How can I make incremental backups of a Lightroom photo library on Mac?
Asked 12/20/2015
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I use Lightroom on a Mac and already back up my whole computer with Time Machine. I also keep a second fireproof external drive for critical files and my photo library, but it doesn’t have enough space for a full Time Machine backup. With Aperture I used Vault to copy only changes. In Lightroom, I seem to end up deleting and recoprying the whole photo library each time. Is there a way to do incremental backups of Lightroom photos and the catalog to a second drive?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
4
Really this has nothing to do with Lightroom or Photography. The solution is the same regardless of which type of files you need to back incrementally: rsync
This a utility to synchronize file-systems by only copy differences. It can do quite a lot actually as there are dozens of options. I use it on Linux as part of my backup procedure. A simple command such as:
rsync -Sax /pictures /backup/pictures
Does the right thing most of the time for me. Check the documentation online from Apple to see what is the right command from you. In my workflow for images, nothing ever gets deleted or overritten. For cases where you delete files, you can add the --delete flag too.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
10y ago
0
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Yes—but this is mostly a file-backup issue, not a Lightroom-specific feature.
Lightroom does not store your original photos inside the app; it indexes files stored in folders on your drive. So your photo folders can be backed up incrementally with normal backup/sync tools such as rsync, Time Machine (if space allows), or Mac backup apps like Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, Mac Backup Guru, or Data Backup.
On Mac, rsync is a common solution because it copies only changed files instead of recoprying everything.
The Lightroom catalog is different: it is essentially one database file, so backing it up usually means copying the whole catalog file. That’s normal, and it usually isn’t very large. Cache files generally don’t need to be backed up.
So the practical approach is:
- keep all photos under one main folder
- use an incremental file backup/sync tool for that folder
- back up the Lightroom catalog file separately as a normal copy
If you also want deletions mirrored to the backup, choose a tool/setting that supports that behavior.
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