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October 17, 2024
Question

Lightroom catalog size issue

  • October 17, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 479 views

I am using iMac which have 256GB disk and using lighrrom exensively. Catalog back was on the same disk. Now I selected an external disk for catlog back to reduce risk and save my disk speace. I see there is on file Lightroom Catlog-v13-3 Previews.Irdata is 120GB. This is consuming my space. 
I have two question.

  1. Since I seelcted  catlog backup folder on external disk, do I cleanup/delete earlier catlog file from my IMac disk?
  2. How can I reduce size of file Lightroom Catlog-v13-3 Previews.Irdata?

 

Thnaks in advance!

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2 replies

KR Seals
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 27, 2024

Now that you are using LrC 14, one of the nice new features is the ability to "Rename the Catalog". You can find that under the File menu. 

I suggest renaming with something that includes the Version 14 wording. There is a checkbox to rename the folder, too. This will rename the catalog and all the files it uses for proper operation and put them in folder with a name containing Version 14.. You are then left with the older catalog files and associated files that will not have Version 14 in the name. Thiis process also creates a folder with named somthing like "Old Catalog". In that folder you can find all the old files. At the least, delete the file containing the words "Catalog Preview.lrdata". You should see that folder is extremely large and deleting it will provide the fastest way to recover disk space. Then... empty the trash.

 

Ken Seals - Nikon Z 9, Z 8, 14mm-800mm. Computer Win 11 Pro, I7-14700K, 64GB, RTX3070TI. Travel machine: 2021 MacBook Pro M1 MAX 64GB. All Adobe apps.
AxelMatt
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 17, 2024
quote

1. Since I seelcted  catlog backup folder on external disk, do I cleanup/delete earlier catlog file from my IMac disk?


By @Flash and Flicker

 

During the installation of major update the catalog has to updated to the new structure. If this has worked without anyproblems and you have the approprite backups you can delete the older catalog files.

 

 

2. How can I reduce size of file Lightroom Catlog-v13-3 Previews.Irdata?

 

Thnaks in advance!


By @Flash and Flicker

 

Check your settings on the Previews tab in the Catalog settings dialog. In a first step you can set the automatic discarding  of the 1:1 previews to "After 30 days" (or to "One Week"). The other alternative you can limited the cache size for example to  100GB.

 

 

You can also reduce the quality of the previews in the same dialog.

More informations you'll fnd here: How to create and manage catalogs in Photoshop Lightroom Classic (adobe.com)

 

  

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 8 - PureRAW 5 - Topaz Photo
JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 17, 2024

If you look at the screenshot in the previous message, you'll see that there is a new option: Limit Preview Cache Size. This is new in lrc 14 and that is exactly what would be ideal for you, because that will be much more effective than just deleting 1:1 previews. Check this option and fill in a value that is reasonable for you. Do remember that the bigger the cache, the less preview-rebuilding Lightroom will have to do when you scroll through older images, so use a sensible size.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga