Lightroom Classic not backing up since moving Catalog.

[John Cicchine]

Lightroom Version Number

10.4

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

Hello to all,

Back in I believe October of last year I posted a question about after I moved my LR Catalog from a 4 TB External Drive to a 6 TB External Drive I no longer get the window asking me about backing up now. I also cannot force a back up. I am now wondering I remember getting a message saying that my Catalog in larger than 4 GB. Actually it is 7.05 GB and I should use 7-Zip or StuffitExpander which I am not. Does anyone think this is why LR suddenly stopped backing up and that if I were to use one of these applications then LR will resume backing up? Quiet honestly I have been using LR since 2014 after Apple no longer supported Aperture and I consider LR to be a very good photo editor but I have had too many problems over the years with the Catalog system and I have just about had it. I am in the process of migrating more and more towards On1 PhotoRAW which I am sure has it's own short comings but at least I do not have to worry about a Catalog system. It's just one less thing to have to deal with. I welcome any advice on this matter and as always thank you to everyone.

John

 

[Replytoken]

I am not a Mac user, but 4GB is the FAT32 file size limit if I recall correctly. Is the drive formatted in FAT32?

--Ken

 

[Hal P Anderson]

That message is saying that the backup was created, but the zipped file was too big to be extracted by the Apple-supplied program. Are you sure that no backup was created?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Hello to all,

Back in I believe October of last year I posted a question about after I moved my LR Catalog from a 4 TB External Drive to a 6 TB External Drive I no longer get the window asking me about backing up now. I also cannot force a back up. I am now wondering I remember getting a message saying that my Catalog in larger than 4 GB. Actually it is 7.05 GB and I should use 7-Zip or StuffitExpander which I am not. Does anyone think this is why LR suddenly stopped backing up and that if I were to use one of these applications then LR will resume backing up? Quiet honestly I have been using LR since 2014 after Apple no longer supported Aperture and I consider LR to be a very good photo editor but I have had too many problems over the years with the Catalog system and I have just about had it. I am in the process of migrating more and more towards On1 PhotoRAW which I am sure has it's own short comings but at least I do not have to worry about a Catalog system. It's just one less thing to have to deal with. I welcome any advice on this matter and as always thank you to everyone.

John

What happens if you click ‘Continue’? This is not an error message, it is just a note telling you that you need to use a special utility to unzip the backup in case you need it, because the default MacOS utility can’t unzip it. It should not stop you from making the backup.

 

[John Cicchine]

I am not a Mac user, but 4GB is the FAT32 file size limit if I recall correctly. Is the drive formatted in FAT32?
Hi Ken, Sorry for the delay in writing back. I have been a bit busy with my doctors. Both the new drive and the previous drive are formatted to Mac OS Extended Journaled. Thank You Ken. John

--Ken

I am not a Mac user, but 4GB is the FAT32 file size limit if I recall correctly. Is the drive formatted in FAT32?

--Ken

 

[John Cicchine]

What happens if you click ‘Continue’? This is not an error message, it is just a note telling you that you need to use a special utility to unzip the backup in case you need it, because the default MacOS utility can’t unzip it. It should not stop you from making the backup.

Hi Johan, I no longer receive that message. It's that I am no longer asked to "Back Up Now" and I cannot even force a back up. Thank You Johan.
John

 

[John Cicchine]

That message is saying that the backup was created, but the zipped file was too big to be extracted by the Apple-supplied program. Are you sure that no backup was created?

Hi Hal, No back up was created. I even looked on my external hard drive. I cannot even force a back up. Thank You for your help Hal.
John

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Hi Johan, I no longer receive that message. It's that I am no longer asked to "Back Up Now" and I cannot even force a back up. Thank You Johan.
John

The frequency of backups is set in Lightroom’s catalog settings. If you did set a frequency and still do not get a result, then maybe you should reset the preferences. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

 

[GregJ]

I just don't understand why anyone on 2023 is putting their catalog on an external spinning rust drive. Your catalog needs to be on your boot SSD. If your boot SSD is not at least 1 or 2 TB, then you need to remedy that because you have other problems besides just LR.
Your cat is very small. The size is eaten up by your preview files. Those can be deleted instantly with little consequence. You can always generate new previews later if you ever do further work or want to view at full res some old files.
My cat is very small, but it looks huge. Why? Because I generate 1:1 previews on import and never delete them, and my preview folder is gigantic - over half a TB, which is of no consequence for me.
How big is your boot SSD and how full is it? I bet it is a half TB (too small in 2023) and I bet it is near full, isn't it?
If not, move your cat to the boot SSD. Delete your preview files. Then back up the cat to an external drive, preferably an SSD.
I don't know for sure, but I sense that your problem is not with LR. Your problem is with your computer and the way you are using it.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

@GregJ While I agree with what you say, I think this is totally irrelevant at this time. The OP seems to have a problem with Lightroom not wanting to backup the catalog. Let’s try and help him solve this first.

 

[GregJ]

You are probably right, but not necessarily. How full is his boot SSD? His problem could also be connectivity if his cat is on an external and he is backing up to another external.
I bet you 5 dollars his problem is not LR related.
OP - export some jpegs to the same drive you are trying to backup to and tell me what happens.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Greg, please. You don’t even know if the OP has an SSD drive as boot disk. You are just speculating. He is using a Mac (not your speciality, I believe) and he is using a pretty old version of MacOS (10.14 Mohave) and Lightroom Classic (10.4). That does not sound like a modern computer with an SSD internal drive to me.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Let's focus on troubleshooting Lightroom - that's what we're here for. There are a lot of potential software causes that are more likely than hardware issues at this point.

 

[GregJ]

OK. Agree. Of course, with the limited knowledge we have here it could be the boot drive, external drive, connectivity, OS, other software, LR itself or a menu error. Who knows.

But at least do this. Very simple. How full is the boot drive? At least tell me that.

And please do this simple task. Go into LR and select 10 raw files from anyplace the OP wants - wherever the images are stored, which is probably where the OP has the cat stored. Then export them as full-size jpegs to whatever external (or internal) drive that the OP is attempting to backup the cat to.

Then tell me what happens.