How to move the backup folder location and NOT the catalog location?

[Darrall]

I run LR Classic on an iMac and keep my entire Lightroom 570GB folder which includes the original photos, on an external drive which I regularly backup. The LRC BACKUPS folder defaults to within the same LR folder which seems rather superfluous. All my collections are synced to LR Mobile.

I notice that each dated backup zip file only contains the .Ircat file (in my case 900MB) and not all the other files:

Helper 30MB

Previews 90GB!

Smart Previews 300MB

Sync 600MB

.Ircat-wal 5MB

.Ircat.lock 70 bytes

I wish to manage just this BACKUPS folder on another drive, and leave the catalog files where they are since the Previews file is enormous. But there is no option to do this.

Also why are the other files not backed up in the zip file? What would happen if only the original photos and the backup zip file were available after a drive failure for example? Could all the other files be recreated by LRC, including the previews?

[99jon]

Launch Lightroom and use the menu:

Edit >> Catalog Settings

From the pull-down menu choose:

Backup catalog when Lightroom next exits & Click OK

Quit Lightroom and in the backup dialog click the choose button

Navigate to your preferred location and select the folder

Click the backup button

Only the catlog file gets backed up. You should backup your photo files independently. The previews can be backed up (optionally) although if you ever need to restore from a backup previews can be re-generated on the fly.

[dj_paige]

In addition to the advice above, I mentioned that it is NEVER a good idea to put the backup on the same disk as the originals. Why? Because if that disk fails, now you have zero copies of everything, and you won't be happy.

Backups must go on a different physical disk.

[richardplondon]

All previews could be reconstructed, as required. Exactly the same way that they came into existence in the first place, and were subsequently updated with each new adjustment. The only essential raw materials for this to happen, are the Catalog file and the source images.

The Catalog in the case of a problem could be extracted from a zip file and restored into any drive or folder, the same or different to before. The image files need separate backing up so that in the case of a problem they could be restored. If restored to a different drive // folder than before then some re-browsing will be needed within the Catalog to get everything once again connected up. But if remaining / restored to the same drive and folder exactly, everything just resumes naturally.

You'll notice any missing preview being generated reactively, as you browse to each image in Library, or else you can tell LR to rebuild those previews proactively, which it will then do in the background. 

When you next see the LR backup dialog, there is a button "Choose" next to a display of the current Catalog backup destination. Click this to tell LR to use a different drive / location hereafter. This does not need to match where the working Catalog lives.

You can of course move or delete the backups that have already happened (the ones in Zip files) yourself, using your file browser such as Finder / Explorer. LR does not remember, or care, about those.

[Darrall]

Many thanks for your help! 

Just one thing. If I lost the Sync file, I presume I would have to completely reconstruct the complex tree structure I have set up in LR Mobile which mirrors the structure in Classic. Or does LRM remember the tree structure itself and sync the Classic collections back correctly? If not, then surely the Sync file should automatically be included in the zip backup.

Just on another issue which is a bit frustrating, and you might be able to help.

I sync all my dozens of collections to LR Mobile. All are carefully sorted to CUSTOM.

However, when I go to LRM the default sort is always CAPTURE TIME and I have to keep resetting to CUSTOM.

Is there some way to set the default? If not, why not since if I obviously have taken the trouble to CUSTOM sort, then this is obviously what I also want in LRM!

Any ideas?