Lightroom won't backup anymore.

[Shaun Lotay]

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? 

[JohanElzenga]

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.

[Shaun Lotay]

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.

[GoldingD]

• On what hard drive is your catalog on?
• How much hard drive space does that catalog take up?
• For that hard drive, how much space is available in percent (%)
• For that hard drive, how much space in amount remains in that hard drive? (yes separate question)
• On what hard drive to you place the backup?
• On the backup drive, if any are existing, how much space in amount does one of them take up?
• In what folder on that backup hard drive do you place that backup?
• Have you checked user rights on that backup hard drive, and on that folder? Do not assume one apply's to the other.
• How much hard drive space on that backup hard drive? I think you indicated greater that 1Tb.

[Shaun Lotay]

Thanks for your message @GoldingD. I have provided answers in blue. I hope this helps.

• On what hard drive is your catalog on?
  An external Solid State SSD.
• How much hard drive space does that catalog take up?
  Uncompressed, the catalogue file is 475,200 KB
• For that hard drive, how much space is available in percent (%)
  89.90%
• For that hard drive, how much space in amount remains in that hard drive? (yes separate question)
  837GB
• On what hard drive to you place the backup?
  An internal SSD.
• 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.
• In what folder on that backup hard drive do you place that backup?
  D:\OneDrive\Lightroom\Backups
• Have you checked user rights on that backup hard drive, and on that folder? Do not assume one apply's to the other.
  Yes, I have. I tried to explore all user access options during troubleshooting before posting. I did check the permissions of each folder. As noted in previous posts, I have been previously able to save backups to these locations, and have tried other locations (other internal and external HDDs with various file path lengths and locations), without luck.
• How much hard drive space on that backup hard drive? I think you indicated greater that 1Tb.
  837GB

[GoldingD]

"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?

[Shaun Lotay]

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. 

[GoldingD]

I may have been re-editing my reply while you were adding yours, so please re-look

[DdeGannes]

@Shaun Lotay , This may be your problem.

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

Is the OneD set to retain originals on your computer or upload to the Cloud?

[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. 

[Shaun Lotay · Accepted solution]

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. 

[Vic-86]

I had the same problem this morning. While I'm happy you found a way around it, the whole thing sounded a bit sketchy. Why would this happen all of sudden when none of the previous settings were changed and backups were never a problem before? Strange.

I was getting ready to follow your example, and for all I know may still need to do so in the future.

So, here's what I did:

• Several failed attempts to backup to different locations
• With the catalog open I optimized it and got a dialog box saying that it was done and Lr would restart.
• Lr did not restart
• I started Lr. It seems fine.
• I backed it up. No problem. Original location and settings.
• I restarted Lr and backed up again. It worked.
• Whew! What a workout 😉

Someone will need to check me on this, but I think when you export a catalog you lose the develop history for the files you worked on. Not the results, because those are in the XMP files and the catalog, just the history. If that is important to you, and it may not be, you could open the catalog that was giving you trouble and try what I did. No guarantees, but... (Of course since it's been a month that may be a road you don't want to go down.) 🙂

[Ken Nielsen]

Look at all of the choices for export... which one did you choose?

[Ken Nielsen]

Shaun, I am having the same problem and want to try and need a little clarification: "I exported my current catalogue (with all the new files) to a new catalogue and was able to back that up successfully."

You exported your current catalog.. I understand that and to a new location I would gather.

"With All the new files" is that part I'm not sure what you did about this. What new files are you referring to? I have an existing catalog that will not back up, have been trying for weeks with no luck. I want to try your method but can you explain a little more detail about 'new files' or what you mean. Please understand I am completely overwhelmed by this now... Thanks for help.

Ken