Yes, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: Yes

Graphics Processor Info:
DirectX: AMD Radeon(TM) RX Vega 10 Graphics (30.0.13023.4001)

 

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: C:\Users\david\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-v10-v11.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\david\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Facebook
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 1002
Device : 15d8
Subsystem : 8615103c
Revision : c1
Video Memory : 2033
Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414
Device : 8c
Subsystem : 0
Revision : 0
Video Memory : 0
AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024
AudioDeviceName: $$$/dvaaudiodevice/SystemDefaultAndEffectiveDeviceName=System Default - Speaker/Headphone (Realtek(R) Audio)#{comment}DVAAU-4201250: Open the audio hardware preferences page.
AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2
AudioDeviceSampleRate: 48000
Build: Uninitialized
Direct2DEnabled: false

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Community Expert ,
Jun 09, 2022 Jun 09, 2022

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"I mostly used re-importation..."

Which was the totally wrong thing to do!

Relinking the Catalog to the new drive letter does NOT involve re-importing in any way.

This quote is from the Article by the Lightroom Queen which describes in Step#4 how to relink folder location to the changed drive letter (without Importing!)

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

"...right-click on the parent folder (rather than the individual subfolders) and select Find Missing Folder from the context-sensitive menu, then navigate to the new location of that parent folder. As long as the names and structure of the subfolders haven’t changed, all of the subfolders are fixed at the same time."

 

Having now re-imported images you have probably 'Copied' all the files and so filled up C-Drive. You may now have a real mess to clean up and we would need more information about the current locations of your image files and file system, BEFORE you do anything else..

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 09, 2022 Jun 09, 2022

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Hi Rob

Damn, I see. I think the reason I had to use some re-importation was because some of the folders on my drives had just disappeared entirely, leaving me no choice. What you said seems to be the most likely scenario I think, so perhaps the folders that I had to re-import have created doubles. 

The majority of my Lightroom image files are located on my two external hard drives, with some on the laptop itself and I think as of now all images from both my work and personal external hard drives have Smart Previews of 1:1, 1920x size and of medium quality... something which I think wasn't the case before my mess up, rather, I think it was mostly my work images that had Smart Previews built rarther than everything on my personal drive. 

I have noticed something which may help though. Lightroom says I have 22,054 images in total (desktop + both hard drives) but when I checked the properties of my Previews.lrdata, it says the it contains 30,062 files in total.... might this be an indication of copied files? I have attached screenshots of my descriptions. 



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Community Expert ,
Jun 09, 2022 Jun 09, 2022

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I had to use some re-importation was because some of the folders on my drives had just disappeared entirely, leaving me no choice.

Possibly you opened an old catalog that did not contain those folders.

If you used the [Copy] option when you re-imported then you now have two versions of those imported images in your system, and LrC will only be referencing one version that is in the new import location (the files in the source location could be deleted with care!).

I notice you still have older {Lightroom Catalog.lrcat} and {Lightroom Catalog-v10.lrcat} in the folder with {Lightroom Catalog-v10-v11.lrcat}.

 

both my work and personal external hard drives have Smart Previews of 1:1,

Why? If you work with both external drives attached- you do not need smart previews at all. 1:1 Previews will be quite satisfactory- and you can set preferences to delete 1:1s after a set time (eg. 30 days)- thus keeping the preview folder smaller.

If you work with the drives not connected, then, yes, you need SPs.

 

my Previews.lrdata, it says the it contains 30,062 files in total...

Ignore! Previews.lrdata is a constantly changing cache that does not reflect the image count. It merely provides alll the views (thumbnails, 1:1, etc) that you see on screen. And it may still have old data that has not updated with your recent imports.

 

 

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 10, 2022 Jun 10, 2022

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Possibly you opened an old catalog that did not contain those folders.

If you used the [Copy] option when you re-imported then you now have two versions of those imported images in your system

This is what did then, as until very recently (as in, post this screw up) I had been using the Copy option all the time as I didn't fully understand the import process... so this must be the reason for the massive loss of space. You said the files in the source location could be deleted? Is this how I would resolve my problem? if so, what exactly does that entail? Is the source location something to do with the Lightroom folder itself or with the drives? 

Why? If you work with both external drives attached- you do not need smart previews at all. 1:1 Previews will be quite satisfactory- and you can set preferences to delete 1:1s after a set time (eg. 30 days)- thus keeping the preview folder smaller. If you work with the drives not connected, then, yes, you need SPs.


