LIghtroom Previews taking up tons of space

[Y. Friedlander]

Hi, Can anyone help me out? Lightroom classic previews are taking up like 520 GB on my computer!! I need a way to make the existing previews smaller. Any idea how to do make the existing previews file smaller?

(I know it happened because I like to build 1:1 Previews cuz then the images load faster...)

[TheDigitalDog]

See: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/optimize-performance-lightroom.html

Note, however, that the file that contains the previews, the [Catalog name] Previews.lrdata file can grow large if you have the option to delete previews set to Never or 30 days. This file is in the same the catalog file. If this option is set to Never, and you experience low hard disk issues, check the size of this file. Delete it if it's too large.

[Y. Friedlander]

Will I lose performance on current jobs in this catalog if I delete the previews file? 

[Y. Friedlander]

What does discard after 1 week mean? Will it discard the 1:1 previews of a job that I'm still working on, or will it only remove 1:1 previews that have been removed from the catalog?

[TheDigitalDog · Accepted solution]

Yes exactly. This is one of those “you can pay me now or later”. The larger previews speed up viewing at 1:1 or larger but take up space. You delete them and wait a bit longer to rebuild IF you revisit the document X time later. If you don't plan to revisit in the future or don't mind a delay if you do, then you can save space. Or get a bigger drive. There's no free lunch here. 

[Y. Friedlander]

Thank you so much!