Icons on desktop

[Inge M]

Every I time I open LightRoom Classic version 12,01 I get these icons on my desctop. They are white or red and it says DATA on them. How can I avoid this? And what is is it? 🙂 Inge

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

You've stored your Lightroom Classic Catalog on your Desktop. When you open LrC these files are created to accompany the catalog and provide functionality. When you close the catalog they should disappear. 

To avoid this, the catalog and its constituents could be moved to a folder on your desktop so that you don't see the ephemeral files when the catalog is open. 

With Lightroom Classic closed you would need to move in unison: 

yourcatalogname.lrcat

yourcatalogname.lrcat-data

yourcatalogname helper.lrdata

yourcatalogname previews.lrdata

and potentially yourcatalogname smart previews.lrdata
into a new folder. 

After moving all of the files into the folder you would double click on the .lrcat file in that folder to open Lightroom Classic to the correct catalog and afterwards it will remember the new location.