Moving LR Catalog - Copy Catalog, Smart Previews and Previews?

[rafaeld40474899]

I am moving my LR catalog(s) to an external SSD. I have the steps on how to do this. However, I've come across two options:

(1) Copy the {catalog name}.lrcat folder to the new location

(2) Copy the {catalog name}.lrcat, Previews.lrcat, and Smart Previews.lrcat files to the new location

From experience, LR creates new Previews in the same (new SSD) location once you launch the catalog from the new SSD location. I am wondering what the pros and cons are of also moving the Previews and Smart Previews to the new SSD location and then launching the catalog. Any feedback and/or recommendations greatly appreciated.

For those in the US, happy Independence Day.

[Ian Lyons]

Option 2 means you'll be up and running as soon as copy process is completed. With Option 1 you'll need to factor in the time to rebuild the previews and smart previews, which could amount to many hours.