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Question

LrC seems to be taking up space on my C: Drive

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
April 22, 2025
3 replies
2140 views

For the past few weeks, I have been facing an issue where Lightroom classic 14.2 is not creating 1:1 previews in the same folder as my catalog. The previews seem to be saved somewhere on my local drive, which is inconvenient when generating previews for a few thousand images, as it takes up a lot of space. Additionally, after closing and reopening Lightroom, all previews are lost, and I need to recreate them when I want to use them. I also tried to fix this by creating a new catalog, but I faced the same issue.

Windows

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

The preview cache (Library previews folder) has to be in the same folder as the catalog.

If it was accidentally moved to a different location, LrC would recreate it.

I suspect that your issue is caused by a corrupted preview cache, try deleting it.

Close LrC, then use the File Explorer to go to the folder that contains your catalog.

Delete the folder whose name ends with Previews.lrdata. Do not delete anything else.

The previews will be recreated as you browse folders in Library.

GoldingD

Legend

but did change the camera raw cache settings by accident, and changed them back

The CAMERA RAW CACHE stores the develop module previews, it only effects the develop module, and has absolutely nothing to do with the Library preview files you are looking for. Basically only the devlop loupe view. Not the standard previews, zoom scale previews, smart if any. P.S. it also has nothing to do with the AI and Masking data.

The Camera RAW CACHE can be placed in any internal or external hard drive. It can take advantage of being on a fast hard drive, it does not need to be on the same hard drive as the catalog or photos. It should not be placed on a network share, not on NAS, defiantly not on the cloud. On Windows OS, some avoid placing it on the C drive as that is the default location for the Windows Paging file, and the two can perhaps compete for read/wrights, but that is a very small performance hit if any. Some advanced users might even install a SSD drive, internally, just for CACHE (likely overkill)

As you noted, the Library preview folders must be on the same hard drive, and in fact in the same parent folder as the catalog. You should be able to see them using Windows File Explorer, assuming they are not hidden for some odd reason (not default)

Perhaps you can post a screenshot of that?

J

Jurrien26749208302fAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for the explanation! I have attached a screenshot of the main catalog, and it seems like the previews were saved this time (no idea how or what changed). However, there is still the problem that when creating previews, it takes up the entire memory of the photos on the C drive until I restart Lightroom, which is annoying if I want to generate a lot of previews. See also my reply to dj_paige.

A

Aleke

Community Manager

Hi @Jurrien26749208302f! Welcome to the community! 😊

That's certainly odd. Could you let us know where your catalog is stored and where the previews are being created? When did this problem start occurring? Did you recently change the location of your catalog or previews?

Thanks a bunch!

Alek

*(If you mention me with an @, like @Aleke, I’ll get a notification and can respond faster.)*

J

Jurrien26749208302fAuthor

Participating Frequently

My catalog is stored on an external hard disk, and to be honest I have no idea where the previews are stored. I have this issue now for about a month. I havn't changed the location of the catalog or previews, but did change the camera raw cache settings by accident, and changed them back to C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Adobe\CameraRaw\Cache2. Can this cause the issue?

dj_paige

Legend

Thanks for trying to summarize the information, which is mostly correct. However, it seems that the previews are stored correctly on the F drive as well (see also my screenshot). So it seems like this isn't an issue anymore. The remaining problem is indeed that something is taking up the amount of space of the images I want to create 1:1 previews for in Lightroom Classic.

The photos are stored on my F drive as well, but could it be possible that Lightroom Classic copies them somewhere to the C drive when making previews and removes them after closing Lightroom Classic?

I have attached the screenshot (Lightroom Classic was open).

I am not sure whether the space is taken by the Lightroom Classic previews, but because it happens when I make the previews, I assume it has something to do with the previews.

LrC does not copy or move your photos to somewhere else, unless you specifically tell it to do so. One way this happens, as we see often in this forum, is that users accidentally choose the wrong import options and wind up with photos on the C drive instead of somewhere else. Please search all folders on your C drive for photos, using the Windows Explorer search feature.

Also, I suggest you (or perhaps a MODERATOR has to do this) change the title of this thread to something like "LrC seems to be taking up space on my C: Drive"

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