Using Lrc with One Drive

[JRoy]

I use One Drive to backup all the Lrc catalogues plus the recent year's of photos. One Drive is also my backup for all other files on the computer.

I mistakedly blocked One Drive whilst editing. 

I have signed in again outside of Lr but One Drive seems to be trying to sych everything again - a process which will take days and might be wasting storage space.

How do I re-establish things? 

[GoldingD]

Please post your System Information as Lightroom Classic (LrC) reports it. In LrC click on Help, then System Info, then Copy. Paste that information into a reply. Please present all information from first line down to and including Plug-in Info. Info after Plug-in info can be cut out as that is just so much dead space to us non-Techs and it takes up vast amounts of scroll space making the reply less readable and less likely that others will bother with your post.

Mostly interested in the Library Path.

[JRoy]

Lightroom Classic version: 14.3.1 [ 202505061331-b063faef ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 11 - Business Edition

Version: 11.0.26100

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 8

Processor speed: 3.6GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 2.0%

Power Source: Plugged In

Built-in memory: 32538.5 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 43.2MB / 7989.0MB (0%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 32538.5 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 1021.7 MB (3.1%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 1071.6 MB

GDI objects count: 798

USER objects count: 2496

Process handles count: 2946

Memory cache size: 141.0MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 17.3.1 [ 2227 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 52MB / 16269MB (0%)

Camera Raw real memory: 53MB / 32538MB (0%)

Cache1:

NT- RAM:0.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, Combined:0.0MB

Cache2:

m:141.0MB, n:0.0MB

U-main: 116.0MB

System DPI setting: 96 DPI

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 1920 pixels

Displays: 1) 1920x1200

Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:

DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (32.0.15.6624)

Init State: GPU for Export supported by default

User Preference: Auto

Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: C:\Users\ajroy\OneDrive\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-2-2-DESKTOP-94CC2MV-v13-3.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\ajroy\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:

1) AdobeStock

2) Flickr

3) HDR Efex Pro 2

Config.lua flags:

[JRoy]

One Drive seems to be working correctly but is checking 240 million "changes". The rate it is working this will take about 3.5 days!

Is this happening simply because the sync has been interrupted?

[JRoy]

I think all is well. It is only 240,000, which is probably the total number of files on the system area being backed up. Interrupting the synch has probably initiated thie response. One Drive will now be checking all files are stored.

If you think this is so, then thanks for volunteering your help and so promptly too.

[Per Berntsen]

Library Path: C:\Users\ajroy\OneDrive\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-2-2-DESKTOP-94CC2MV-v13-3.lrcat

Having the working catalog on Onedrive is NOT recommended.

There's a high risk of catalog corruption, as well as other issues.

With LrC closed, move the catalog folder to somewhere outside of Onedrive. For easy access, move it to the root of the C drive, so that the path will be C:\Lightroom Catalog C:\Lightroom. Then double-click the catalog file in the File explorer to launch LrC.

Having catalog backups and image files on Onedrive should not cause any issues.

[JRoy]

Thank you very much.

I have rarely thought about the catalog folder, always using one catalog and collection only. Looking at it I find it seems hopelessly bloated so I think I will let One Drive finish its file check, then use LrC to clear out the old catalogs and slim down the folder before moving it. Thanks for the advice.

[GoldingD · Accepted solution]

Library Path: C:\Users\ajroy\OneDrive\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-2-2-DESKTOP-94CC2MV-v13-3.lrcat

Actually, while you do have a copy of the catalog on OneDrive, and that library path indicates that. I do not think you are actually working from the copy on OneDrive, but from a copy on your C drive in your Users Folder. The presence of the word OneDrive in that library path indicates (I think) that the contents of that folder (in effect c:\Users\ajroy\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog-2-2-DESKTOP-94CC2MV-v13-3.lrcat) are being automatically synced to OneDrive.

Both actually working from a catalog on OneDrive, and working from a catalog on your hard drive but auto-synced to OneDrive are bad. LrC does not support working off the cloud, or a NAS, or any network share. As for an automatic sync to OneDrive, that is highly problematic.

If you automatically sync a LrC catalog to OneDrive, then every single edit you accomplish, every single mod, results in a communication across the Internet to your OneDrive. This gets very very busy. If you are having a bad Internet day, things can go downhill, in theory (I cannot prove), a catalog corruption can occur. At the very least LrC can slow down.

I would advise that you eventually create a folder on one of your hard drives, likely a root folder, with a name you like that is not associated with OneDrive, System folders and user system libraries (such as Users, Documents, Desktop, Music, Pictures, Videos). A name like MyPhotos, Lightroom, Rumpelstiltskin, GrumpOldFart (anything but Music, Pictures, Videos, and NOT under Users) and move your catalog to that location.

You could always backup to OneDrive, just try not to do that while trying to edit in LrC.

P.S. backing LrC catalogs and/or photos to OneDrive may or may not be efficient depending on how large a space you have at Microsoft. 

[JRoy]

I think you are absolutely right. On a new Windows machine you are sort of lulled into using One Drive as a "back-up" and you can wind up basically working on One Drive folders rather than on folders on your actual machine. This happened to me in 2019 when I switched from W7 to a new machine with W10. You unwittingly start to work on One Drive folders, so smoothly you barely give it a thought. Of course One Drive is so good you never think about what this all means! The answer, as Per says, is to keep your Lightroom catalogs out of the One Drive "backup" process and be sure all your catalog stuff is only on your machine. You can still keep the actual photos on One Drive, if you wish.