Are backups cumulative?

[Roy Mathers]

This query is as the title states. Can i delete all the Lightroom backups prior to the latest one (to save space?).

 

[Brad Snyder]

Yes, but with caution. Make sure the latest one is valid. The recommended way to check is to simply double click on the backup file to open it. Give it a good exploration, looking at various features, filtering, folders, keywords, etc. to satisfy yourself the data is valid. I guess the consensus is to keep several of the latest backups, deleting the oldest when adding the newest. The paranoid burn them to optical before deleting.

 

[Roy Mathers]

Thanks Brad.

 

[Rob Sylvan]

One more suggestion I'd make is to either go back to your working catalog's .lrcat file and double-click it to open it, or go into Lightroom's preferences (under General) and configure the Default Catalog to point to your working catalog.

I've seen too many people open a backup catalog to poke around and then quit Lightroom. The next time they start Lightroom it opens the backup copy because the default preference setting is to open the last one used.

It's not impossible to fix, but a pain and a time waster all the same.

 

[breyman]

Personally, I often like to keep 2-3 previous versions, just in case something needs to get rolled back a little further (it might be a bit of paranoia speaking...). Space is cheap and catalogs typically aren't huge in size.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Thanks, Rob, I always try to include that 'return to the working catalog', even thought about it this time and got distracted. Yes, that particular gotcha' has caused a lot of confusion and grief.

 

[parintele]

My back-up method is both manual and automatic made by LR...

First I back up myself manually all the LR_Catalog folder....simply copy on another drive with a date sheet.

Auto back-ups I make just for to be shure when LR is asking ...

Now, There is no problem deleting old back-ups once you have checked the last version is ok, i would still keep last 2 versions.

 

[Roy Mathers]

One more suggestion I'd make is to either go back to your working catalog's .lrcat file and double-click it to open it, or go into Lightroom's preferences (under General) and configure the Default Catalog to point to your working catalog.

I've seen too many people open a backup catalog to poke around and then quit Lightroom. The next time they start Lightroom it opens the backup copy because the default preference setting is to open the last one used.

It's not impossible to fix, but a pain and a time waster all the same.

Thanks for the tip Rob.