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Plne
New Participant
June 16, 2014
Answered

Using Lightroom Via External Drive

  • June 16, 2014
  • 6 replies
  • 69401 views

My computer's hard-drive is small and would soon get overwhelmed if I stored my master-images there. My plan is to store my master-images on an external drive.

Here is my planned set-up/workflow: I work with previews in Lightroom, back up my LR catalogue regularly as I exit, and only access my master-images when I wish to export/print/copy an image.

Along with this I would keep a regular back-up of those master-images on another drive.

Will this work? Is there anything I've missed here? I'd appreciate some comment keeping in mind the aim is saving hard-drive space on my computer along with ease and convenience of work-flow. If there is a better way of doing it, let me know.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer 99jon

Yes that would work. Many users keep their masters on an external hard drive with a backup of the catalog and the masters on a second external hard drive.


It’s best to copy the photos first using your computer OS and after successfully updating the database (catlog) links you can then safely delete all the photos from your internal hard drive. This avoids the possibility of failure when using drag & drop from the LR Library as LR then has to copy and delete in the same operation. If possible copy the root folder and all sub-folders e.g. Pictures or My Pictures to maintain the same structure.


Then connect the external hard drive.

Launch LR

Right-Click on the existing folder in the LR Library (e.g. your original hard drive root folder)

Choose to update the folder location and navigate to and choose the new root folder on your external hard drive.


LR will update the database links (catalog) and the original folders will disappear from the original location in the Library to the new location.


Delete the original folder of images from your internal hard drive using your computer OS.

See this link for further information – tip 4 below figure 7.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

6 replies

juliot57479953
juliot57479953
New Participant
August 17, 2022

Can I download the actual Lr and Ps app in the external driver? 

Geoff the kiwi
Geoff the kiwi
Community Expert
August 18, 2022

No, the apps need to be on your OS drive as many items go in different folders of the OS..

P
PlneAuthor
New Participant
July 1, 2014

I have had a few issues with this course of action. Because this thread has gone onto other things I've made a new post here. Thanks

D
Dave Merchant
Brainiac
July 1, 2014

Plne's new thread is at

Disappearing Files When Updating Location

P
PlneAuthor
New Participant
June 17, 2014

99jon, Thanks, that's largely nailed it for me. I will follow the procedure as you outline it.


djpaige, Thanks for picking up on my lack of clarity. Unfortunately, my work flow involves frequent moving from my own computer to my University LAN for print out. While I do most of my work in Lightroom and PS on my own laptop, the final print-out always involves a back and forth unplug/plug-in dance with another computer.

I take your point, however, and will work with the drive connected. It sounds like I'm going to need to carry an external drive around with me.


And Jim, what you say implies that I work with a hard-drive connected to my computer at all times. Based on advice here, that is now my plan.


Cheers to all.

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
June 17, 2014

There really is no need to NOT work with your master images because Lightroom doesn't do anything to the image file. All of the adjustments are stored in the catalog. So it seems to me that a good workflow is to only work with master images, exporting copies when needed for e-mail, or to send to a lab, etc. Those copies can be discarded after they have been used.

D
dj_paige
Brainiac
June 17, 2014

Here is my planned set-up/workflow: I work with previews in Lightroom, back up my LR catalogue regularly as I exit, and only access my master-images when I wish to export/print/copy an image.

Does "previews" mean smart previews, with your master images stored on an un-plugged external drive? Or something else? (everyone works with previews in the Library module, there is no other way to use the Library module)

Why are you so strict as to state that you "only access my master-images when I wish to export/print/copy an image". It sounds like you plan to keep your master images offline or on a disconnected external hard drive and only plug the drive in to export/print/copy (even though there is no "copy" in Lightroom). While this will work, this seems unnecessary, if I am understanding your words properly. This seems like a lot of extra work, unplugging the drive and then plugging it in when needed, especially since you desire "ease and convenience of work-flow". You could just leave the external drive plugged in, which is much less work. (Yes, if you are using the external to be portable and move from computer to computer, you would indeed have to unplug and re-plug as needed, but none of your description indicates that this is the reason...)

