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Really large Lightroom library.lrlibrary

Community Beginner ,
Jun 29, 2020 Jun 29, 2020

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Hi,

 

My lightroom lrlibrary file has grown to be really huge. It is at 122 GB right now and a separate file, "Photos Library" is 27 GB in size. 

 

Any ideas what to do? This is really eating up the space on my laptop.

 

System details: macOS Catalina 10.15

 

Thanks, in advance, for your help.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 29, 2020 Jun 29, 2020

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Photos Library is your library for the Photos app and has nothing to do with Lightroom so don't touch that. The Lightroom.lrlibrary file is controlled by the setting in Preferences->local storage. You should see a preference for photo cache size there and preferences to store smart previews and whether to store local copies for everything. Set the photo cache size to a smaller number and after a few days you should see the lrlibrary file decrease. Also you can generally turn off the local copy option. 

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 29, 2020 Jun 29, 2020

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Thanks! That's very useful. 

 

I had my options set to 25% of the available disk space (now reduced it to 10%) and had the "local copy option" set to off already. Hopefully the reduction (25% to 10%) will help.

 

Also, can I delete the current files in the local copy (in the "originals" folder) safely?

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Community Expert ,
Jun 29, 2020 Jun 29, 2020

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If you click on the cloud icon in Lightroom and it says "Synced and Backed up" you can delete files from the orginals folder inside the lrlibrary file indeed. But make absolutely sure Lightroom says everything is synced and backed up.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 30, 2020 Jun 30, 2020

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I actually have a copy of the originals on my desktop -- I had imported it separately from the camera before adding it to LR as an album. So I'm assuming that should be fine?

 

Thanks for your informative responses btw!

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Community Expert ,
Jun 30, 2020 Jun 30, 2020

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That is probably good if you are sure they have been added into Lightroom and have been synced to the cloud. I generally recommend people back up their images separately themselves as the cloud system Adobe provides is not really a backup as you can easily delete images without a good way to get them back.

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New Here ,
Jan 03, 2023 Jan 03, 2023

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LATEST
  • I've done this and it is still 178gb 

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 08, 2021 Sep 08, 2021

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Hello ,

 

I have the same problem , big lrlibrary file and same System details 

but can't find the preferences ---> local storage   .... where ?

I've searched in Lightroom Preferences , Photo Preferences and also  MAc System Preferences ... did not find 

 

Thanks in advance for your help 

 

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Community Expert ,
Sep 08, 2021 Sep 08, 2021

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From the Lightroom menu select preferences and then click on Local storage. There you can select how much space the Lightroom Library can take up. Make sure to uncheck the two "store a copy" options

Screen Shot 2021-09-08 at 11.06.36 AM.png

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 09, 2021 Sep 09, 2021

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Thanks , perfect !!

I understood and the problem with lrlibrary is solved now, but 

I still have a hudge file Mobile Downloads.Irdata  124.02 GB  

Can you help me to reduce it too ? 

 

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Community Expert ,
Sep 09, 2021 Sep 09, 2021

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quote

I still have a hudge file Mobile Downloads.Irdata  124.02 GB  

Can you help me to reduce it too ? 

 

 

Are you also using Lightrrom Classic, and are you syncing the Classic catalog with the cloud? If you are, you should be aware that when you add original images to the cloud from any of the Lightroom ecosystem apps, a copy of those originals are also downloaded into the synced Classic catalog. The default location for storing those downloaded images is the "Mobile Downloads.lrdata" folder/package on the system drive. If you want to sync your Classic catalog with the cloud, you cannot avoid having the cloud-based originals also stored on the local system, but you can change the location of them to say an external drive.....see the Lightroom Classic Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab. I believe that if you specify a different location you will also be given the option to have the current images moved from the Mobile Downloads.lrdata to the new location. If that doesn't happen, you can move them yourself using drag and drop in the Lightroom Classic Folders panel.

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 09, 2021 Sep 09, 2021

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You are right in all your comments .

I already follow your instructions and moved the folder to my external drive .

 

Thank you very much  !! 

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New Here ,
Oct 30, 2022 Oct 30, 2022

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I noticed you dont have either of the store a copy buttons checked. I do and its taking up almost a whole 1 TB on my computer. Im not sure what settings to change here and if i adjust them i dont want to screw anything up. I upload all my photos ( Real estate Photography) to an external HD and export them to an external hard drive. So i dont really need anything stored locally, is it safe to uncheck these?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 30, 2022 Oct 30, 2022

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The whole point of the cloud thing is that you don't need local copies. You can safely uncheck both of these. Lightroom will dynamically download copies of the originals if you need to edit (or export) them. Since you are already making backups manually you really don't need to store any originals or smart preview copies. If you have enough space and a not so fast internet connection it might make sense to do this to speed things up. But otherwise just leave them off.

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New Here ,
Oct 11, 2022 Oct 11, 2022

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Hey there!

 

I'm unfortunately having the same issue. I tried to follow your instructions however I havent been able to locate Preferences->local storage. For context, I use lightroom classic.

When I click in to prefrence, the only option that I get that is related to "cache size" is under a setting called "camera raw cache settings". In this section there appears to be a maximum size option that is represented in GB not a percentage. Additionally, the GB cant be changed to an option lower than 5 GB.

Ask: Am I in the right place and if not, could you please show me how to get there? 

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Community Expert ,
Oct 11, 2022 Oct 11, 2022

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quote

Hey there!

 

I'm unfortunately having the same issue.

 

No, you're not having the same issue....this thread was referring to the amount of space taken up by the local library created by the Lightroom cloud-based app, which is nothing to do with Lightroom Classic.

 

It would be much better if you started a new thread in the Lightroom Classic forum, and which clearly explains what problem you need help with.

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New Here ,
Dec 22, 2022 Dec 22, 2022

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Hello

I've googled this heaps and  can't find my answer.

When looking at my Macs storage, it says I've got 79.54gb of lightroom files. I have no projects underway, so these are not actual images. Which suggests they're backups or previews - but I can't figure out what I can and  cannot delete.

However the actual lightroom files don't appear to be larger than 720.3mb. Where is this 79gb and  can I delete it? Hopefully the attached image helps. Thank you!Screenshot 2022-12-22 at 13.34.26.png

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Community Expert ,
Dec 22, 2022 Dec 22, 2022

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Please see here:

Really large Lightroom library.lrlibrary - Adobe Support Community - 11249666

Gelöst: Giant Lightroom library.lrlibrary file - Adobe Support Community - 12761719

 

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 10 Pro 22H2 -- LR-Classic 13.2 - Photoshop 25.5 - Nik Collection 6.8 - Topaz Photo AI 2

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Community Expert ,
Dec 22, 2022 Dec 22, 2022

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Both of the linked posts contain out of date screenshots, etc. Best place to look for up to date guidance on local storage and how to configure same to avoid using space unnecessarily is at https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/preferences.html#Localstoragepreferences

 

 

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