LR version's file names

[mgolin]

Lightroom Version Number

6.14 perpetual

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Recently I had to restore my catalog, which got me looking at my back-up process. Attached screen shot shows what I think is all the important "stuff." I don't trust my "knowledge" (or more precisely my lack thereof) since experience has proven I sometimes make very dumb mistakes.

1. If I'm using LR6, why is the latest (I assume) 2-2-2? I simply accepted that nomenclature as it was given, but it seems not-very-intuitive.
2. I am assuming both the Lightroom 2 & Lightroom 2-2 previews are both from earlier versions & that I can safely delete them.
3. Am I correct assuming the Lightroom 2 Catalog-2-2-2 Previews.lrdate 8-7-16 date shown is when the latest version was installed?
4. Assuming again the latest is Lightroom 2 catalog 2-2-2.lrcat, why is there a Lightroom 3 catalog previews folder. It's small & dated 2013, but it confuses me.
5. Am I correct assuming the Lightroom 2 catalog-2-2-2.lrcat 1-15-21 date shown is only reflects when I last restored LR from a back-up?
6. The process of writing this note made me realize that I never uninstalled LR 3 & 5. Would simply uninstalling these eliminate these confusing folders? I suppose I should just be brave.
   
   
7. 

Sorry if rambling. I suppose I should know this stuff, but alas... Some clarity would be appreciated.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Each time that Lightroom upgrades the catalog, it makes a copy and adds '-2' to the name. That only changed recently with Lightroom Classic 10.
The fact that your current(?) catalog is called 'Lightroom 2 Catalog-2-2-2.lrcat' means that this catalog has been upgraded three times since you first created it. The previews with just '-2' and '-2-2' should indeed be older previews and can safely be deleted (previews can always safely be deleted anyway, because Lightroom will rebuild them if and when needed).

It's a bit odd that your current catalog is located inside the 'Backups' folder, but no big deal. It probably means that you started from a backup catalog some time ago, and kept using that one. I can't tell you why there is also a 'Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews' and a 'Lightroom Catalog Previews'. You must have created catalogs with these names at one time, but those catalogs seem to be gone, so the previews serve no purpose.

 

[mgolin]

Sorry for the delay acknowledging your assistance; life sometimes intrudes... The info for the 2-2-2 has resolved one of LR's little mysteries for me. Thanks again.

 

[parallax44]

I got a bit further down the rabbit hole than mgolin and am very confused by the LRC catalog naming conventions. I'm using Classic latest edition. I have multiple catalogs I'm going to attempt to rationalize through merger. Here's what I have:
----
Lightroom-3-3-v10.lrcat-wal
Lightroom-3-3-v10 Previews.lrdata
Lightroom-3-3-v10 Sync.lrdata
Lightroom-3-3-v10 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom-3-3-v10.lrcat.lock
Backups
2021-06-25 1806
Lightroom-3-3-v10.lrcat.zip
2021-06-11 2009
Lightroom-3-3-v10.lrcat.zip
2021-06-02 1614
2021-05-25 1204
2021-05-15 1648
2021-04-23 1619
2021-04-15 1822
2021-04-07 1628
2021-03-29 1436
2021-03-22 0805
2021-03-03 1553
2021-02-22 1705
2021-02-09 1856
2021-01-16 2253
2021-01-05 1752
2020-12-24 2012
2020-12-11 1833
2020-10-17 2333
Lightroom-3-3-v10.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog-v10.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog-v10 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog-v10 Previews.lrdata
KPIssues ( folder)
Temporary Import Data.db
Temporary Import Data.db-wal
Mobile Downloads.lrdata
Lightroom-3-2-v10 Sync.lrdata
Lightroom-3-2-v10 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom-3-2-v10.lrcat
Lightroom-3-2-v10 Previews.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog-3-v10 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog-3-v10.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog-3-v10 Previews.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog-v10 Smart Previews.lrdata
Lightroom-3-3.lrcat
Lightroom-3-3 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom-3-3-v10 Smart Previews.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog-3.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog-3 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom-3-2 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom-3-2.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog-2 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog-2 Previews.lrdata
Lightroom-3.lrcat
Lightroom-3 Helper.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog Helper.lrdata
Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog-2 Smart Previews.lrdata
Lightroom-3-2-v10 Smart Previews.lrdata
---
I don't understand the-3-2-v10.lrcat vs the 3-3-v10.lrcat stuff.
I want to know what to work with and what to discard before starting this project.
is the
Lightroom Catalog-v10.lrcat - the original?
Lightroom Catalog-3-v10.lrcat - the first or third update, or about v10.3?
Lightroom Catalog-3-2v10.lrcat = ???
Lightroom Catalog-3-3v10.lrcat = ???
Lightroom Catalog-3-3-3v10.lrcat = ??? (maybe instances of upgrading existing?)

