Catalogs Catalog problems

[Mark K jackson]

Lightroom Version Number

14.3

Operating System

1. macOS 15 Sequoia

Hi guys, I was hoping somebody can help me here. I'm dyslexic and have always struggled with computers so if you could guide me using the most simplistic of ways, that would be most appreciated. If you look at the attached pics you'll see what has made its way to my desktop. It seemed to happen about the time I nearly ran out of HD space. I'm not sure what to do here but I've noticed LR takes a long time to load, you can see the data loading up in one of the catalog's. Any help would be gratefully appreciated, thanks.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Somehow your catalog was saved on the desktop. That’s not the default place and not where I would recommend to save it, but there is no reason why Lightroom would become slower because of it. You can move all these files into another folder, for example a folder that you call ‘Lightroom Classic catalog’ inside your Pictures folder. Then double click on the .lrcat file to launch Lightroom. You only have to do this once. From then on Lightroom knows where the catalog is so you can launch it normally again.

 

[clee01l]

I'm not sure how much help I can give with respect to dyslexia and computers.

Normally, the default location for the master catalog file is in a folder inside the user's Pictures folder. The Desktop is simply another user folder albeit with special chatacteristics. So there is no harm in placing the master catalog file and its accompanying files and folders. Which is what I see here. Being located in the desktop does not in anyway affect the performance of Lightroom Classic .

Based upon your other statements about running out of disk space, I suspect disk space still is your primary problem.
What is the size of(capacity) of your primary volume (MacIntosh HD)? How much of that volume is free space to be used by Lightroom and other apps to create temporary files?

I would also guess that over the years you have accumulated lots of old files that are no longer needed or being used.

If you could provide the following, it will help in Making recommendations:

• In Lightroom Classic Help menu there is a sub menu item "System Info..." If you could copy and past the contents of that dialog box into your next reply it will give us important details about your system.
• Next, I would like to see a screen shot of the "GetInfo" dialog for the primary disk "MacIntosh HD"
• It will also help to see what files are located in the Lightroom Folder found in /Users/{yourUserID}/Pictures/

Do you have a external HD to store your imported images?
Also your Lightroom backup folder should be located on a different volume from your master catalog so that you have something to recover when your disk drive with that master catalog fails as it will at some point.

Ideally, you need 4 separate disk drives:

• The Primary Disk drive "MacIntosh HD"
• A Time Machine Backup disk to backup all of your critical user data including the Lightroom catalog, the image files and all other documents and data files created by your other apps.
• A Lightroom Backup folder in a separate disk
• And Optionally a drive to store your image files so that you don't take up space on the primary disk.

 

[Mark K jackson]

Thanks for your replies guys, much appreciated. Bit of a late reply as I've had a busy couple of days. Yes Cletus, dyslexia has always been a problem for me, when I first started in photography when I left school in 1977 I was a darkroom technician. Then, as a photographer, things were still pretty straightforward. Film, dev times etc were pretty easy for me to understand and starting off in the newspapers gave me a good grounding for taking photographs. With the advent of computers I've always been on the back foot but have still managed to stay in the business although it's not been easy!
Back to the topic, I've attached the System info and the Mac HD. I can understand some of it but can't put it into context. Imagine reading something with a liberal sprinkling of German or French words amongst the English, that's how it feels to me! I have an external HD which I use to store the images after I've edited them on the main computer so I can free up space. I also have Time Machine set up, do I have to save LR separately on this? I also save the actual edited photos on two other Ext HD's as backup. I hope this may give you a clue as to where I'm going wrong, thanks.

 

[Mark K jackson]

Here's a screensaver from Istastistica which may also provide you with clues

 

[clee01l]

Thanks for your replies guys, much appreciated. Bit of a late reply as I've had a busy couple of days. Yes Cletus, dyslexia has always been a problem for me, when I first started in photography when I left school in 1977 I was a darkroom technician. Then, as a photographer, things were still pretty straightforward. Film, dev times etc were pretty easy for me to understand and starting off in the newspapers gave me a good grounding for taking photographs. With the advent of computers I've always been on the back foot but have still managed to stay in the business although it's not been easy!
Back to the topic, I've attached the System info and the Mac HD. I can understand some of it but can't put it into context. Imagine reading something with a liberal sprinkling of German or French words amongst the English, that's how it feels to me! I have an external HD which I use to store the images after I've edited them on the main computer so I can free up space. I also have Time Machine set up, do I have to save LR separately on this? I also save the actual edited photos on two other Ext HD's as backup. I hope this may give you a clue as to where I'm going wrong, thanks.

Those screen shots were very helpful. Your 512 SSD is always going to be a problem. Along with that, the M1 Silicon chip is far from optimum for Lightroom Classic. I found this out when I had an M1 iMac with 16GB of shared memory. You need at least 100GB of free space for temporary file that Lightroom and other apps create. Currently you have only ~80GB of free space, which in many cases is not nearly enough. Your M1 Silicon chip is limited to 16 GB of unified memory. That means the CPU and the GPU share 16 GB between them. Lightroom Recommended specs are 16 GB of RAM and 8 GB of VRAM. On the M1 chip, CPU RAM and GPU VRAM are. shared in the same Unified storage. Lightroom Specs suggest the minimum recommended is 24GB.

