Backup or copy cataloge

Report · Oct 28, 2017

What is the difference between backing up the catalogue within the program, or just copying the catalogue ?.

The reason I ask is that the backup within the program takes a lot longer than just making a copy.

It might be a silly question, but I just wondered.

Report · Oct 28, 2017

mickiete wrote
What is the difference between backing up the catalogue within the program, or just copying the catalogue ?.
The reason I ask is that the backup within the program takes a lot longer than just making a copy.
It might be a silly question, but I just wondered.

It's a really good question. The backup in Elements copies not only the catalog folder, it also backs up your image files library (the image folders). Lightroom backups only the catalogs. You can imagine the difference in size.

You find the size of the catalog from the menu Help >> System Info. You can also find the size of the full backup by starting the backup process and stopping it just after the final size has been shown.

Report · Oct 28, 2017

By the way I am trying Elements 2018 trial.

Just did a program backup, took over an 1 hour and is 114Gb, 38,132 files.

Just copied my catalogue file, took 2mins 10sec and it's 1.84Gb, 42,390 files

So whats the difference ?

What is the program coping that the normal copy does not ?

Report · Oct 28, 2017

mickiete wrote
By the way I am trying Elements 2018 trial.
Just did a program backup, took over an 1 hour and is 114Gb, 38,132 files.
Just copied my catalogue file, took 2mins 10sec and it's 1.84Gb, 42,390 files
So whats the difference ?
What is the program coping that the normal copy does not ?

The catalog is just that: a sophisticated LIST of the photo files present on your drive(s). A catalog does not contain any photo file, just like a museum catalog contains the list of the exhibited canvases... not the canvases themselves.

The catalog is a folder containing a main database which stores critical information like the location of each photo file on the computer, the main exif data from your camera (date, shutter speed, ISO, camera ...), your own tags, captions, notes, ratings, another database to store the thumbnails for fast browsing. Everything is indexed for quick retrieval and you can create multicriteria searches.

If you mean the difference in the number of files, there are additional files in the catalog folder for face recognition, visual similarity. The number of files shown in the browsing space (bottom line) is the number of pure media files; the number of files in the backup folder also includes the xmp sidecar files accompanying raw files.