Intermitent ability to back up Lightroom Catalogue

[AnitaWard]

Mac Big Sur11.6.2

LR version latest 12.2.1

Since early March I have had intermitent issues with backing up my catalogues. Full disk access for LR and PS is ticked. 

I have been able to back catalogues up about weekly for the last few weeks, but today I am experiencing the issue again. No matter if I select my Mac HDD or external.

Screenshot for reference.

Any ideas?

[JohanElzenga]

Did you check the amount of free space on both disks, like the screenshot says?

[AnitaWard]

Hi Johan,

I have, I've attached a screenshot of the current storage amounts.

[JohanElzenga]

Your first screenshot looks like your documents folder is synced with some online service like Dropbox or Google Drive. This may be the cause of the problem.

[SeanMcCormack]

Yep, looks like it's iCloud. While Lightroom can write files to network attached storage, it can definitely have issue with cloud storage where the files aren't actually on the drive where the system thinks they are. Try a folder on the hard drive instead. You can always move them manually if needed. You also don't need to keep every backup. 3 is a reasonable amount, and potentially a 4th older backup in case corruption is missed in a backup. 

[AnitaWard]

Hey Sean,

Thanks a bunch - that makes sense! It does also give me this error on my external HD however that isn't connected to iCloud services.

Yup I generally only keep one or two but as I have been having such issues I've been hesitant to get rid of the catalogues that have backed up!

Thanks again.

[AnitaWard]

Apologies, I have also tried backing up to my desktop which isn't under the title of iCloud in my finder message, but get the same result.

Thanks,

[SeanMcCormack]

Can I see the dialog that appears when the backup begins? I'm sure as you're testing you know you can force this by changing Backup to 'When Lightroom next exits' in Catalog Settings and shutting down. 

[anitaward3]

Hey Sean,

I've screenshot every process to show you, see attached - thanks.

[SeanMcCormack]

Hi @anitaward3 The downloads folder is an unusual choice, but as it's on the main drive and Full Disk Access is on, you should be able to backup. You've three clues in the dialog, folder permissions, and the storage on each drive.. the catalog drive and the backup drive. As both drives look okay, and you're not using an iCloud folder, that just leaves permissions. Which you should have from Full Disk Access. 

If you create a new catalog and import a few photos, can you backup this new catalog?