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Backup To Dropbox and Smart Previews

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rozel

Member
Joined
May 11, 2020
Messages
46
Lightroom Version Number
9.0
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
Thanks to @Jim Wilde and @ Philippe Coudé du Foresto I have now set up my first decent Catalogue on a new NVMe 2TB file. I've now introduced 23 folders now of various photos and videos (I decided to keep videos in the same folders as the photos taken on the same occasion) and have now got a Catalogue containing over 8,600 files. The files total almost 200GB. If I may could I ask a couple of further questions please? : -

1. I'm now thinking of my Backup stratedgy. I have a 2TB Dropbox Pro account and have got a further 1TB of photos and videos to add the the Catalogue once I'm sure I've got things set up correctly. Having a 1-2-3 Backup Stratedgy is too expensive for me in terms of file space so I'm thinking of having my "Dropbox" folder moved to where my files and folders are and move the latter into it and syncing from there. I don't know whether to move my Catalogue folders there too. Can someone tell me with this stratedgy would it slow down working in Lightroom, should I turn off Dropbox Sync whilst working in Lighroom itself and where exactly ought my Catalogue folders be situated?

2. The Previews.lrcat folder is currently 45GB, which seems large in relation to the total size of corresponding files. Currently the Previews and Catalogue folders and files are on a separate SSD. I appreciate this is probably due to invoking Smart Previews. If I turn Smart Previews off, exactly what functionality will I lose?

Thanks again in anticipation

roz
 
Hi @rozel
Using Dropbox (DB) as a live sync is not really a backup strategy. If you delete a file from you live synced archive, the same file is deleted also in DB. Then you realize of the mistake 3 months down and the file is gone for good. Therefore using it for an "off-line" copy of your originals and your catalog would be a better option IMHO.
For your second question, smart previews are a proxi file that LR uses to allow you to edit photos when the origin file is not available (i.e. on a removable drive). Therefore I think it is not necessary to backup that folder together with your catalog.

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Wow - thank you @Umberto Cocca ! I had given up hope of getting any response lol :)
Yes I believe you are right - I have a Backup program and am hoping I can use Dropbox as the destination. I'm aware of the 20 GB download limit they impose but the software is advertised that it can be used for Backup purposes. So next week when the weather draws back in (brilliant right now, isn't it?) I'll attempt to back up say 30GB's of folders/files and see if it works for restoring.

Regarding Smart Previews I still am confused, but presumably I could use them to work alongside my Android Tablet? My images files would still be on my PC's Internal SSD. How would this work exactly, if it can please?
 
Ok say you have one external HDD for every year picture. Your catalog would be in the internal HDD with all the preview files. Now you would like to browse some pictures you took 3 years ago but you don't have your 2017 HDD with you. The normal Previews allow you to browse through that year in thumbnail grid format, and the smart previews allow you to do all edits in the develop module as if the HDD was connected and the file was available. It will not allow to export full resolution or print though. For those operations you would need to connect your 2017 HDD to the computer.

If your catalogue is stored together with the original files, you don't need to have smart previews at all (some will argue that it would improve access and rendering speed on the first access to the file).

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@Umberto Cocca Thank you, but I am still confused a little. Currently my Images are situated on my Desktop PC in a NVMe SSD 2TB drive. My Preview files are again on my PC but on a separate SATA 500GB SSD. At present I have not set up Smart Previews.

OK let me say I want to go away from home with my Android Tablet. I believe you are saying the Preview files would have to be situated on an external drive, able to be attached to the Tablet, is that correct?

If I am correct, would this allow me to edit the files then "sync" somehow, when I return home and able to access my PC once more? I probably would only want to edit those Images taken while I am away.

I would welcome your further thoughts and advices

Cheers
 
Hi @rozel, you never mentioned a tablet before this post, the approach would be very different.

If you use the tablet for edits I would recommend to use the Adobe cloud feature. This way the edits you do from your tablet are automatically synced to your desktop, and you don't have to worry about any preview file or catalog.

Create a collection on desktop, add the files you want to edit from the tablet and then sync the collection to Lightroom (formerly LRCC). This would create an album in the LR cloud and can be accessed from the Lightroom app for mobiles and tablets, from web, etc...

The best part of it is that those file you sync from the desktop do not count against your plan's cloud allowance.

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@Umberto Cocca - check post before my last one :) I really don't want to use Adobe's Cloud. If Dropbox could be used then ok. But I have very good storage with my Tablet ( currently 300GB spare on the Internal SD Card and was hoping I could achieve what I need to, utilising this. Would it work?
 
I've installed Lightroom for Android on my tablet and it does allow me to access the SD Card. But not sure how I can get it to work with my PC's images/previews when I'm away
 
What you installed is the Android version of Lightroom (formerly LR CC); it is cloud-based and there is no way that you can make that work with previews from a Lightroom Classic database.

I don't understand why you don't want to use the Adobe Creative Cloud.
 
Ok thanks - so if I decide to edit some photos whilst I'm away, then adding these back to my main Catalogue, when I get home will not add the adjustments/edits - is that correct? Is there any manual way to do this?

Reason why I don't want to use the Adobe Creative Cloud, is 2 fold. 1. I have enough cloud space already and 2. it is too expensive for me.
 
Any photo you want to manage in the tablet version of Lightroom (from now I will call it simply LR) are automatically uploaded to the Adobe Creaetive Cloud. There is no catalogue in LR, not in the same sense as Lightroom Classic. By doing this, you will use up your 20 GB cloud space that is included in your subscription.
Therefore there is no way you can transfer those edits from the LR to Classic without usind the Adobe Creative Cloud.
 
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