P: AI blob storage size should be limited and automatically cleaned up (like previews)

Report · Jul 01, 2025

As discussed in the other thread, LrC 14.4 will store AI denoise/super resolution data in .lrcat-data. This storage seems to be permanent: once AI denoise is enabled for a photo the blob will be stored indefinitely.

The proposal is to limit the amount of AI blobs stored in .lrcat-data by some threshold size and automatically clean up old blobs. If a user opens a photo with a deleted blob again, it needs to be recomputed by running AI denoise again. So this basically trades storage space for additional processing.

I know that this means that opening a photo with a missing blob the first time will result in a significant delay. Users might still want this behavior. Standard size preview generation could use the non-AI-enhanced version of the photo since AI enhancements (except adaptive color profile) are probably not visible on small previews anyway.

This would make AI blobs work the same way was preview storage works.

Report · Jul 03, 2025

I like the idea of managing denoise data in the catalog like previews, giving users the option of pruning older, unused denoise data to save on catalog-folder space, at the expense of having to Update AI Settings if you want to export or edit the photo. This would help people who keep their catalogs on internal laptop drives with limited space.

(By "denoise" I mean everything in the Develop > Detail panel -- Denoise, Raw Details, and Super Resolution.)

"once AI denoise is enabled for a photo the blob will be stored indefinitely."

If you remove the photo from the catalog, the denoise data will disappear after you do File > Optimize Catalog.

Alternatively, if you clear the Develop History step for Denoise on a photo, the denoise data will disappear after doing File > Optimize Catalog.