Catalogs Can I move LR Classic catalog off Startup drive?

[JeffEllis]

Operating System:
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Yes, you can store the catalog anywhere you like, as long as it is on a local disk. You can't store it on a network disk.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Hi Jeff

You can, Lightroom is happy for it to be on an attached drive. Bear in mind the startup drive is usually one of the faster ones on a system, so ideally an SSD that's attached will work well. Having moved the catalog, just double click it and Lightroom will open. Be sure to then open it from the new location and not have the catalog duplicated and potentially opened by LR in both, or you'll lose changes!

Paul

 

[JeffEllis]

Hi Jeff

You can, Lightroom is happy for it to be on an attached drive. Bear in mind the startup drive is usually one of the faster ones on a system, so ideally an SSD that's attached will work well. Having moved the catalog, just double click it and Lightroom will open. Be sure to then open it from the new location and not have the catalog duplicated and potentially opened by LR in both, or you'll lose changes!

Paul

Thanks Paul- I think actually asked a similar question over a year ago- but never moved it. Now it's critical to get it off my Startup drive.
Kept putting it off as I had a lot of work at the time & didn't want to risk problems.
Thx. Will copy the folder to new drive today & open from there. If it works, I can delete it from my Startup.
On MacPro, os10.12

I also need to turn off my Smart Previews. I almost never work on the images offline and it's really bloated the size of my LR catalog!

 

[BobMc]

One of the reasons for moving the Catalog to an external drive is space on computers primary drive, but another is to move LR (Cat & images) between a desktop and a laptop.

If you are sharing this Catalog between two or more machines, change the preferences Preset Tab under Location by adding a check mark next to “Store presets with this catalog”. The default keeps the Preset folders on the computer LR is installed on . If you do not make this change, when you switch the external drive to a laptop, your presets will not be available.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

One of the reasons for moving the Catalog to an external drive is space on computers primary drive, but another is to move LR (Cat & images) between a desktop and a laptop.

If you are sharing this Catalog between two or more machines, change the preferences Preset Tab under Location by adding a check mark next to “Store presets with this catalog”. The default keeps the Preset folders on the computer LR is installed on . If you do not make this change, when you switch the external drive to a laptop, your presets will not be available.

Hi Bob

True, although you can also use symbolic links and store the presets on, say, Dropbox for multiple computers to use

Paul

 

[Paul McFarlane]

I also need to turn off my Smart Previews. I almost never work on the images offline and it's really bloated the size of my LR catalog!

Hi Jeff

Smart Previews don't actually increase the catalog size, they are held in a separate file filename 'Smart Previews.lrdata'

With the catalog it's worth running Optimize (if you aren't already)

Paul

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Smart Previews don't actually increase the catalog size, they are held in a separate file filename 'Smart Previews.lrdata'

True, but because they must reside in the catalog folder, it comes down to the same thing: a bloated catalog (folder).