LRC Backups.

[Firislander]

I am using LrC 13.2 with Mac OS Sonoma 14.4.1

My backup folder for LrC is 541 GB. Can you tell me what I can remove from this folder to reduce it's size in order to free up space on my hard drive?

As you can see there are some 1,215 backups.

I'm trying to learn about how Backups of the Catalog work and I would appreciate some help in determing what can be gotten rid of.

Thank you in advance for any help with this.

Firislander.

[KR Seals]

Every so often, I will delete the zipped backups in the backup folder except for the last three or four. The way do determing this is to sort the backups by date, newest first.

It looks to me like your backup folder is in the same master folder with your other Lightroom Classic files, including the catalog. This is a very risky situation. If that drive fails, you will loose your catalog and all the backups. To avoid that, get an external drive or two for the backups and your photo files. If you already have external drive(s), when you quit Lightroom Classic, there is a place to designate one of the external drives as the location for the backups.

[Firislander]

I do have my backup folder in the same master folder with my other LrC files, including the catalog on my internal drive. I guess this is the way it was set up when I started using Lr almost a couple of decades ago. As I stated I am trying to free up space on my internal drive. Your concern about a failed drive is one of the reasons I have moved most of my photo files to an external drive (with backup copies on 2 separate external drives) and use Backblaze to backup my photo files on my internal drive as well as the 3 external drives. As well my catalog and other LrC files are backed up to Backblaze as well.

So, and this is what I was wondering about, you're saying that I can remove all but the 3 or 4 most recent backups and I will be good to go, yes?

[KR Seals]

Yes, you can remove all but the last few. But you really need to start putting the backups on one of the external drives. Make a "LrC Zipped Backups" folder at the root of one of those drives and use that for the backups.  Once you get a few backups on the external drive, you can delete them all from where they are currently located.

[Firislander]

Perfect! Thanks...that's just what I need to know. I appreciate your timely help.

Not to push my luck too far but can you tell me which of these files I can safely delet given I am running LrC 13.2?

[KR Seals]

Only the ones in the blue "Backups" folder. Save the last few. For now do not delete anything else.

[Firislander]

Ok. I have done nothing with any of the files in the last screen shot. I did move to the trash (but have not emptied the trash so that they are still in there) all but the last 11 backups...

I created a "LrC Zipped Backups" folder at the root of my external drive (or at least I think this is at the root of my external folder), Andy T7 S (which holds the majority of my photo files and which appears in my Lightroom Folder window and where Lightroom goes to display the files not on my internal drive)...I then quit Lightroom and told it to backup to this LrC Zipped Backups folder. When I then went to reopen Lightroom I got this message...

I was unsure of what to do, so I clicked on "Choose a Different Catalog" because I thought I had read about doing that earlier today. I then got this message...

I am now standing down until I can hopefully get some feedback on what is going on and what I should do next.

[KR Seals]

I'm not sure how that happened with just changing the backup location. I assume you are using LrC Version 10? If so, choose the V10 catalog. You should also check the dates on those catalogs and use the one with the latest date.

[Firislander]

I don't get it either. I am using LrC version 13.2 (I believe). As I said the latest backup I did was backed up to...LrC Zipped Backups on my external drive Andy T7 S...

So when I attempt to open LrC again do I choose this...

and then navigate to the location on T7 which has my last backup?

Thank you again for taking the time to respond to me.

[Firislander]

I tried "Choose a Different Catalog" and it did not work when I navigated to the location on T7 which has my last backup?

If anyone can help me figure out what has gone wrong here I would really appreciate the help. I attempted to do everything it was suggested I do and now I cannot, yet, open Lightroom.

Thank you again for any help anyone can offer because I am now dead in the water and do not know what to do.

Firislander.

[D Fosse]

Just find the current catalog file (.lrcat) in Explorer/Finder, wherever it is.

Double-click to open it.

Once Lightroom is open, set the default in catalog settings to "use this catalog". 

Then LrC will continue to open this catalog when you launch it.

[Firislander]

Hi. I went to the current catalog which you suggested I put in "LrC Zipped Backups" folder the external drive T7 S...

I double clicked it to unzip it...

Here I am confused as to what I am to do next. When I double click on '.lrcat' I get this message...

So I cannot open the "current catalog file (.lrcat)" as I thought you suggested.

You then suggest, "Once Lightroom is open, set the default in catalog settings to "use this catalog". " My problem is that I cannot open Lightroom. When I attempt to open it I get this same message I've been getting ever since I moved the catalog to drive Andy T7...

When I choose "Use Default Catalog" I get this message...

I am hesitant to click "Upgrade" because the current catalog is on drive T7 where when I last closed Lightroom I had it back up to the folder "LrC Zipped Backups" on that drive. I have tried to have Lightroom use this most recent backup by clicking on "Choose a Different Catalog" in the screen shot above the one seen right here and I could navigate to the folder located on drive T7 but the content of the folder is grayed out and could not be selected.

I apologize if this is all so elemental and I am just not able to understand what is going on.

My question now is, looking at this last screen shot above should I click "Ugrade" and have it create 'Lightroom Catalog-v13.lrcat'? One of things I don't understand is that I have existing on drive T7 a catalog thus named. As well, this 'upgraded' catalog that is going to be created is apparently going to be saved to my internal drive which means my catalog is back to being on my internal drive. This whole business started when I attempted to move my catalog to an external drive. 

I know I am missing something here but I don't know what it is.

Once again, I appreciate your time and your help.

[KR Seals]

I don't see where it was recommended to move your current catalog. That is the entirely wrong thing to do. Put it back into the Lightroom folder. Then double click it to have LrC startup using it.

[Firislander]

You are correct. It was never suggested I move my catalog and I did not move my catalog off of my internal drive. I only moved my last 11 or so Backups to the folder you suggested I create on my external drive T7. My catalog was not moved, only the most recent backups. When I then next went to open Lightroom after moving the backups I got the message where it said...

So if my catalog was not moved, and still is not moved, why am I getting this message saying Lightroom can't find the catalog?

So, I cannot put the catalog back in the Lightroom folder because it was never removed from there. The question now is what do I do? Do you suggest that I "Upgrade" my catalog even though it remains where it has always been?

[Firislander]

I finally called Adobe Support and they managed to get LrC open in under a minute. They also said that there is absolutely no problem with keeping my catalog on an external drive. Needless to say I am now not sure who is right.

[KR Seals]

That is correct, but the .lrcat file is not only what you need in the folder where the LrC catalog is located. There is a previews folder, possibly a Smart Previews folder and other support files. LrC will rebuild all of those, but that takes time, possibly a lot of time depending on how may photos you have referenced in the catalog.

If you decide to keep the catalog folder on an external drive, the speed of the drive and speed of the drive connection will greatly affect the speed of LrCs performance since nearly EVERY thing you do in LrC is data that is written into the catalog real time. The preferred location of the catalog and it's associated files is on you very fastest drive. That is usually the computer's internal drive, generally a SSD these days.

[D Fosse]

@Firislander 

You need to read the message LrC puts up on screen. It clearly states that it cannot find the catalog located in your backup folder. So at some point recently, your main catalog has been moved together with the backups.

The catalog file can be anywhere, but I agree with KR Seals that you want it on a fast drive, so I would not recommend putting it on an external drive.  It's usually most convenient to keep it on the system drive.

I get the feeling you're overcomplicating this. Just put the catalog where you want, and leave it there. You want your backups somewhere else, they're not really backups if they are in the same location.