It would be nice for Adobe to provide a brief explanation of how this catalog naming convention is structured ... or did I completely miss it in the documentation?

Any help appreciated.

Jay Gamel

 

[Rob_Cullen]

In my screen-clip I indicate, what I believe, to be your current working files.
Everything else you have shown can be archived (moved) to another drive or folder location.
Next, you MUST change your Catalog Backup option to place the backups on another physical Hard-drive. If the drive with your
Catalog fails, then you lose the Catalog and ALL your backups- that would be a disaster!!

To avoid confusion it is possible to Rename a Catalog (and its support files)- Instructions: RENAME CATALOG

 

[Rob_Cullen]

And here is the convoluted pathways you have created by upgrading 'old' catalogs, (or using the same Catalog to upgrade on separate occasions).
When you do upgrade a working Catalog, you should adopt the habit of archiving the 'old' version/s out of your working Lightroom Folder.

 

[parallax44]

Thank you very much for the heads up on this. I'll have to work out the naming conventions, but this is a good start to understanding those. So all I need to keep here is the current catalog and related files. Would there be any way pictures in some of the earlier versions were not included in the current version from the way I structured them?

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Would there be any way pictures in some of the earlier versions were not included in the current version from the way I structured them?

Yes, very possible. And only you can determine that by opening the Catalogs.
You have two "-v10" catalogs that were upgraded to LrC v10. You could 'Open' each and take note of the photos referenced in each catalog.
{Lightroom-3-2-v10.lrcat}
{Lightroom-3-3-v10.lrcat}
When you decide that, you should set Preferences to specify which catalog opens.

Holding the Option (Mac) | Control (Win) key when launching Lightroom-Classic will display the “Select Catalog” dialog box which allows you to choose to open recent catalogs, choose a different catalog, or create a new catalog.

 

[clee01l]

Alternatively, you could rename the master Lightroom Catalog outside of Lightroom once you determine which catalog file is the true master. There is nothing sacrosanct about the catalog file name. For years Adobe simply appended a -1, -3 etc to the current catalog name. Now that has been cleared up by appending the current version number instead (presumably the -v10 will get replaced by a -v11 instead of appending a -v11 onto a -v10 file.)
Because of the "-n" getting appended to the master file name even though the "-n" was already present, I routinely renamed my master catalog file and any associated previews folder and helper files to avoid all of the file name confusion. I also remove any old catalog files from the Lightroom folder so that I only have one catalog file in that folder.

 

[parallax44]

Thanks everybody. Now if someone could only spell out what the -3-2 vs -3-3 means? If I just switched between two catalogs as being the current one, what would it be called? vs i update a current catalog andit gets a vX name with the -2-5 or -3-3 bits tacked on. I just can't seem to work this out.

 

[clee01l]

Thanks everybody. Now if someone could only spell out what the -3-2 vs -3-3 means? If I just switched between two catalogs as being the current one, what would it be called? vs i update a current catalog andit gets a vX name with the -2-5 or -3-3 bits tacked on. I just can't seem to work this out.

You had a master catalog named Lightroom.lrcat. You opened it with a newer version of Lightroom and it converted it to a new file named Lightroom-1.lrcat. You opened that same Lightroom.lrcat again and the newer version of Lightroom create a new version catalog and named that Lightroom-2.lrcat, since there are already a file in the folder named Lightroom-1.lrcat. You did this a third time resulting in a file named Lightroom-3.lrcat. Presumably you upgraded again and this time the upgraded version of Lightroom created a new version of your Lightroom-3.lrcat as Lightoom-3-1.lrcat. You did this again and the last catalog before Version 10 was Lightroom-3-2.lrcat You made the same mistake again and created a catalog called Lightroom-3-3.lrcat. Next you upgraded to version 10 and opened both catalog files in version 10 creating Lightroom-3-2.-v10.lrcat and Lightroom-3-3.-v10.lrcat


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Johan Elzenga gave an answer in the second post of this thread-
"Each time that Lightroom upgrades the catalog, it makes a copy and adds '-2' (and/or -3) to the name......."
LrC v10.nn now adds -v10 to a catalog upgraded from a v9 catalog.
And as Cletus says-
"There is nothing sacrosanct about the catalog file name."
Switching between catalogs is simply like opening different versions of a Word Document. And like Word documents that can contain different words, Lr Catalogs can contain different photo data.
And you need to be aware of your option setting in Preferences for a 'Default' catalog- (Most Recent or a Prompt)

 

[parallax44]

I see the light now, clee, thank you so much everyone who has contributed to my undestanding how this is working.