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I want to make another backup of my LR Classic catalog to an external SSD. What files do I need to copy?

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hassiman

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Hello,
I have my LR Classic Catalog on a CalDigit external RAID 1 array running spinning HD's.
Just in case of a Hardware failure I want to make another backup of my LR Classic catalog to an external SSD.
What's the best way to do this? And if I just want to copy and paste the files What files do I need to copy?

Thanks!
 
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You talk about ‘another’ backup, so I assume you think that Lightroom can only backup the catalog to its own catalog folder. That is not true. Choose a backup frequency in the Catalog Settings, and when the dialog comes up from Lightroom to make a backup then click on the ‘Choose’ button and change the destination of the backup from the default to your external SSD.
 
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Your files are not part of the catalogue. They are just files. The catalogue is a database that keeps a record of your adjustments.

I have 3 external powered drives (EPD). My catalogue is on my HD in the default location - Pictures. The HD is backed up by time machine to the 1st EPD. My files are on the 2nd EPD and are backed up daily to the 3rd EPD daily using Carbon Copy Cloner.
 
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hassiman said:
Hello,

Just in case of a Hardware failure I want to make another backup of my LR Classic catalog to an external SSD.
What's the best way to do this? And if I just want to copy and paste the files What files do I need to copy?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Use the TiimeMachine app. To backup ALL of your critical files including the LIghtroom catalog file, your image files, Lightroom settings, and any other file not a part of Lightroom that you can’t afford to lose.

Apps that just copy files are not considered backup even though they may call themselves a ‘backup’. This includes the Lightroom “backup” which just makes a snapshot copy of the catalog file.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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If you are after the minimum required catalog files, then it is the file with extension ".lrcat" and the file with extension ".lrcat-data". All the other files and folders in the same folder as those two whose name starts with the same catalog name are nice to have but not mandatory. In other words, LrC will be able to recreate them as needed if they are not present. Depedning on how many and what types of previews you have I'd copy the whole folder containing those two items. However, if that folders contains many old catalogs, say from prior versions of LrC, I'd first either delete or move all those old versions to a different folder (Old Lightroom Catalogs), leaving only the current catalog and its associated files in the one folder.

Remember, we're only talking about the catalog itself, not the images referred to by the catalog. And the catalog does not contain any images (only previews of some, but not all, of your images in some of those "extra" files)
 
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I am not sure where all of my original NEF, JPG and video files are stored. What is the name of the default folder LRC store those original file upon import?

It's been a long time since I set this system up.
 
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By default LrC imports images into your "Pictures" folder on your internal drive. However it remembers the last import location used which then becomes the new default. To find your images files, just look at what drives and folders are shown in the Folders Panel in the Library Module.
 
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