How should I back up and organize Lightroom catalogs and photo files so older work is easy to reopen?
Asked 4/21/2017
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I currently create a new Lightroom catalog at the start of each year to save space on my hard drive. I also back up the related photo files and exported JPEGs.
Recently I restored an older catalog backup, but Lightroom showed the photos as missing because the originals were stored on an external drive.
What is a good way to organize Lightroom catalogs and image backups so that older projects can be reopened easily, while keeping links between the catalog, edits, and original files intact?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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Hence what is the best way to organise catalogs and the relative photos in order to easily being able to work on them when needed?
For the Lightroom catalog, set a backup to a Network Storage location every time you close the program. Setup a backup of the images happens during the import of images to the same backup location which the catalog backup is backed up to. If an image goes missing, you able to copy it from the network storage back into place on local storage. This way you can have one catalog for all your images and when your local drive starts to fill up, you are able to use Lightroom to move the files to the elsewhere without losing the link between the edits and the files.
If Lightroom states it's missing a file, you may have to move it manually back to its local location or update Lightroom to point to the backup. Lightroom does non-destructive edits so the edits are stored in the catalog. As long as the preferences are setup to backup the catalog, all your post processing information is saved. When you export a photo from Lightroom, that is when you will store that in a location of your choice. Lightroom will not make a backup of the exported photo as you would be able to export the photo again if need be. You will have to setup your import settings to include a backup copy location and it will copy everything you are importing via Lightroom, Images, videos, Etc.
From a Backup standpoint:
Individual drives can fail or lose data, might be better to look at a Cloud solution or a NAS (Network Addressable Storage) with Raid 1 or 5 or something similar, if the files are that important. When dealing with backups, you always need to understand there is some level of risk and/or cost with each kind of backup and pick the right one for you to use.
a notes for using network storage:
If you are using a MAC, you can look at mounting the share as NFS or if it's Windows, must map a network drive and Lightroom should see the location.
Originally by user6327. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user6327
9y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A practical approach is to keep one Lightroom catalog for all your images, then back up both the catalog and the photo files to a separate location such as network storage.
Key points:
- Set Lightroom to back up the catalog whenever you close the program.
- Back up the original image files as part of your import workflow to the same backup destination.
- When your local drive fills up, use Lightroom itself to move image files to another drive or location. That helps preserve the catalog’s links to the files and your edits.
- If Lightroom reports files as missing after a restore, the originals are not where the catalog expects them to be. Restore or move those image files back to the expected location, or relink them manually.
The main lesson is that a catalog backup alone is not enough; you also need a reliable backup of the original photos in a location you can restore from. Keeping file moves inside Lightroom, rather than in the operating system, makes reopening older work much easier.
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