Skip to main content
R
RandomPhotographer
Participant
February 15, 2021
Answered

Changing the location where Ligthroom Classic stores the Previews folder

  • February 15, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 1278 views

I want my catalog in the Dropbox folder, and my previews outside the Dropbox folder. Since the previews can be regenerated, there is no need to have them in Dropbox.

 

Is this possible ? Is there a way to store the previews folder (e.g. Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata) in a different directory than the catalog file (e.g. Lightroom Catalog-v10.lrcat) ?

 

Thanks !

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer JohanElzenga

I think this should be the correct command:

mklink /D "Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata" "E:\Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata"

 

3 replies

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 15, 2021

Lightroom Classic does follow symbolic links, or at least it did. I am not a Windows expert (I use Mac) but I'm pretty sure the target in your link command is not correct. You missed the backslash in the target path, so your link points at something that does not exist. See: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
February 15, 2021

I think this should be the correct command:

mklink /D "Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata" "E:\Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata"

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
R
RandomPhotographerAuthor
Participant
February 15, 2021

Thank you Johan and DJ. I added the missing \ and it now works like a charm !

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
February 15, 2021

You can look up Symbolic Link, which will allow the previews to be elsewhere, but there can be a loss of performance when you do this.

R
RandomPhotographerAuthor
Participant
February 15, 2021

I tried your suggestion and set up a symbolic link using

mklink "Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata" "E:Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata"
mklink /D "Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata" "E:Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata"

Unfortunately both ways of setting up the symbolic link resulted in the same message below when I start Lightroom Classic, once, twice, ...

 

 

Somehow, the symbolic link is not transparent to LR Classic !?

DdeGannes
Community Expert
DdeGannesCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 15, 2021

As far as I am aware the previews must reside in the same folder as the Catalog file. The preview file are Catalog specific.

 

Regards, Denis: iMac 27” mid-2015, macOS 11.7.10 Big Sur; 2TB SSD, 24 GB Ram, GPU 2 GB; LrC 12.5,; Lr 6.5, PS 24.7,; ACR 15.5,; (also Laptop Win 11, ver 24H2, LrC 15.0.1, PS 27.0; ) Camera Oly OM-D E-M1.
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices