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Lightroom backups folder

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alaios

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  1. Windows 11
Hi all my lightroom backup folder gets bigger and bigger
1651426408405.png



can you please help on what I can remove and what I should keep? How many older versions do I need to keep and how I do remove a much older version?
 
Hi @alaios ,
Of what you have shown in the screen-clip- You must keep-
1) All files that have "-v11" at the end of the filename.
2) The {Backups} folder
3) The {Lightroom Settings} folder.
The rest are old files that can be archived (moved) elsewhere until -v11 is working confidently ( then later deleted)

-It appears you have done multiple catalog upgrades (-2-2-3-2-v10-v11) over time as Lightroom-Classic was upgraded without ever renaming the Catalog thus creating more confusion.
CATALOG-FIND MOVE RENAME
-If that {Backups} folder contains your Catalog Backups (as ZIP folders) then you must change the Exit/Backup by choosing another physical Hard-drive for the Backups. Not good to backup the catalog to the same drive, that if fails, you lose everything!
 
To add: For example- These are all the files in my Catalog folder-
2022-05-02 04_14_20-LIGHTROOM CATALOG.jpg

The {Backups} folder is empty (they are on another drive!)
 
As the subject of this thread mention "Lightroom Backup" folder but you didn't include a screen shot of the that folder. If indeed you're interested in what to keep in the "Backups" folder, the answer depends on how risk tolerant you are?

If you're a 'nothing bad ever happens to me, throw caution to the wind" type of person, you only need to keep the lates few zip files in the backups folder

If you are the type of person who always gets the maximum amount of insurance and never invests in anything at all risky or volitile, the keep them all.

But, if you are a more middle of the ground person, establish a plan that has you keep more of the most recent backups and fewer of the older ones. Let's say you take one back up each day you actually change anyting in lightroom, a middle of the road, but a bit on the conservative side would be something like this:
  • last 3 months - Keep them all
  • The year prior to that - keep first one of each month
  • The next older 5 years worth - Keep first one of each quarter
  • anything older than that, either delete or keep the first one of each year.
Of course you can adjust up or down if you think this is too many or too few. Or, if you have tons of disk space, just keep them all and don't worry about it - they don't affect performance disk space is short.

DON'T FORGET THAT THE BACKUPS IN THE LIGHTROOM BACKUP FOLDER IS JUST THE CATALOG - NOT THE IMAGES. BE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR IMAGES AT LEAST AS OFTEN AS YOU BACK UP YOUR CATALOG OR ANY OTHER ITEMS ON YOUR COMPUTER YOU CARE ABOUT.

One other thing, There is a "Backups" folder in your screen shot which may or may not be the folder currently iused by LrC when it exits. As this folder is in the same folder as your catalog that is better than nothing but not much. It will protect agains Catalog Corruption, but not a disk drive failure, theft of your computer, or a natural disaster such as fire, flood, tornado, hurricane, etc. You should be backing up to am external drive connected to your computer AND to some cloud service or other offsite storage.
 
On my Windows device, the Lightroom catalog and backup are in the Picture folder and auto-synched to One Drive.

I also manually copy the LR backup zip files to an additional Cloud service - keeping the last 3 updates.
 
On my Windows device, the Lightroom catalog and backup are in the Picture folder and auto-synched to One Drive.

I also manually copy the LR backup zip files to an additional Cloud service - keeping the last 3 updates.
I found this setup at one stage and left it like that. Unfortunately, wwhen I purchased a new laptop I discovered that my laptop (and internet bandwidth) was filling up with the Lightroom previews.
 
I found this setup at one stage and left it like that. Unfortunately, wwhen I purchased a new laptop I discovered that my laptop (and internet bandwidth) was filling up with the Lightroom previews.
I delete the Preview file. The previous images have been edited, and unless I re-edit those images the Previews are not required.
 
I delete the Preview file. The previous images have been edited, and unless I re-edit those images the Previews are not required.
Previews are required to see the images, even if it is just in the grid. Lightroom will rebuild them when needed however, providing that the originals are not offline (and no smart previews are available either).
 
what is inside your backup folder?
My CATALOG backups-
2022-05-30 10_10_37-LIGHTROOM BACKUPS.jpg

My IMAGE and PRESETS backups-
2022-05-30 10_11_55-LIGHTROOM BACKUPS.jpg

And full system backups made with Macrium Reflect.
 
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