Libraries/Catalogs

[Jacques G]

Lightroom Version Number

4.4

Operating System

1. Windows 10

For a long time I uploaded my images to Picasa exclusively until I finally bought Lightroom 4.4.
All Picasa images migrated to LR without issues, however, I now seem to have a LR Catalog as well as a Picasa catalog.
Deleting a Picasa photo also deletes it from LR. Does LR and Picasa share the same library/ catalog?
If not, does that also take more space on my hard drive. How can I just have one catalog?

TIA

 

[clee01l]

Welcome to the forum.
Lightroom store the image files in a folder path in the filesystem. It puts a reference to that location in the catalog file. If you should move or delete the image file outside of Lightroom, the reference path stored in the catalog file will no longer match. When you imported the images into Lightroom, you probably used the "Add" option instead of the copy or Move option.
I'm not sure how Picasa tracked the images but I believe these images are still stored in folders in the filesystem. there may not even have been a separate file to manage the images. I believe that all you need to do is remove the Picasa app and leave your images where they are.

 

[Replytoken]

Welcome to the forum. I am not familiar with Picasa's catalog/file structure, but no, the two programs do not share the same catalog. Lightroom creates its own catalog and associated files. Please note that when LR imports photos into a catalog that it only records the location of the photo. The file itself is not incorporated into the catalog. In short, LR needs the image file and you should not move it outside of LR. If you delete the photo, there is no copy in LR.

If you have successfully imported you images into LR, then you can dispose of the Picasa files, so long as that does not disturb the files that you have imported into LR.

In any event, please make sure you have a back up of your image files on another disc at a minimum. Two or three copies would be better, but a a backup set is better none.


Good luck,

--Ken

 

[Jacques G]

Thanks Cletus and Ken for your quick response.
Deleting the app sounds like a plan.