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Shaun Lotay
Shaun Lotay
Inspiring
January 29, 2023
Answered

Lightroom won't backup anymore.

  • January 29, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 3192 views

Until today, Lightroom backups were working fine.

I had some photos (2022 onwards) on my ext. drive. The rest were on my main PC drive.

I moved the 2019-2021 photos from the PC to the ext. drive.

They are all in the catalog as usual.

 

However, since then, backup has no longer worked. I get the following error.


Lightroom was unable to back up the catalogue named "Lightroom Catalog-v12".

Please check your folder permissions, and make sure you have available space on your backup drive and main catalogue's drive.

I get the options to Try Again, Choose a Different Backup Folder, and Exit.

 

Try again doesn't do anything. It returns the same error.

Choosing a different backup doesn't solve it. I have tried renaming the backup folders, changing the storage location, reducing the file path name length, and more. No luck.

How can I get the backup working again? 

    Correct answer Shaun Lotay

    Thanks @GoldingD.

     

    D:\ is a filepath to the second internal hard drive on my PC. 

     

    I think my reference to OneDrive is potentially distracting. The OneDrive folder referenced backs up automatically to the cloud. The cloud mirrors in full a copy of that folder location from the second hard drive. (@DdeGannes, I think this answers your query).

     

    As I say, I doubt OneDrive is the issue. I've tried backing up to multiple locations since the issue starting today, attempting various external hard drives, internal hard drives, and reducing the filepath name length. None have worked.

     

    It's a bit strange. I have since tried the same on my laptop, remembering that the Lightroom catalog and photographs are stored on an external SSD. I normally switch between the laptop and PC without issue backing up on both, but now can back up on neither. 

     

    All seemed to happen following the moving of file folders from 2019-2021 to the same location as the 2022 onwards photos. Previous go moving the file folders, the photographs were all still in the same lightroom catalog but instead were split between two hard drive locations. When moving the hard files, I updated the location of them in Lightroom, which completed the import. 

     

     


    Dear All,

    Thanks for all your help with this. I figure there isn't a straightforward explanation for why this has happened. However, after some experimentation, I exported my current catalogue (with all the new files) to a new catalogue and was able to back that up successfully. 

    If anyone runs into the same issue, this is what I would recommend you try first.

    I hope this information is helpful. 

    1 reply

    JohanElzenga
    Community Expert
    JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 29, 2023

    Moving photos has nothing to do with making catalog backups. That is probably just a coincidence. The error message gives three possible causes: 1 Lightroom does not have permissions, 2 the backup drive lacks space, or 3 the drive of the main catalog lacks space. You tried two out of three without a result, so what's left is lack of space on the main catalog drive: i.e. your internal drive.

     

    -- Johan W. Elzenga
      Shaun Lotay
      Shaun LotayAuthor
      Inspiring
      January 29, 2023

      Hi @JohanElzenga. Thanks for the reply.

      I understand that moving photos was not likely to be the cause, but I had completed a backup before moving the photographs and could not complete it after. I was highlighting the only change that had occurred.

      My apologies for not making it clear in my initial post, but the lack of space is not an issue. There is more than 1TB of free additional space. As noted previously, the lack of space was not raised as an issue before moving the photographs.

      To be clear, when I say moving the photographs, it was only that the location of the pictures in the catalogue from 2019-2021 was on a different drive, and now they're on the same drive as the other photographs in the catalogue.

      My initial troubleshooting attempted to determine whether the suggestions in the prompt may have been contributory causes.


      Any further actions to try would be appreciated.

      Shaun Lotay
      Shaun LotayAuthor
      Inspiring
      January 29, 2023

      "On the backup drive, if any are existing, how much space in amount does one of them take up?
      Not sure what you mean here. There is 646GB of free space on this internal HDD'

       

      My inquiry assumed that your backup is on a separate hard drive. Backing up to the same hard drive is a very very bad practice,. One hard drive dies, all your work dies. Never ever do that, buy an external drive for that. Try backing up to a different drive.

       

      Now, being as the same hard drive is in use, then I suspect the math concerning  how much hard drive space is required to accomplish the backup process would be size of existing catalog plus size of backup. So 475,200 Kb plus unknown (see following) (assuming proceed involves copying the file, then compressing the file, the Lrc backup tech is not exactly great) A bad assumption of mine might exist.

       

      "On the backup drive, if any are existing, how much space in amount does one of them take up?
      Not sure what you mean here. There is 646GB of free space on this internal HDD."

       

      By that, one of your existing backup files, how large?

       

      Ohhh, this bit:

       

      "In what folder on that backup hard drive do you place that backup?
      D:\OneDrive\Lightroom\Backups"

       

      So, that OneDrive, is that refering to the cloud? Backing up to the cloud is not an issue. Saving your actual working catalog on the cloud is a problem. And if that is the cloud, then non LrC connectivity issues with that cloud share could be an issue, perhaps a setting with the service.

       

      Please correct me if wrong, and please double check, that D drive path pointing to One Drive, is that an actual folder name, or a pointer to the cloud?

       

       

       

       


      Hi @GoldingD,

      To be clear, I am not backing up to the same drive. I have only 'attempted' to back up to the same drive in order to troubleshoot why I can no longer create a backup.

      I still don't understand your question. Although, if you're asking how much space the other backups take on the hard drive, the last successful one was 393MB.

      I hope that's helpful information. 

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