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T
Tangible
Participant
February 26, 2018
Answered

Disaster Recovery question

  • February 26, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 747 views

I keep a hard drive containing all my important stuff in an off-site location, in case of complete disaster - including loss of my cloud data or access to it. I've told LR to keep all of my originals on one of my Macs, and as a result I have a .lrlibrary file that's about 350GB.

My question: Is a backup of that file useable in a recovery situation, i.e. could I start from scratch, tell a new copy of Lightroom that these are my photos, and be back in business?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Jim Wilde

    It depends on what disaster you're recovering from. If, for instance, the disaster has struck locally, i.e. your computer or worse, then you don't need to worry about access to that library file. Setup a new computer, install the Creative Cloud app using your Adobe ID credentials, use that to install LRCC, launch it and it will automatically sync with the cloud and present you with the same library that you were using prior to the disaster. If you set the preferences to store a local copy, then all 350gb of files will download again.

    If the disaster has struck Adobe and you can't access the cloud, then at least you'll still have you local copy of the originals to use while waiting for Adobe to recover.

    2 replies

    D
    Dazz5CF8
    Participant
    February 12, 2021

    Having backup is always recommended. Depending with the size of data, you can use paid or free backup solutions. However if you didn't have a backup, you may have to consult a Data Recovery Firm.

    Which ofcouse you can check online such as East Africa Recovery Experts, just a mention.

    Jim Wilde
    Community Expert
    Jim WildeCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    February 26, 2018

    It depends on what disaster you're recovering from. If, for instance, the disaster has struck locally, i.e. your computer or worse, then you don't need to worry about access to that library file. Setup a new computer, install the Creative Cloud app using your Adobe ID credentials, use that to install LRCC, launch it and it will automatically sync with the cloud and present you with the same library that you were using prior to the disaster. If you set the preferences to store a local copy, then all 350gb of files will download again.

    If the disaster has struck Adobe and you can't access the cloud, then at least you'll still have you local copy of the originals to use while waiting for Adobe to recover.

    T
    TangibleAuthor
    Participant
    February 26, 2018

    Makes sense, thanks. I do still miss having images on my local computer in a format readable without recourse to any Adobe software or storage, as I had with the old (now Classic) LR.  When I signed up for CC I didn't realize that the option to keep a copy of everything locally would be in a proprietary format. I guess I can periodically select all my photos and Save them to a local medium. Might take a very long time, but may be a good thing to do once a year or so, just in case of a zombie apocalypse. 

    T
    Adobe Employee
    Tom Hogarty
    Adobe Employee
    February 27, 2018

    Tangible,

    We also have a utility that will pull all of your Lightroom CC content from the Creative Cloud to a location of your choosing.  It's currently a "use once" solution(all or nothing every time you use it). We're anticipating that at some point down the road customer demand for an incremental solution for local backups will get high enough on the priority list for us to tackle that workflow.

    Download synced Lightroom photos and videos from the cloud to a computer

    Regards,

    Tom Hogarty

    Adobe Systems

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