How do I rename my Catalog [and the other items inside the catalog folder?

[victoriajourneyzing]

I am on a Mac [Monterey] and using LrC and named a catalog incorrectly "Family Images" - I'm going to want to change that name and gather it's mainly something I can do in Finder which is fine = but wht about all the other similarly named items inside the folder:  I certainly can do that in Finder but was afraid of doing so without really knowing what I am doing .  Thanks.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @victoriajourneyzing. Welcome to the Lightroom Classic community. I'll help you figure this out.

Lightroom creates & reads catalog-related files with the same name as the catalog. If we rename the catalog & don't rename the related files, Lightroom Classic will recreate all the related files.

Below is an example of my Test catalog, now renamed May 2023.

You can check this to learn more about renaming & managing your catalog: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/catalog-faq-lightroom.html

Let me know if this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K

[dj_paige]

First, you do have current backups of everything, don't you? If not, then that is your number 1 priority, make backups of your catalog file(s) and all photos.

Renaming a catalog is only really useful if you have multiple catalogs. And if you have multiple catalogs, in most cases this is not a good idea in my opinion. There are a few cases that are exceptions, like one catalog for personal photos and one catalog for work-related photos. So in almost all cases I would recommend combining the catalogs into one rather than renaming.

Once you are sure you have backups, consider combining the catalogs into one. (I am trying to steer you towards a better method) If that still is not palatable to you, simply rename the catalog file in your operating system.

[victoriajourneyzing]

First yes I have backups...and back ups...and backups....I once searched for an image and had 26 of it!  But more to the point, yes I will be sure to go carefully.  I honestly decided I did NOT want to have multiple catalogs = just for the reason you suggested.  But I started with the name Family Photos or something like that then added some from the Art Center and realized I should just have a more generalized Catalog name and then organize within the catalog = I'll do a renaming as discussed above and here and will move on == theh reason not to combine is that this is the only one I have and I want the new more general name before I add more to it.  Thanks for the ideas.

[victoriajourneyzing]

Thanks again.  I renamed the LRC catalog to "Collected 2023" figuring I could then put all the 2023 pics inside it...it created new properly named subfiles [preview, lrcat-data etc but it also left the original old named ones [Family images] - is it safe to delete the Family Images ones ??  They appear to be larger than the Collected ones so am concerned about deleting them - 

[dj_paige]

Yes anything whose name contains Family Images can be deleted.