Moving my catalog from my c drive to my d drive

Report · Sep 05, 2018

[Moderator moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Lightroom Classic CC — The desktop-focused app.]

Hey everyone. I want to move my main lightroom classic cc catalog from my pc's c drive to it's d drive, as I am running out of space. I keep all of my raws on separate external hard drives. Can someone please explain how to do this without any hiccups, I am a wedding photographer in the height of busy season so can't afford to mess it up.

Thanks for your help, Steve

Report · Sep 05, 2018

Create a brand new empty folder on the D drive where you want the catalog file to live. Then, you use your operating system to copy the .LRCAT file from the C drive to that new folder on the D drive. Then you double-click on the catalog file on the D Drive to open it in Lightroom. (And once you are sure that has worked properly, delete the .LRCAT file and associated previews on the C drive)

Report · Apr 16, 2019

I would like to expand this question.

The same "Lightroom" folder which contains the 3 .lrcat files, contains 4 additional folders. Lightroom Catalog Helper, Lightroom Catalog Previews, Lightroom Settings, and Backups. I would like to move the entire "Lightroom" folder and its contents off of my C: drive permanently. Can I copy the entire "Lightroom" folder to my D: drive and when I double-click on .lrcat file will all of this additional data start being stored and properly accessed there?

If not can that be accomplished with further steps?

Report · Apr 16, 2019

some comments:

Backup should NEVER be on the same disk as the originals. Why? If the disk with both your backup catalog and working catalog crashes, now you have ZERO copies of your catalog, and I'm guessing you won't be happy.

Moving all of this stuff: why? What benefit are you expecting?

Typically, the answer to your question is: YES, if you move all of it and then double-click on the .LRCAT file, everything will work.

Report · Apr 16, 2019

Thank you for your response, Mr. Paige.

As near as I can tell it appears that the catalog backups are kept together with the working catalog in the "Lightroom" folder so the backup problem exists currently, or am I missing something? Do all of the files and folders I identified have to be maintained in the same "Lightroom" folder or would it be possible to keep them in different locations?

In answer to the second question, there is a school of thought with regard to computer builds to have a relatively small C: drive for the operating system and as little else as possible, and to have a separate larger drive to hold everything else. The thinking is that everything that you can't replace is kept on the D: drive, and you can perform a fresh install of Windows in the event of corruption without suffering loss.

I was led to believe that I would only have to keep Creative Cloud on the C: drive, but LR, PS and related files could be located on the D: drive which is what I have done. I do not want the catalog and backups to be routinely piling up data, especially data I don't want to lose, on C: drive. Since my original RAW files are on D:, it seems that the catalog should be there and archived together with the images.

Conventionally in such a system, backups of D: are kept on a disconnected external drive.

Report · Apr 17, 2019

The safe and convenient way to organize your drives is to have OS and applications on your C drive, which then becomes your system drive.

All your other assets go on separate drives.

The reason there's no point in putting applications elsewhere, is that they will put a large amount of files your C drive anyway. Specifically, under your user account. These are all your user settings, caches, previews and whatnot. This can and will accumulate over time, and will take up a considerable amount of space, often as much as, or more than, the program files themselves.

The point is that your C drive will fill up no matter where you put your applications. You still need to watch your user account, and clean out at intervals.

Report · Apr 17, 2019

photo7734 wrote
Thank you for your response, Mr. Paige.
As near as I can tell it appears that the catalog backups are kept together with the working catalog in the "Lightroom" folder so the backup problem exists currently, or am I missing something? Do all of the files and folders I identified have to be maintained in the same "Lightroom" folder or would it be possible to keep them in different locations?
In answer to the second question, there is a school of thought with regard to computer builds to have a relatively small C: drive for the operating system and as little else as possible, and to have a separate larger drive to hold everything else. The thinking is that everything that you can't replace is kept on the D: drive, and you can perform a fresh install of Windows in the event of corruption without suffering loss.
I was led to believe that I would only have to keep Creative Cloud on the C: drive, but LR, PS and related files could be located on the D: drive which is what I have done. I do not want the catalog and backups to be routinely piling up data, especially data I don't want to lose, on C: drive. Since my original RAW files are on D:, it seems that the catalog should be there and archived together with the images.
Conventionally in such a system, backups of D: are kept on a disconnected external drive.

Backups MUST go on a different disk than the original or working copy. So that folder named Backups, and the storing of future backups, MUST go on a different disk than the original or working copy. MUST, as in, this is not optional, it is not something you can do next week or next month, it should be done immediately.

I don't know how small your C: drive is, or how much free space is on that disk, but photos can and should be on a different drive. This is what takes up most of the space. Moving the catalog itself, along with associated previews, can be done, but usually is not recommended because it will be slower on a different drive, and will only save small amounts of space. Some people have two SSDs, one for the operating system only, a second one for software and other things that need speed like the Lightroom catalog, and a regular spinning hard disk for everything else, including your photos. So please describe your current hardware drives, and how big is each and how much free space is on each.

