Moving LR catalog from MacBook to external drive

[snekker49]

Lightroom Version Number

13.3

Operating System

1. macOS 13 Ventura

I have a M2 MacBook Pro w/ 1 TB of storage. It is maxed out so I can't even use LR. Is there a concise tutorial or set of instructions on how to move my catalog(s) to an external HD? I've read that not doing so correctly is guaranteed to be a disaster. When I look at what's in the LR folder I see a bunch of catalogs!

Thanks in advance

 

[clee01l]

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/move-photos-another-hard-drive-leaving-catalog/


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[snekker49]

In my previous research I got the impression that I had to put on 3 week old underwear and dance counter-clockwise around a pile of burning donkey poo under the full moon while I moved the catalogs. That almost appears doable by a non-Druid.

Thanks!

 

[Califdan]

It should be quite simple. But while you are at it, you may want do a bit of clean up (preferrably before you move the catalof if it's not too late).

1) If you are a wise person and let LrC create a backup when it exits quite regularly (like any day you do any updates using LrC) you may have a hefty set of those backups. They are probably in the "Backups" folder which by default is in the same folder as the catalog being backed up (but may have been changed to store them someplace else). You can thin out this set of backups to reclaim space on disk. See below.

2) If you have a good set of catalog backups (probably in the Backups Folder where you catalog is), you probably don't need the actaul catalogs from older versions of LrC left over from LrC version updates going back in time. Taking here about actual catalogs for older versions - not the Backups created when you exit LrC. Maybe keep the one from the prior vesion or 2 but you don't need to go back more than that. Many of these older catalogs left over form LrC upgrades can be discarded. Just make sure you don't accidentally discard any of the files/folders for your current active catalog.

A SUGGESTED BACKUP RETENTION PLAN​

Set the LrC Preference to create a backup every time Lightroom exits. Then actually take a backup at the end of any day in which you made any changes in LrC. I suggest shutting down LrC at the end of each day and that’s when I have it do the backup. This also lessens the risk of damage due to an overnight power failure or power spike.

Set LrC to store the backups it creates upon exit on a drive which is not in the same housing (box) as where the actual catalog is.

If you’ve done any major folder structural changes or file renames other than imports in that session make some sort of note on the backup Zip file name or keep a log of major structural changes

Retention Plan:

• Keep all of these backups for 90 days
• For backup ups taken in the 2 years before that keep the first one from each month
• For backups older than that keep 1 to 4 per year (say first one of each year or quarter)

The retention durations above are just what I use. Feel free to pick different duration spans as desired. Many people use 30 or 60 days, and 1 year

 

[Zenon]

Just out of curiosity do you mean your files or the catalogue itself? Sometimes those two overlap in conversation.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Cletus' reply was for moving photos; here's the one to move catalog(s):

How do I find and move or rename my catalog?​

 

[clee01l]

Cletus' reply was for moving photos; here's the one to move catalog(s):

How do I find and move or rename my catalog?​

A maxed out MacBook Pro w/ 1 TB of storage is usually the problem of cataloged image files taking up the available space and not any free space for working storage. I suspect the absence of free space to be the biggest reason the OP is saying LR is unusable. Leaving the Lightroom folder on the primary drive usually does not affect performance and moving it to an EHD can.

I have a Mac Studio with a 1TB SSD. It has 352GB of free space,(we recommend a minimum of 100GB free). My 6TB of images files reside on a EHD. (FWIW, I have 91GB of application files in my Applications folder.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

I agree, Cletus. I just responded to the OP specifically asking about moving catalogs in the opening question, so they have the range of details.

 

[snekker49]

Right, I was under the misconception moving the files and catalogues was one and the same. I realize they are separate but I assumed that they had to be in the same location. Never have fully wrapped my head around the catalogue thing. We all have our crosses to bear.

 

[Gnits]

Right, I was under the misconception moving the files and catalogues was one and the same. I realize they are separate but I assumed that they had to be in the same location.

This is a key concept and once understood ... opens many doors in terms of understanding LrC behaviour.

I often give intro sessions to people starting their LrC journey .... and most have difficulty grasping this... so rejoice that you have advanced your understanding.

 

[Conrad Chavez]

It can help to know that how a Lightroom Classic catalog works is pretty much the same as any other medium that uses a document with its assets linked externally. In all of the examples in the table below, you have a working document that can be stored in one location, and linked assets that can be stored in one or more folders or volumes. The locations of the linked assets are tracked with file system paths, and the application may have features that help you relink or resolve paths that became invalid after a source file’s location or filename changed.

Medium​	Working document with your edits​	Assets linked by file system paths​
Lightroom Classic photography	Catalog	Source files of cataloged photos and videos
Page layout (Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress…)	Page layout document	Source files of media on pages
Video editing	Video project/sequence/timeline	Source files of video, audio, and still images
Web design	Page on a web site	Source files of media on the web page

My point in saying this is to help demystify Lightroom Classic file management because so many seem intimidated by it. Managing file system paths is a common task across creative disciplines, and you might have already done it before. Once you understand this concept of managing the potentially different locations of a working document and the paths to its linked assets, you’ve picked up a great skill that’s valuable and also transferable to other media you might work in.

In the case of moving Lightroom Classic source files to another volume, when that causes the paths to the source image/video files to changed as a result of the move, then you use the features that update the catalog’s paths to the source media so it knows where they are now. That’s what’s covered in the Lightroom Queen guide Cletus linked to in the first reply.