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Catalogs Can I move the LR V11 catalog?

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SHP

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Premium Classic Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
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6
Lightroom Experience
Beginner
Lightroom Version
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic version 11.0
Operating System
  1. macOS 11 Big Sur
When I upgraded to the new LrC V11 it appears I followed Victoria's instructions a little too closely and forgot to put the new catalog on my external drive. Now I'm quickly running out of space on my laptop!! My images and backups are on the external drive but "Lightroom Catalog - 2-2-v11.lrct" created on 10/30/21 is on my laptop. Is it safe to move it to the external drive and are there specific steps I should take?

Also, in reviewing my files as I try to manage space I have old LR Catalogs from 2017, 2018, etc. Should these be deleted or moved to the external drive as well?

I scanned the forum and didn't see another discussion related to this question, but if the answer has already been provided in another thread I apologize. Just point me in the right direction ;)

Thanks!!
Sharon
 
It seems that the catalog should be left on the fastest drive which is your laptop drive. I tried using an external drive for my catalog and it slowed down so much as to be unusable. I back up my catalog by backing up the zipped catalog file and not the huge (in my case) catalog itself. I have dumped the v 10 catalogs to free up space and all seems OK. I have a backup of the zipped last v10 catalog just in case. So far no problems.
 
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If you have a TB3 or even a USB-C port, you won’t see much of a performance hit if the catalog file and the folder that it is contained in is located on the EHD

The catalog file named "Lightroom Catalog - 2-2-v11.lrcat" could be renamed to a simpler “Master-v11.lrcat”. If you like. The associated previews folder should also be renamed accordingly. If you have only one master catalog file, then it should be the only “*.lrcat” file in the Lightroom folder. You can remove all of the others. The Backup folder should be located on another EHD. It will be needed to recover the last catalog backup when you disc drive fails. You don’t want you master catalog file and backup catalog files on the same drive.

If you have created a Smart Previews folder and don’t use your computer without the master image files, you can remove the Smart previews folder to save space. This might be enough to store the catalog file and the Previews folder on the Primary drive and still have enough free space for working storage.
 
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