Can I delete all these Catalog files?

[RogerG40767081]

I am, like many others confused as to what I can safely delete.  I have many files as below from 10 years ago to today.  Some are 60mb in size.  Can I delete them?

Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat

Lightroom Catalog-2-v10.lrcat

Lightroom Catalog-2-v10-v11.lrcat-data

Lightroom Catalog-2-v10-v11 Helper.lrdata

Lightroom 2 Catalog Previews.lrdata

[dj_paige]

First, find the name of your current working catalog. Clearly then, don't delete that catalog or other files in that folder which use the same name.

As for the rest of them going back 10 years, I really think that those of us here across the internet can't be of much help. We don't know what is in your files. You have to look at what is in the catalog with your own eyes and decide if these catalogs contain information that is not in your current working catalog.

If you are the kind of person who used one and only one catalog during your time with Lightroom/Lightroom Classic, it is likely you can delete earlier catalogs, but you (not those of us here across the Internet) need to confirm that you can delete older catalogs. Don't come back and say some guy in this forum said you can delete it, because we didn't say that.

If you use two or more catalogs, then you have to do some work to figure out what is still needed.

[RogerG40767081]

Thanks.  Does all the above change if I store and backup my images to an external drive?  I re-import them for further edits.  Does anything change if I re-import an old image say 5 years old but have deleted the catalog file?

[dj_paige]

In the end, YOU still have to verify if you need an old catalog or not. It doesn't matter where the catalogs and images are stored.

Does anything change if I re-import an old image say 5 years old but have deleted the catalog file?

If you are doing things this way, then I suggest you develop a workflow that does not require re-importing files. But since I'm really not sure what you are doing, I can't say if this affects my answers. So I stick with the advice already given: "In the end, YOU still have to verify if you need an old catalog or not. It doesn't matter where the catalogs and images are stored."

[RogerG40767081]

I have been told before tthat you should never import image files apart from when they are first imported from camera.  So do I understand that you keep ALL your image previews from years before in LR?  Doesn't your LR library become too big and difficult to search and manage?  I have thousands of images scattered across 3 external drives and even really old ones on cd/dvd.  I am interested on how you would approach this.  I use NeoFinder that searches for any image on my network but ultimately they are not always present in the LR library.  Thats why I import however wrong it may be.  Interested to hear your thoughts on this.

[richardplondon]

The strong advice you are probably thinking of, is against importing again, as some kind of a "fix" for problems with images that have been imported already (but have not since been removed).

In that case a conflicting 'double-import' will only make matters worse, not better.

However if you have removed those images and now you want them back in the Catalog again, then of course you would need to import those a second time - not as a 'double-import' so there is no conflict.

If you had previously written out editing metadata to those images while they were imported before, then this editing metadata will be automatically re-used at re-import. But aside from that, it will be as if the Catalog was seeing these for the first time.

Accordingly all Collection and Publish memberships / virtual and proofing copies / detailed prior develop History / stacking and custom sort / etc that may have previously seen, reset to zero. Such stuff cannot persist except within a Lightroom Catalog. 

So yes, if you can do it, simply accumulating all images in the Catalog is preferable IMO.

And if you do decide to take images out of the Catalog eventually, perhaps year by year, and perhaps only the less valued images from a certain year's shooting - this can involve Export as Catalog, copying out a new 'archive' library with selective contents. Then just those same images can be removed (if appropriate) from the main working Catalog. This raises the possibility of later accessing those removed images via this other archive Catalog - plus if desirable, bringing selected images back into the main Catalog. But doing it this way, they will arrive complete with their full  Lightroom info - which would otherwise not have all survived.

[dj_paige]

I have been told before tthat you should never import image files apart from when they are first imported from camera.  So do I understand that you keep ALL your image previews from years before in LR? 

I wasn't talking about previews, I was talking about the original images. Don't re-import them. Leave them in your catalog. So organizing, managing, searching and so on, is easier with Lightroom Classic than not using Lightroom Classic.

Doesn't your LR library become too big and difficult to search and manage?

Lightroom Classic has all the tools you need to identify and search for specific photos among the (in my case) over 40,000 images in the catalog.

I have thousands of images scattered across 3 external drives and even really old ones on cd/dvd.

Lightroom Classic makes this easier, not harder.

But in all of the cases above, you actually have to use the tools to make organizing, identifying and finding photos easier. If you don't use the tools you have, well I don't know any system that works well.

[Jill_C]

When I originally set up my Lightroom catalog about 5 years ago it was with the specific goal of getting ALL of my images from various internal and external hard drives in one place and in one catalog. What a great decision that was! I have every digital image I've ever shot going back to my first digital camera in 2003 (now exceeding 163,000) in one place. The primary drive is a 5TB WB external hard drive; there's also a 5 TB backup drive, and another copy in the cloud. Recently I bought an 8 TB drive for primary storage since the 1st 5 TB drive is nearly full; I'll migrate all images to that drive, which will be connected to the Lightroom Catalog, and keep the two 5 TB drives as the local backups. 

The LRC catalog grows very slowly; it's about 2.6GB now. It's installed on the SSD in my PC, and backed up to the 5 TB external HD. If you think of the LRC catalog as the card catalog in the library (if you're old enough to remember such things), it was always located in the lobby of the library and it wouldn't have made sense for there to be multiple card catalog files scattered around in different places in the library. The books (images in the case of LRC) can be anywhere on multiple shelves (drives), but having the card catalog (Library) in one place and intact allows you to find any image easily, particularly if you're diligent about applying at least a minimum of keywords. I can find any image in seconds. The ability to search rapidly does not seem to be impacted at all by the size of the catalog or number of images.

However, there are legitimate reasons to keep separate catalogs; for instance if you're a professional photographer, perhaps a wedding photographer, you would want to keep "work" images" in a different catalog from "personal" images. 

[RogerG40767081]

Thanks to all.  Very interesting.