Backup creates a ZIP and a backup folder

[wearymadness]

Lightroom Version Number

LRC v11.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi,

I've read a few threads here regarding the merits of switching to backing up as a ZIP file, which I wholeheartedly agree with, but my backups contain a ZIP AND a folder, the folder being the contents of the ZIP. I really do not understand the sense of this. As an average, my backups are 125MB (44MB + 81MB), the 81MB being redundant in my opinion.

Is there a setting I'm missing? Am I doing something wrong?

One other unfortunate side effect of this is that "Backup Cleaner" only deletes the folder (containing the LRCAT file) and not the ZIP - something for the plugin author to rectify.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

You are not doing anything wrong and you cannot change anything. Lightroom backs up two items now; the catalog file and the .lrcat-data folder that contains AI generated masks. These two items are packaged inside a zip, and because the zip always has the same name, each zip is stored inside a folder named for the data and time the backup was created.

 

[wearymadness]

Hi,

thanks for your response, but I think I may not have explained my situation clearly. This is what the content of my backup folder looks like; a ZIP AND a folder

If I open the ZIP it contains a copy of the folder:
The folder

The ZIP

This is what is confusing me - why the redundency IF the intent was to (partially) reduce space by backing up to a ZIP file?

 

[Jim Wilde]

In all probability you have uncompressed the original zip file, and that creates a new adjacent folder with the now-unzipped contents of the zipped folder. That's standard behaviour when uncompressing a zipped file.

To check, create a new backup then go to the backups folder and you should initially see only one (zipped) file in the time-stamped folder.

 

[wearymadness]

Nope, haven't touched them, created 3 today to test and ALL have the folder.

What seems to be happening is that the folder is created to be ZIPPED but not deleted after the ZIP task has been completed - I have opened the backup folder and see the creation of the folder and ZIP happening in real-time.

Maybe time to reinstall LRC, maybe something has gone awry.

BTW, really appreciate your time and speedy response x

 

[Jim Wilde]

Can I confirm that you are using LrC's standard backup on exit process? You mentioned something called "Backup Cleaner" in your first post, what is that?

 

[Jim Wilde]

One other thought....I see your backups folder is inside OneDrive, what happens if you redirect the backup to a non-OneDrive location, such as the Desktop?

 

[wearymadness]

Wow! that's very interesting, it was because of me hosting on OneDrive!! Although it's "on" my computer just synced to the cloud! Maybe an issue with permissions?

Thanks for the pointer, I'll investigate and report back

 

[wearymadness]

So, I managed to get it how I want it, i.e. the backups backed up to the cloud.

I used a "Symbolic Link" in my local drive pointing to the OneDrive, this seems to have sorted my issue of the extra folder!

I have uninstalled the "Backup Cleaner" plugin - it is useful for automatically removing old backups, but hasn't been developed since 2018, so doesn't support the ZIP file approach. Dodged a bullet as the plugin license is up for renewal on 11 Jan.

 

[Jan Roelof]

I used a "Symbolic Link" in my local drive pointing to the OneDrive, this seems to have sorted my issue of the extra folder!

My "Lightroom catalogs" folder is also on OneDrive, with "Always keep on this device" checked, and I just have the zip-files, no extra folders in the "Backups" folder of my catalog.

 

[wearymadness]

Hmm, also very interesting. Mine too are marked as "Always keep on this device", the folder too.

Anyway, thanks for your help, my solution will have to do for now.