Ultimately I upgraded the 16GB M1 iMac to a M2 Ultra Mac Studio with 64GB of unified memory.

If you are not prepared to get a more powerful machine, then here's what you can do:

1. Move your image files from the "MacIntosh HD" to another drive. This will free up space taken by the images files.
2. Move your /Users/{yourUserID}/Pictures/Lightroom/Backup? folder to another drive. This will protect your backup catalogs from being included and lost when you Primary disk drive fails. This will also free up some more space on "MacIntosh HD" for free space and temporary files.
3. Once you have made these changes, make sure that Lightroom is working properly, no image files are missing and when you exit LrC you point the backup process to the new backup folder location.
4. The import dialof has an option to "make a second copy to..." This lets you make a copy of the contents of the camera card so that you can erase and reuse the camera card again in the camera. If you use this option and are storeing these files on "MacIntosh HD", you will want to move them elsewhere.
5. With steps 1-4 complete, you should empty the Trash bin because those files are also located in the free space on "MacIntosh HD".

Normally Time Machine excludes all external volumes. Since your images are now on a EHD, you want to include that disk in the Time Machine backup.

This is done by using the Time Machine {Options} button to remove those disks from the Time Machine excluded list. Also note in the screen shot below that I have also added to the excluded list my previews folders.

The default for Time Machine is to backup everything not excluded to a single volume which can be on a NAS or as an attached EHD. My time Machine Backup occurs once a day But with a litle twist. Instead of having one back up volume, I have two that alternate such the Time Machine backs up to the volumes on alternate days. This way I have my critical user data including my image files on my computer and EHD. One a backup to my NAS and another backup to my locally attached HDD. So I have two backups of everything I need to recover from a catastrophe.

My Lightroom Backup folder is located on the volume named "SeaGate Barracuda 5TB". and is not otherwise backed up.

 

[Mark K jackson]

Wow, thanks for the detailed response Cletus, it'll take me a while to work my way through it but you kinda confirmed what I was already thinking, that my Mac mini is not quite up to the job. I've had it four years which is about what I get out of them before things start to slow down. Your help is much appreciated, I'll let you know how I get on, cheers.

 

[Mark K jackson]

Just checking out the new Mac Mini's, do these specs look like they'll be a significant update?

 

[Gnits]

@Cletus,
super response above. Post #6.

 

[clee01l]

Just checking out the new Mac Mini's, do these specs look like they'll be a significant update?

I would opt for the 32GB Memory option (or more if you go with the M4 Pro Chip). and at a minimum 1TB SSD of storage.

Empirically, we seem to think the 24GB of Memory is the minimum, but recommend 32GB as it can be consumed by Lightroom Classic if it is available to it.

 

[Mark K jackson]

Thanks Cletus, that's adding up to a pretty large bill! I understand the need for more memory but would I need 1TB SSD if I kept everything on an EXT HD? Is it just Lightroom Classic which consumes so much, is this due to the AI are the other photo editing apps the same? Thanks.

 

[Califdan]

For many, the disk footprint for LrC, once you exclude the images if they are on an external device, is largely attributed to previews. This is especially true if the user has selected 1:1 previews when importing or thereafter. Smart Previews can also add to this if the user has no need for them in their workflow (and most users don't have a need for them).

Also don't forget to empty the trash from time to time if HD disk space is tight.

 

[camner]

My primary machine has always been a desktop, but I also have an Apple laptop. I use the laptop for Lightroom when I’m travelling, but that is only a few times a year. So, since I hate to pay the “Apple tax,” I’ve always ended up thinking to myself, “I can make do with…” (first 128MB, then 256MB, most recently 512GB) on the laptop. And while that’s been correct for a while after the initial purchase, I’ve ALWAYS ended up feeling well before I’m willing to pay for another laptop, “Darn, I wish I had gone for the next storage level up.”

So, I haven’t learned my lesson, obviously, despite at least 4-5 instances of the lesson being taught. Even in my use case of not using an Apple laptop as my primary LrC machine, I just know that it won’t be more than a couple of years before I say to myself, “I wish I had gone for the 1TB SSD.”

 

[clee01l]

Thanks Cletus, that's adding up to a pretty large bill! I understand the need for more memory but would I need 1TB SSD if I kept everything on an EXT HD? Is it just Lightroom Classic which consumes so much, is this due to the AI are the other photo editing apps the same? Thanks.

Consider that at 100GB Free space for working storage consumes 20% is a 512GB SSD.
I have a 1TB SSD and wish it were larger. All of my 70,000 images are stored on an EHD. Currently my free space sits at 117GB.

Applications : 79GB
Users Files: 290GB (almost all mine) My Documents folder and Downloads are all stored in iCloud and not included in this total.
My Lightroom folder containing the catalog and Previews is 151GB
MacOS: ~20GB
Other volumes (includes a recovery disk, MacIntosh HD snapshots ): 83GB

Here is how the MacIntosh HD volume on the 1TB disk breaks down by type: