How best to divide a large catalogue

[hanse95479119]

I have been using LR6 for a number of years.  Recently LR has become very slow and I think my 950,000+ photos might be hitting some limit that is the cause of the slow down.  I have enjoyed having quick access to ALL my photos but now it looks like I have to break off older photos into their own catalogue to speed up the program.  I would like to keep the originals as I have them now and when I tried 'export as a catalogue'  It seems all the photos are duplicated and the edited versions make up the new cat.  How to I divide the original and sidecar files?

[john beardsworth]

950k is big, but some catalogues run into millions. But in terms of a database, it's not that big and in my view you should remain with a single catalogue rather than fragmenting control of your pictures. Try optimising the catalogue, and look at other issues such as graphics drivers.

Export as Catalog only produces duplicates if you choose the option to Include Negatives. You could use it to produce smaller catalogues. Alternatively, copy the lrcat file in Explorer/Finder and remove  - not delete - images from each of the two catalogues. Another approach might be to start a 2020 catalogue. At the end of the year, go to the 950k catalogue and import the 2020, then start a 2021.

I wouldn't do any of these, and would spend more time looking at why the 950k is slowing down.

[hanse95479119]

john_beardsworth how do I optimise the catalogue?  I see no command that might relate to a built-in tool for this.

[john beardsworth]

Under the File menu, 4th item is Optimize.

[dj_paige]

How to I divide the original and sidecar files?

Take the easy approach. Don't do it.

If you were to make a list of top 25 reasons for slow Lightroom performance, catalog size would not make the list. Don't jump to the unwarranted conclusion that catalog size is the problem. Find the true cause of the slowness instead, and fix that.

[richardplondon]

Subdividing across multiple catalogs certainly adds some complexity but this may not need to be all-or-nothing so far as separating off every photo from 2010 (or whatever). You might still retain the "best of  2010" (or whatever) in the main Catalog, for example just the 4 and 5 star ones. If any of these feature in a portfolio collection or in a slideshow (say) they can continue to do so. But if the bulk of, lower-rated, images from 2010 are only accessible via a separate "2010-archive" Catalog hereafter, that might seldom arise as an inconvenience. And another from 2011, and so on - or whatever makes sense.

By setting the option "include negatives": LR will copy all relevant source files into a dedicated folder structure stored alongside the new Catalog that is created, when you use "Export as Catalog". That may be on a different drive.

Export as Catalog is itself, as all Exports are, a Copy operation so far as your edits also. The exported images still remain within your current Catalog and their source files remain where they are too, unless / until separately removed if so desired. 

I suppose it is possible limited free storage capacity, amount of system memory, storage access speed or another performance bottleneck might have caused thsis slowdown. That's a practical matter, possibly capable of improvement by changing the hardware or changing on which drive particular data is put - it's not necessarily a hard limit that's inherent to LR Catalogs.

[Just Shoot Me]

Simple and Correct Answer is Do NOT do that. No need. Pointless. Defeats the whole point of LR ands any DAM, Digital Access Management, Program.

You might as well stop using LR and use just OS File Folders, the OS File manager, along with something like Bridge and ACR + Photoshop.

[TheDigitalDog]

I’ll add to the group by saying, don’t do it. The photo you wish to locate and use is nearly always on the ‘other catalog’ and multiple catalogs is just a big PITA for so many reasons. 

[GoldingD]

Different approach

The hard drive that your catalog is on, In %, how much free space?

[hanse95479119]

Thanks everyone for your answers.  I am releaved that I can keep my catalogue as one.  I now just need to figure out why LR is running slow.  My catalogue is spread over 2 partitions on the one HDD.  There is 25-35% free space on each of the partitions so that should not be the issue.  also I was out by a '0' with the number of images.  It is 95,383 not 950,000 Here is the system info

Lightroom version: 6.0 [1014445]
License: Perpetual
Operating system: Windows 8.1 Business Edition
Version: 6.3 [9600]
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 3.5 GHz
Built-in memory: 16294.1 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 16294.1 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 2182.3 MB (13.3%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 14472.8 MB
Memory cache size: 3042.7 MB
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 4
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
System DPI setting: 240 DPI (high DPI mode)
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 3840x2160, 2) 1920x1200
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:
GeForce GTX 750/PCIe/SSE2

Check OpenGL support: Passed
Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 441.66
Renderer: GeForce GTX 750/PCIe/SSE2
LanguageVersion: 3.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom
Library Path: D:\Pictures\Lightroom catalogue\flickr\flickr-cat-2.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) Behance
2) Canon Tether Plugin
3) Facebook
4) Flickr
5) jf Facebook
6) jf Flickr
7) jf Metadata Viewer
8) Leica Tether Plugin
9) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de
Device : 1381
Subsystem : 36581458
Revision : a2
Video Memory : 2007
Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414
Device : 8c
Subsystem : 0
Revision : 0
Video Memory : 0
AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024
AudioDeviceName: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2
AudioDeviceSampleRate: 44100
Build: LR5x102
Direct2DEnabled: false
GPUDevice: not available
OGLEnabled: true

[dj_paige]

I now just need to figure out why LR is running slow.

Please start by stating which module in LR is slow, and describe in detail which actions are slow.

[Just Shoot Me]

Where your images are store has no bearing on the actual catalog file. The catalog file is just a Database file that References, make a record in the database of, where your images are stored.

All my images are on my win 10 PC and my iMac LR Classic install catalog connects to them across my home LAN. No images are on the iMac and LR runs fine. Also runs fine on my win PC.