Please simplify the way of making a backup of the Lightroom catalog file (*.lrcat) by including "Backup Catalog" beneath "Open Catalog..." or "Open Recent ->" in the File menu.
That would bring up the appropriate dialog box to browse to the desired backup location etc.
Since the Lightroom catalog is so important, I want to be able to quickly and easily Backup the catalog file from within Lightroom, without having to go through the less than obvious route of changing a drop down selection in Catalog settings to "next time Lightroom starts", and restarting Lightroom or for that matter using Windows Explorer to copy the *.lrcat file to a new location.
I know that I can set Lightroom to create a backup every time Lightroom starts, but it seems much more sensible to backup at the end of an editing session rather than prior to starting a new seesion.
After all, there may be many days between Lightroom sessions during which the Lightroom Catalog file could be accidently corrupted or deleted by further computer access.
Another use for this would be a simple way of transferring a catalog to another computer, say a laptop, or to a portable drive.
Here's how I see it working:
Having spent some time processing photos, when I feel I have reached the end of that editing session:
I select "Backup catalog" from the file menu.
Up pops a dialog box, with a "location browser",
an option to test the integrity of the catalog (selected by default),
an option to optimise the catalog (selected by default),
and an option to restart Lightroom with the same catalog, restart with an existing catalog, restart with a new, blank catalog, or not restart (selected by default).
Possibly another option which would allow me the option to select previous backups to delete from within the same dialogue box would be handy too, just so that my hard disk doesn't fill up with hundreds of backups.
However, that might confuse the issue, so maybe another separate choice under the File menu would be a safer implementation. Here it is:
File
New Catalog
Open catalog...
Open Recent Catalog ->
Backup Catalog
Delete Catalog Backups...
----------------------
many thanks
John
That would bring up the appropriate dialog box to browse to the desired backup location etc.
Since the Lightroom catalog is so important, I want to be able to quickly and easily Backup the catalog file from within Lightroom, without having to go through the less than obvious route of changing a drop down selection in Catalog settings to "next time Lightroom starts", and restarting Lightroom or for that matter using Windows Explorer to copy the *.lrcat file to a new location.
I know that I can set Lightroom to create a backup every time Lightroom starts, but it seems much more sensible to backup at the end of an editing session rather than prior to starting a new seesion.
After all, there may be many days between Lightroom sessions during which the Lightroom Catalog file could be accidently corrupted or deleted by further computer access.
Another use for this would be a simple way of transferring a catalog to another computer, say a laptop, or to a portable drive.
Here's how I see it working:
Having spent some time processing photos, when I feel I have reached the end of that editing session:
I select "Backup catalog" from the file menu.
Up pops a dialog box, with a "location browser",
an option to test the integrity of the catalog (selected by default),
an option to optimise the catalog (selected by default),
and an option to restart Lightroom with the same catalog, restart with an existing catalog, restart with a new, blank catalog, or not restart (selected by default).
Possibly another option which would allow me the option to select previous backups to delete from within the same dialogue box would be handy too, just so that my hard disk doesn't fill up with hundreds of backups.
However, that might confuse the issue, so maybe another separate choice under the File menu would be a safer implementation. Here it is:
File
New Catalog
Open catalog...
Open Recent Catalog ->
Backup Catalog
Delete Catalog Backups...
----------------------
many thanks
John
