Catalogs Confused about Catalog names in my 'Lightroom' folder

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Operating System:Windows10
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):6.13
Would appreciate if someone could explain what the seemingly redundant .lrcat files are in my 'Lightroom' folder.
I have Lightroom 6.13 - my current working Catalog is titled Lightroom-2.lrcat ( which slightly confusingly appears in the title bar of LR 6 when it opens )
In the same folder I also have Lightroom.lrcat Lightroom-3.lrcat Lightroom-4.lrcat each about 650MB in size and shown as last being modified in 2015.
Would I be right in thinking they are left over from previous versions of Lightroom I have used ?
If so and if I don not intend to 'go back' a version , can I delete them ?
Anyone know why the lcat files aren't numbered in sync with the LR version ie why isn't my lcat file Lightroom-6.lrcat.
Thanks for any answers.
 
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Yes, they are probably leftovers. The number does not refer to the version number of Lightroom, but is added when a catalog is upgraded. So if you upgrade catalog YYYYYY, it becomes YYYYYY-2. It would have been better if Lightroom gave you the option to choose the name yourself, but it doesn't.
 
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Tx for the quick reply Johan, I'll move them elsewhere and check LR runs OK before deleting but following your ref to the numbering process why would my current lcat be numbered 2 , with older lrcats numbered 3 and 4 .
Logic would suggest my current catalog would be Lightroom-5.lrcat ?
Not that logic need apply to computing ! ;)
 
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Eggesford Keith said:
current lcat be numbered 2 , with older lrcats numbered 3 and 4 .
Logic would suggest my current catalog would be Lightroom-5.lrcat ?
Click to expand...
The catalog file that you converted to LR6 was named "Lightroom.lrcat" when you converted the "Lightroom.lrcat" catalog to LR6, Lightroom appended the "-2" to the name. Had there already been a "Lightroom-2.lrcat" file in that folder. LR would have updated the count until it found a name not currently in use. If you were using a file named "Lightroom-2.lrcat" and converted that the new name would have been "Lightroom-2-2.lrcat" There is nothing sacrosanct about the catalog name. My master catalog is named "Master.lrcat". When I upgraded to Lightroom Classic, that became "Master-2.lrcat". I exited LR and promptly renamed my "Master-2.lrcat" catalog and my similarly named previews folders to "Classic...".
 
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Eggesford Keith said:
Tx for the quick reply Johan, I'll move them elsewhere and check LR runs OK before deleting but following your ref to the numbering process why would my current lcat be numbered 2 , with older lrcats numbered 3 and 4 .
Logic would suggest my current catalog would be Lightroom-5.lrcat ?
Not that logic need apply to computing ! ;)
Click to expand...

There are two easy ways to check it. First of all, start Lightroom and check the preferences. It will show which catalog is currently open. The title of the main window should also show it. The second way is to look for the '<catalogname> previews.lradata'. That one is renamed during an upgrade, so in principle you should only have on of that.
 
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