Mac mini 2012/Catalina/Lightroom problems

[dd59313312ujj]

Hello 

 Hope someone can help.

I currently have:

-Mac mini 2012 2.3 i7 quad core

-Catalina 10.15.7

-Lightroom Classic 6.0

-100,000 photos on an external hard drive

My issue is:

-Lightroom crashes when trying to export more than 100 photos, or switch into different modes such as the people id mode or map mode.

-Online I see much written about issues with Catalina and lightroom, but few solutions.

-the Mac mini I have can not be updated to any OS after Catalina.

I want to keep using lightroom, I want to download classic 10.4, but I don't want to risk everything failing.

The Mac mini works perfectly and I see no reason to upgrade it.

Any advice on how I keep using lightroom without it crashing all the time?

I just want it to work smoothly like it used to.

[dj_paige]

So you have an old computer with an unsupported version of Lightroom, and you are experiencing problems. Not a surprise.

I want to keep using lightroom, I want to download classic 10.4, but I don't want to risk everything failing.

I don't see any risk, many people run 10.4 on Catalina. What do you mean?

[Jao vdL]

You really do not want to stay with Lightroom 6.0. It is not supported on catalina and no surprise it crashes. Lightroom Classic 10.4 is supported just fine on catalina and should work just fine on that mini. Won't be blazingly fast but no slower than 6.0

[Jao vdL]

>It is not supported on catalina

Not supported anywhere actually

[dd59313312ujj]

Great to hear. I’ll switch across then.

I was concerned that it would have issues.

Is there any way of helping it deal with the 100000 images any better?
Splitting it into two catalogs? Having half on one external drive and half
on another?

And should I build the previews on my hard disk or on the externals?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks so much for the help.

[dj_paige]

Is there any way of helping it deal with the 100000 images any better?

100000 images is not a problem. What is the exact problem you are experiencing? Please describe in detail. (If it is crashing and switching modules unexpectedly, 10.4 should solve that)

Splitting it into two catalogs?

This never helps anything, as far as I know. And if I may express my opinion, this is a terrible idea, lots of drawbacks, no benefits.

Having half on one external drive and half on another?

Unless your disk drive is nearly full, I don't see this as helping.

And should I build the previews on my hard disk or on the externals?

By default, the previews are always built on the same hard disk as the catalog file. This is not a solution to anything.

So again, what problem are you experiencing?

[Jao vdL]

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This never helps anything, as far as I know. And if I may express my opinion, this is a terrible idea, lots of drawbacks, no benefits.

---

Completely agree. It is generally not a good idea. Some people do this as part of their workflow such as wedding or event photographers that create a single catalog per wedding and then archive that catalog afterwards but for most it is not a good idea.

[Jao vdL]

Is there any way of helping it deal with the 100000 images any better?
Splitting it into two catalogs? Having half on one external drive and half
on another?

---

Not really. I have 200k images in my main catalog. It works just fine. Most images are stored on a NAS I have on my network and I typically store the last few months on my internal disk. I have never felt the need to split it up in multiple catalogs although I know there are people that do that. The convenience of having everything in the same place is just to good to not have. If you are using a stationary computer like a mini, no need for a NAS and just an external hard disk should work fine. You can split images over multiple external drives and still stay with one catalog as long as you keep the catalog on the internal hard disk. The internal disk will have to have enough space to keep all the previews in that case. So this depends on how much space you have there. Otherwise, you can put the catalog on one of your external disks. I would recommend you use a SSD drive for your catalog that you always keep connected. simple USB 3 (do not connect with anything less than USB 3) SSD drives are fast and surprisingly cheap nowadays and absolutely tiny. For the main image storage, any drive will do fine and speed is less important on those.

[dd59313312ujj]

Thanks so much for the advice