99jon
99jonCorrect answer
Brainiac
June 17, 2014

Yes that would work. Many users keep their masters on an external hard drive with a backup of the catalog and the masters on a second external hard drive.


It’s best to copy the photos first using your computer OS and after successfully updating the database (catlog) links you can then safely delete all the photos from your internal hard drive. This avoids the possibility of failure when using drag & drop from the LR Library as LR then has to copy and delete in the same operation. If possible copy the root folder and all sub-folders e.g. Pictures or My Pictures to maintain the same structure.


Then connect the external hard drive.

Launch LR

Right-Click on the existing folder in the LR Library (e.g. your original hard drive root folder)

Choose to update the folder location and navigate to and choose the new root folder on your external hard drive.


LR will update the database links (catalog) and the original folders will disappear from the original location in the Library to the new location.


Delete the original folder of images from your internal hard drive using your computer OS.

See this link for further information – tip 4 below figure 7.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

    A
    Anonymous
    June 23, 2014

    99jon,

    I asked a similar question in another thread and I think you have provided the solution I am looking for. I had backed up all my LR photo files in an external Seagate Backup drive. Now, if i delete the contents of all "My Lightroom Photos" folder in my Mac (these have been backed up in the external hard drive) thus rendering them blank how do I work on future post processing with LR5? Can I export directly to the external hard drive? If not, and if i continue to export them to my Mac's hard drive when this is backed up does it back up the newly created photo files while still retaining those in the Backup Drive?

    I am down to 1% hard drive capacity and am afraid to continue post processing until I can free up space in the Mac hard drive.

    S
    Salems_Thom
    Participating Frequently
    June 27, 2014

    For a 76 year old guy this is still somewhat hard to follow but I appreciate your help. I would like to suggest another approach and see if you agree it is feasible.

    In my Mac, under "All My Files" there are 5 sub headings: (1) PSE 10 (contains 7238 *.dng photo files), (2) Preview (contains 2245 *.jpg photo files), (3) Quicktime Player (contains about 12 MVI files of a few seconds duration each), (4) Swift Publisher 3 (contains one small text file of two pages) and (5) Adobe Reader (contains 120 pages of a Camera User printout)

    So here's the question: can I delete all the files in (1) and (2) as they are already backed up in the Seagate external hard drive?

    Can I also delete, from the Collection in the left panel of LR all 9622 photos (they have been backed up in the External drive. Will this save me some HD space?

    Thanks in advance.

    Dennis

    .


    dj_paige is correct. You really don't want to run anything without a backup. If you are going to run Lightroom with your image files stored on an external disk then you can just attach a second external drive and make a backup copy of your photos to it. This way, you can remove your image files from your internal disk and still have a primary and backup copy on two separate external drives.

    Once you have the two copies on external drives, you can delete the contents of (1). You can delete the files in (2) as well but, being the previews that Lightroom generates, this will be only temporary. Each time you open an image in Lightroom, an attempt will be made to open the preview. If Lightroom can't find one, a new one will be created. Over time, you will be back to where you are now. Make sure you have your preferences set up to allow Lightroom to delete any preview that has not been referenced after thirty days (or even after seven) and this will help the previews.lrdata file smaller. Just make sure it is not set to never delete them. If you right-click on a folder in the Finder and select Get Info, you can see how much space the folder is taking up on the drive. You can also do this for a collection of files. Select the files you are deleting and then right-click on the selection.

    You can also copy your Lightroom catalog to an external disk as well. This will cause the previews to also be stored externally. There is a drawback to this however. External drives are always going to be slower than an internal drive but, more than that, you can only work with your library when the external drive is connected to your Mac. If you are really desperate for HDD space on your internal drive, this may help but is not something I would do unless my situation were dire. Either way, if you want to store your image files on an external drive, you need to create a second copy of them or you risk losing them all. It is never a question of IF your drive will fail. It is just a question of WHEN it will fail. I keep three copies; my primary, my backup copy and an offsite copy and I update them regularly.

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