Moving everything to Google Drive

[Lonewolfjustin]

With Google changing the pricing structure to allow 1TB for $9.99, it's made me really think about putting everything I have (catalog, presets, RAW's) on Google Drive.  Since Drive has a desktop sync folder I would just store everything in the folder, it would sync to the cloud, then when I got to work I would have another desktop sync folder and then I would access my content from work. 

I've looked all over for pros/cons to this workflow but have only seen people talking about putting just their catalog out on the Drive.  Would this theory work?  I mean with 1TB of cloud storage it could hold all of my content.  Plus the content (Catalog, Presets, and Raw's) would technically be in three places at once, Home HD, Cloud, Work HD. 

I understand that there could be a delay of the content actually syncing and that causing some problems.  But my commute is 30 minutes which should be enough time for all folders to sync up.  Plus I won't use Lightroom much at work, just on lunch breaks and such. 

• So is this plan doomed or could it actually work? 
• Does anyone have any advice on what to watch out for?
• Any other pros/cons?

Thanks for any thoughts on this issue.  Going to try and test catalog tonight.

[Lonewolfjustin]

No thoughts or opinions?

[areohbee]

I'm waiting for you to try it and let us know whether it works out for you .

[Jao vdL]

30 minutes might not be enough for a sync. For example, my main catalog file is about 2GB and my previews folder that goes along with it is 40 GB. Just uploading that 2GB file over a typical cable internet connection to a cloud server will take 133 minutes as you typically have an upload speed of only 2 Mbit/s or so (bits and bytes for a factor of 8). Downloading on the other end will go faster but even that is usually only 20 Mbit/s for a 13 minutes download time. If your catalog is anywhere near the size of mine, this will not work if you have run-of-the-mill internet. Maybe if you are on fiber this might work.

Of course if your catalog is smaller you might be OK.

[Jao vdL]

Oh and make sure to remember to quit Lightroom EVERY time you leave on either end, or you might end up with terrible corruption of your catalog.

[Lonewolfjustin]

So everything looks to be working correctly.  I made a new catalog and stored it in my Google Drive folder.  I then imported some raw files and put those in my Google Drive folder.  It check and make sure its looking at the same info, I developed on of the photos with MAJOR edits.  I then came to work and opened the catalog from the Google Drive folder.  I was able to see all the photos I had imported in the night before as well as the major edits I did on that one photo.  So my second test is to Majorly edit another photo and tonight when at home I see if that edit shows at home. 

@Jao vdL: I appreciate your advice and will keep all of it in mind.  At home I have fiber and a 50 Mbit/s down & 25 Mbit/s up and at work we have a pretty fast internet, but don't know the numbers.  I don't plan on getting in my Ligthroom catalog right when I get to work, as I have to do my real job.  But I want to go this route so while at lunch I can get in Lightroom and try to get caught up on my growing catalog.  I thought about doing the smart previews route, but I want to have access to my "Full" photos immediatly if I need to do something with them.  So I'm hoping "fingers crossed" that this will work.  Another thing that might help the download/upload time delay is I'll be importing photos while at home in the evenings,  so by the time I get to work the following morning there should have been plenty of time to sync up.  Also I'll try to get into a habit of checking my Google Drive icon to make sure it says "Sync Complete" before I open up Lightroom.

[Anonymous988]

any updates?  I'm really thinking about doing something similar...

[topgun3000]

Suggestion:

Keep your raw files in drive.  Keep your catalog on your local disk.  Periodically, backup your catalog to somewhere in your drive folder.

[EricBier]

Another approach that might work is to use a portable hard drive.  For example, I carry a 2 TB hard drive in my pocket everywhere I go which I back up to every night.  Not only do I have all of my pictures, but I have everything else on my computer immediately available very quickly with USB 3.0.  If I wanted to use Lightroom on more than one computer, I would carefully study Adobe's procedures for doing so.

[edmontgo]

One more approach. I was told several months back, (and I think it was a LR tech), that If I create another folder such as "archive" on my Google Drive from the LR Library, I can just drag and drop all of my files from my main folder to my Archive GD folder for storage within the Library module. The main library will stay in sync and recognize where your images are at all time. I now only keep 10 - 15 of my most recent albums on my local drive. I have been doing this for several months now with no problems. Now, for open disclosure on my workflow. I usually will work through an album postprocessing for a few weeks. Once I have most of my work into specific collections. The main folders are dragged into archive.

On the side I have an export folder that I keep in drive for the images that have been processed such as those with my watermarks on them. It makes it real easy to share specific images view only or share completely. One thing that may be a negative.  I did notice in the last week that when you need a large download from your archive it say's you can only download 2GB at a time. It will also automatically zip larger downloads. That has not been a problem for me so far because when I go to archive it is only for a few files at a time. But again, depending on your workflow, this is a good way to store your images.

[EricBier]

It is important, if you expect not to lose your photos, that you have at least one backup, two or three would be better, of the photos that are on the Google Drive.

I got an email from 1and1, my hosting service, that they had lost all of my data, including my website.  A couple of days later, I got another email saying that they were unable to recover my 400gb of data from their backup.  This was only an irritation for me since I have multiple backups of all of my data.