P: Lighroom Preview.lrdata, allow it to be put in different location of catalog

[crsouser]

I have pitched this in other forums.. I HAVE READ the How to Optimize Lightroom performance and acted on every item and then some I have figured out on my own as well as read elsewhere.

Though through all of this one of the things I cannot still do to both better manage diskspace and performance is seperate my Previews.lrdata file from the Catalog.lrcat. My previews, images, program, and catalog themselves are stored off on separate drives.. but the previews file is still full of images and over 60 gigs at the particular moment and I regularly purge it off down to 0.

I would like to be able to put all of these items in separate drive locations if I choose. Today I have items 1-4 in separate locations.
1) Program / OS
2) RAW Images
3) Catalog.lrcat
4) Previews
5) Previews.lrdata

Christopher

[b_gossweiler]

I voted for your idea. But:
- No. 4+5 are the same issue
- Purging the previews folder is not what you should be doing
- as of now you can separate the previews by use of symbolic links

Beat

[crsouser]

Maybe I should have elaborated a bit more on #4 & #5 as what I understand they do and from my testing not the same..and if so.. why would the function and space be duplicated. If I have to create symbolic links (an OS manipulation) isn't that re-emphasizing the need for the feature with the program so the symbolic link work around is not required.

For example on my Mac:
#4 is in /Volumes/MacHD1/LR_Cache0/ as defined in the preferences-File Handling->Camera Raw Cache
But #5 is in
#5 is in /Volumes/CRS_SD_0/Users/UserName/Documents/LightroomCat/CRS_LR3_Catalog Previews.lrdata.

[b_gossweiler]

Ahh, OK, then you should call it "ACR cache", as "Previews" is the term used for what's in the * Previews.lrdata folder.

I agree that using symbolic links should not be necessary, and a configuration option in catalog settings would be nice. That's why I voted for it :-)

Beat

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'd welcome the ability to have different locations for the preview data and the catalog data.

Sometimes I want to backup all my catalogs. All my catalogs live under one folder, but I cannot simply backup that folder since this would cause all preview data to become part of the backup as well.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I totally am for it. There's another problem that will get solved this way (I just posted an idea about it also): SSDs are limited in size and price, but are perfect for catalogs (due to their fast small block reads/writes, eg the PAtriot Wildfire 120GB or 480GB). Unfortunately, if you use 1:1 previews (as anybody interested in LR performance should), then those will eat into the catalog's drive massively, and even a 480GB SSD maxes out at 100000 1:1 previews - so today it's either 1:1 previews or SSD, not both :-(. (yea, even with a $4000 RAID-5 480GB SSDs you max out after 300K images, so this is not a solution).

[areohbee]

You can do this now (relocate previews) using a symbolic link on Mac, and there's some technique on Windows too, but I don't remember details - it's in a fairly recent thread about this, somewhere...

[cyberesben]

Rob: The problem is that if you use dropbox for storing the catalog (like me), it often gets confused about the symlinks and it also creates a confusing setup if you access the catalog from multiple computers

[cyberesben]

test

[areohbee]

Fair enough - point taken. - thanks, R.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Lightroom: I would like to be able to have the previews on a different drive to the catalog ... or simply be able to use a link or junction (currently Lightroom prevents this for a reason that I don't understand ... perhaps to do with not allowing network drives?). This would mean that the catalog could be on an SSD, for example, and the previews on a hard drive.

[areohbee]

Easiest way to relocate previews or smart previews:

Using Preview Exporter (in plugin manager), click the 'Move Previews Away' button:

Image is not available

Note: It is just using links, so only solves problem of not knowing how to use the link commands.

Rob

[kimcannon55]

I would like to have previews and smart previews in a separate folder to my catalogue. This would enable me to have my catalogue in a dropbox folder, always synched in the cloud and over into my laptop. At the moment I have a catalogue with 50 gigs of previews which is just too much to upload and keep uploading.

[David Mohr]

Google sez:

"Is it possible to insert a shooting mode with golden section? With the possibility of deciding the display"

[Timothy.Spear]

I want to move Smart Previews to another location. Not have it hard coded to a location on drive C.

I

have a "junk" drive I use for stuff which I do NOT backup but keep synced copies of stuff held in the cloud for performance. I want the ability to have Lr use this drive for everything. My C drive, although having 200GB of available space, when I enable all local Smart Previews I end up with less than 30GB free; which is not beneficial for a stable Windows platform.

Tim

[Lumigraphics]

My LrC catalog is a bit over 4GB but my previews file is over 50GB. This is motivated by the current LR12/Ventura bug but in general, I'd love to have the catalog file on my fast but small internal drive and previews on a larger external.

[DdeGannes]

At Lumigraphics, all the previews files and other supporting data files must reside in the same folder as the Catalog file, if you wish to move the Catalog to a new location you have to move all the contents from the Lightroom folder to the new location. If not Lightroom will have to rebuild all the previews and support files. All those files need to be on a fast drive connected to your Computer internal or external.

While you work Lightroom is reading writing to them.

[Lumigraphics]

Exactly, this is the problem.

[DdeGannes]

It's not a problem it is so by design. You cannot separated the Catalog from the supporting files.

when you are workin in LrC it is reading and writing to the Catalog and at the same time updating the previews so changes in the display on your screen show as quickly as possible.

[Lumigraphics]

And I'm asking that this be changed. Hello. Please pay attention to the topic.