Remove. lrcat-data and .lrcat files?

[ElwiraKotowska]

Hi, I hope that some can help me to understand if I can remove lrcat files from mu Mac?

Do I understand correctly the answers from Google that I need to keep ONLY Zip catalog with the LATEST backup and ALL files with lrcat files?

Thank you in advance, elwira

[dj_paige]

First, it is an extremely bad thing to keep your backups (the .zip files) on the same disk as your working catalog (the .lrcat file). Why? Because if this disk crashes, your working catalog is gone, and all your backups are gone, and you have now zero copies of your catalog file. I'm guessing you will agree with me that this would be unpleasant.

So move the .zip files to some other disk (not some other folder on the same disk). 

How many recent backups should you keep? As many as you feel comfortable with. I keep at least 5 recent backups, and if space permits, I usually have more. You have to decide what your comfort level is, and what your space availability is, and make a decision.

[ElwiraKotowska]

I always make back timemachine and I remember Backup strategy from Lightroom 5 and with Julieanne Kost but generally you are right of course

[Ian Lyons · Accepted solution]

With 11.0 and later you need to include the 'lrcat' and 'lrcat-data' folder in any manual backups or catalog transfers, etc. The 'lrcat-data' folder contains the 'Sky and Subject Select' masks associated with 11.0 and later. With backups created by LrC itself, an 'lrcat-data' folder greater than 0MB will automatically be saved with the catalog (lrcat).

[ElwiraKotowska]

Thank you!