Lightroom Classic with Dropbox vs SD

Report · Jan 05, 2019

I am trying to figure out what the better setup is for my lightroom workflow.There are a ton of tips online, and I have been wading through lots of videos and blogs...but I cannot seem to get an answer that pertains to what I need. I do not have to share my photos with other people or computers. I do, however, have quite a lot of photos and need to find a good solution that will not run out of space immediately again.

I have two possibilities that I keep on going back and forth:

1- Static State Drive (SD) which is backed up to Backblaze that holds all my photos and LR catalog

2 - Dropbox that is local on my computer as well as on the dropbox cloud.

The first version, I am pretty sure works, however, then I would only have my photos on that SD as well as 1 backup on Backblaze (which would take some time to get ALL the photos back if something were to happen). I could use CarbonCopy cloner or something similar to backup the SD to another HD to have a local backup, it sounds a bit cumbersome.

The second process would require me to do some selective sync folders because my computer is running out of space (I do have a lot of photos that I will be able to delete, and I am working on it finally, but it is a slow process). I am concerned about the selective sync since that can sometimes cause some issues, especially when changes are made to the local folder and then conflicts with the cloud version.

Does anyone in this forum have a good setup with dropbox that works? What is the consensus about SD vs Dropbox?

I appreciate any words of advice

Michelle

Report · Jan 06, 2019

First, when I Google "Static State Drive", I get no results. What is it?

Second, it's not really clear why you are having problems solving space problems. Buying more disk space solves just about any storage problem. You have lots of options.

Dropbox (and similar services) also works, assuming you have enough space locally to store everything in the Dropbox folder. Put all of your photos in Dropbox, leave the catalog on your local computer and then also make sure your catalog file is backed up to Dropbox. Do not put the original (working copy) of your catalog file on Dropbox.

Report · Feb 16, 2020

dj_paige,

Good suggestion, but curious what you would suggest if using two separate machines?

i.e. how to manage a catalog on two machines, with all photos stored in dropbox?

thanks

Report · Jan 06, 2019

As above. I have no idea what a "Static State Drive" is. Do you, did you, mean "Solid State Drive" (SSD)?

If so then the cost of those is still way higher that traditional spinning, Rotating, Hard Disk Drives for the amount of space you get in each drive.

I suggest both internal standard spinning drives for storage of all your images. internal SSD for OS, Programs and standard personal/work document files (Including the LR catalog and related folders and files that go along with the catalog) and then external standard, spinning, drives to back everything up to on a regular basis and or having a backup program that does all that automatically.

I usually replace both my internal and external standard drives every 3-4 years (or at the first sign of problems with any of the drives. I have 3 standard internal drives in my main desktop computer and 2 always connected external drives).

I'm not a fan of cloud storage. Although I do use it for some things mostly the LR Classic collections to share images with others and to access them from my phone or some other computer through the web system.

I can disconnect one of my external drive and put it in a closet I never lose any data on it. If I stop paying for cloud storage they just Delete everything. So even if I used the cloud I'd still need to have multiple local copies of all my files.

Report · Jan 06, 2019

Apologies, I meant Solid State of course. Thank you for your thoughts. Everyone's situation is different.

I have a mac book pro, and those do not allow for addition of internal harddrives. My current internal disk has 70GB left out of 1TB so I do have to get it off the disk.

Overnight I decided to work with the Samsung T5 1TB SSD for the photos as well as Lightroom catalog. I will use Time Machine to back it up to a HD, which is backed up to Backblaze. This gives me 1 original and 2 backup copies, one local and one off site.

The dropbox option just won't work well because of the selective sync.

If anyone out there loves working with the dropbox selective sync for their lightroom catalog and photos, please comment below.

Thank you

Report · Jan 06, 2019

I still don't see a need for a Solid State drive. Any external drive will work ... leave your catalog on the internal disk, move the photos to the new external drive, reconnect the catalog to the new location of the photos, and you're all set.

A solid state drive for photos is generally extra cost, but a solid state drive containing your photos provides virtually no speed benefit in Lightroom.