Lightroom housekeeping questions

[richardg52861327]

Going to 'Exit' at the bottom of the File Menu seems to be the only way out of LR. I assume that all work done in LR will be saved going this root. Seems to work at this point.

Also, should I be backing up the catalog when prompted? Is this a good idea? I am asked this every time I leave LR and wanted to 'do the right thing.'

Thank you,

Photodoc16 

[JP Hess · Accepted solution]

As you make adjustments to your images in Lightroom, those adjustments are stored in the catalog which is a database. Those adjustments are cumulative, and are stored as they are made. No changes are made to the image files themselves. So nothing needs to be "saved" as far as the images are concerned. When Lightroom closes the catalog is current as far as the work that has been done to that point. So when prompted to back up the catalog, that is what is backing up the work you have performed. Whether you decide to perform the backup every time Lightroom closes or on a weekly basis or some other interval is determined in the Lightroom catalog preferences. The choice is yours. I choose to backup my catalog weekly.

The image files are always left in their pristine state they were in when they were first imported or added to the Lightroom catalog. The backup process in Lightroom does NOT backup your images. You need to use other software to complete that process.

Other ways to exit: Ctrl+Q, Right-click on the LrC icon in the system tray.

[richardg52861327 · Accepted solution]

Thank you Jim,
It sounds like after changing the image in LR and saving the image, I will
still have the original plus the altered image. The same process occurs
when you make changes in PS and bring the image back into LR - two images.
Correct?
Thanks,
Richard

[MarekMularczyk]

You can close Lightroom by simply closing Lightroom window (on Windows) or by pressing Alt+F4.

As for backup, change your Lightroom Preferences if you want backup to be less often (you can set it to make backups once a week)

[dj_paige]

"Also, should I be backing up the catalog when prompted? Is this a good idea?"

I am shocked that someone would ask "Is this a good idea?" If you don't make backups of your work (not just Lightroom, but all of your work, like Word and Excel documents, critical e-mail, photographs, etc.) and your hard disk crashes, then all your work is gone. Not only is it a good idea, but in my opinion, it should be mandatory.

[richardg52861327]

dj,
I was not questioning the imperative to back up files, images, etc. which I
do. I was asking about saving the changes to the original images that the
catalog question was asking about. I will be backing up those changes as
well.
Thanks,
Richard

[dj_paige]

"I was asking about saving the changes to the original images that the catalog question was asking about."

Just to be 100% clear, the catalog backup is not just about "changes to the original images", the catalog backups contains all of your work (edits, user-provided metadata, pick flags, collections, virtual copies, slideshows, photo books, GPS coordinates, etc.). These are not saved to the original image files (or sidecar xmp files) by default, and even if you override the default, some of these items will never be saved with the images (so some of these items exist ONLY in the catalog itself).