Report · Apr 17, 2019

By the way:

In answer to the second question, there is a school of thought with regard to computer builds to have a relatively small C: drive for the operating system and as little else as possible,

does not answer my second question, it avoids the part which says "what benefits are you expecting?"

Report · Apr 20, 2019

From my perspective the typical computer build no longer has a single hard drive. I believe a separate large internal storage drive, or maybe a couple running in RAID 1, is the norm. Do Apple desktops only have a single hard drive? A friend of mine just got the latest and greatest and that is how it is configured.

Possible Benefits:

You want to have the fastest hard drive you can afford for your operating system for fast boot up. Economy is served by that being a smaller drive.

Problems affecting POST may require Windows to be reinstalled on the drive on which it is located unless you involve an IT specialist, and maybe not even then. Some want to avoid the inconvenience and cost, or just prefer to be hands on. They all can be remedied by a knowledgeable with a fresh install of Windows. A fresh install of Windows involves reformatting the drive.

I try to keep the files I want to back up regularly together. Is there any reason for the original image files and the catalog to be in separate locations? You don't need to back up your OS.

It appears to me that LR puts both the catalog and the catalog backups in the same location on the C: drive by default. That doesn't make sense to me. I believe that the catalog backups have less to do with scheduled backups and the catalog becoming corrupted.

Report · Apr 21, 2019

Economy is served by that being a smaller drive.

I never heard this before. I can't image how, if the OS takes (and I'm making up a number) 50GB on your hard disk, that the size or contents of the rest of the HD matter at boot up, other than fractions of a second while the disk navigates the proper locations during the startup.

Problems affecting POST may require Windows to be reinstalled on the drive on which it is located

There are no problems in post processing depending on where LR is installed.

I believe that the catalog backups have less to do with scheduled backups and the catalog becoming corrupted.

I'm not sure what you are saying here.

So back to "what benefits are you expecting?", I see nothing in your words that convince me you NEED to do the move, or even that there are benefits in doing so. But as I said above, yes you can do so, move the catalog (and everything in that folder) to a different disk.

Report · Apr 21, 2019

Photo7734, we all agree you should have a dedicated system drive and your photo archive (and other assets) on separate disks. That doesn't mean it's a good idea to move the Lightroom catalog. You can, but there's no benefit.

If you have POST errors you have other system incompatibilites, unrelated to what we're discussing here.

Report · Apr 21, 2019

Boot up and access speed.

Yes, the benefits of a smaller C: drive I identified do not directly relate to LR or PS use and basic functionality. But they require it to located on a different drive, especially data files like the catalog and original images, for the reasons described when you have a problem. Malware, viruses, etc., not normal use of LR.

Economy in that the drive costs less. Need when something goes wrong, not in order for LR to function. POST problems arise for the reasons that you have backups, i.e. malicious software. A small C: drive that can be formatted without regret is conventional wisdom in my circles.

But the issue here is choice. Programs do not have to be installed on the C: drive, why design software that compels or impedes alternative locations the user prefers?

I hope this clears things up.

Report · Apr 21, 2019

Then please go ahead and configure your drives the way you want.

Any time you have post (in lower case) or POST (in upper case) problems, it is unrelated to anything that we have been discussing

Report · Apr 21, 2019

photo7734 wrote
A small C: drive that can be formatted without regret is conventional wisdom in my circles.

But there is absolutely no point in installing your applications on a different drive from your OS. If you reinstall the OS you will have to reinstall all your applications too. All the registry keys will be gone and the installed apps won't work.

Another thing is that your applications will go ahead and put all the user-specific files on the C drive anyway, under your user account. You never get a "clean" program install on a different drive. It just splits up to two drives.

With most Adobe applications - including Lightroom - you can direct all the caches and previews elsewhere, away from your user account. But you want that on a fast drive, which is normally your system drive. If you want the Lightroom folder elsewhere, make sure it's a fast drive. To be consistent, you should also move the ACR cache there, as well as Bridge caches, Photoshop scratch disk and so on. In other words - a dedicated SSD for caches, previews and temp files.

The only problem with that is - you won't see any performance increase. Most of these things work best on the C drive. You're just complicating things for no benefit.

The photos themselves don't need to be on a very fast drive, and in any case, space requirements usually don't allow that.

Report · Apr 21, 2019

And I thank you both for the generous help. I needed to know if I would break LR if I simply moved all of the "Lightroom" folder to my D: drive and you gave me the answer in the only way it is available. It is great that this forum is available and knowledgeable folks such as yourselves take the time to answer questions like mine. Your input is of great value.

Report · Apr 17, 2019

I've tried moving the Lightroom catalog+previews to a dedicated SSD, along with the ACR cache. I couldn't detect as much as a nanosecond increased performance. So now it's back on the C drive.

And no, there's no possible benefit to a small C drive. I think that must come from someone who had to live with one, and tried to rationalize it.