When i first started using Lightroom I had to use my personal external drive for work to, so I didn't have it plugged in at all times so I would use SP's frequently. Recently I have started to use a seperate drive for work purposes and have keep the SP feature ticked out of habit, also, my work drive is a Hard Drive whereas my personal one/my laptop are SSD's.


  





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LEGEND ,
Jun 10, 2022 Jun 10, 2022

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I think the reason I had to use some re-importation was because some of the folders on my drives had just disappeared entirely, leaving me no choice.

 

Explain this in more detail. What does "disappeared entirely" mean? What did you do?

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 10, 2022 Jun 10, 2022

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Sorry, what I mean is in Lightroom itself on the 'Folders' section, certain folders or sub-folders within them belonging to my two drives were missing. Missing as in not greyed out with the ? icon, as in just gone even though I knew they were still on the drives themselves, this occured after the drive letter mix up issue (which I learned how to resolve thanks to your reply on another thread btw, thank you!)  

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Community Expert ,
Jun 10, 2022 Jun 10, 2022

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I had been using the Copy option all the time

I do not have access to your system so only you can know, but the [Copy] option does exactly that- Copies files to a new location, and adds the files in the new location to the catalog.

I can only summize that your 'import' copied files from an external drive to the C-Drive, thus filling the space on C.

In general two scenarios-

1) Use [Copy] to import new images from a camera memory card.

2) Use [Add] to import new image files that already exist on a hard-drive.

 

You said the files in the source location could be deleted? Is this how I would resolve my problem?

Well YOU have to know which files are indexed in the catalog- Are they indexed on the external or C-drive? So do NOT delete files unless you understand the problem in detail.

 

A good learning source-

https://jkost.com/blog/lightroom-training-videos

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 11, 2022 Jun 11, 2022

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So I have searched all through my C Drive in order to find out if there are copies of these files on the system and it doesn't seem to be the case, if they are on here they are extremely well hidden. I did find some copied folders which were titled simply with year dates from imports two years ago, where a RAW file has been duplicated 3 times for exampl and have got rid of those alongside some fairly old Lightroom Backup folders, bringing me up to around 50gb of free space (nearly half of what I had prior to this issue). There are no duplicates on either of my externals either. 

I know this has already been discussed, but the size of my 1:1 Previews data is 108gb and this basically accounts for the rest of my missing space. I think what has happened is that prior to the issue happening, I did not have 1:1 Previews for many of my images, probably under half, and during my mass re-importation of both drives I created 1:1's for everything... whilst doing the same for Smart Previews but the latter has only taken up 5.28gb. My Discard Preveiws timing is set to 30 Days (only a week has elapsed since my issue started) and as far as I am aware it has always been set to this. I am considering setting this to After One Day and seeing how that goes, basically starting anew and then setting it back to 30 Days. 

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 11, 2022 Jun 11, 2022

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Some screenshots to tie into my last post, if that helps. 

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 11, 2022 Jun 11, 2022

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Update; 

As i described earlier, I made changes this morning (getting rid of old backups and removing those old import files with duplicates etc) and my C Drive space bumped up to around 50gb. I then selected Discard Previews after One Day and was doing some general Youtube browsing etc etc. As I went to close Lightroom before heading out, I've noticed that my C Drive space is now 115gb.... not really sure how that's happened or if it's only temporary but thought it was worth mentioning...  

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LEGEND ,
Jun 10, 2022 Jun 10, 2022

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Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: C:\Users\david\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-v10-v11.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\david\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

 

So your catalog, and as such, the library previews are on your C drive.

The Application folder is on C by default, and the settings folder on C by default, those two are not of concern, and not worth the trouble pf changing.

 

Returning to the catalog location. LrC can take advantage of hard drive speed, by placing the catalog on your fastest hard drive (think SSD), the Camera RAW CACHE can also benefit from hard drive speed. The locations for photos does not matter in terms of hard drive speed. Note that Library previews must be on the same drive as the catalog.

 

Now, that is IF your fastest hard drive has space available. 

 

That all being said, if you have drive space issues on a SSD C drive, then perhaps the catalog should be moved to another drive. Note that you need to have at least 25% free space on the hard drive containing the catalog, or performance will degreat.

 

Another concern is the Camera RAW CACHE, yes that should get purged upon closure, but if hard drive space is at a premium on C, perhaps relocate that. Incidentally, I see you have Windows, the Camera RAW CACHE and the Windows paging file, if both on drive C, will compete for read/wright threads. You can move the paging file, but it is easier to move the CACHE.

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