Multiple Drives w/ Multiple Catalogs

[coyimages]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic CC 9.2

Operating System

1. macOS 10.15 Catalina

Hello all, hoping you can help me with some advice.

I am working with LR Classic through the CC subscription plan. I have a 2019 Macbook Pro that only has 256gb flash memory. Because of this, I carry a 500gb external SSD which is where all of my images, and my LR catalog for the current year are stored.

In addition to my external drive, I also have a 2TB external HDD, and a 1TB external HDD. These HDD's are older but have been used sparingly. Recently I cleaned the 2TB off completely, and cleaned up the 1TB by removing over 433,836 images and other files. My goal is to get extremely organized, more-so than I have been over the last 10 years of using LR.

Since I have images dating back to 2009, I would like to set up folders by year with monthly subfolders, along with a catalog for each year. I'm trying to figure out the best way to logistically do that, but I'm starting to get confused. I would only be using the catalog when I wanted images from past years, although past LR catalogs are on an older iMac which is in storage so the only thing remaining is the raw .NEF files on these drives and I would have to re-edit everything, which is something else I'm wanting to do.

Where do I start and what would you suggest is the best path of action?

TIA!

 

[Califdan]

Hi,

First of all where you should start is by getting divorced from the idea that you need one catalog per year. I have yet to hear a valid reason for doing this and it greatly diminishes the value of LR.

Secondly, as background information, the LR Catalog is accessed heavily during LR use so optimally should be on a fast drive. This is usually an internal SSD with an External SSD being a second choice. So, unless you need portability between computers, I'd put the catalog on your internal SSD. If it is, or becomes, too large for the internal SSD, then put it on the external SSD rather than going to multiple catalogs.

Third, the actual image files are not accessed by LR often. Typically only when you take an image into the Develop module or LR needs to make a larger preview is the image is read from disk. So, having these files on and external SSD or even an external spinning disk is not a problem. IMHO. I'd strive for all the images for all years to be on a single External drive (either SSD or spinning disk) and under as single image parent folder such as "All my Images" or the like.

You didn't make clear if the disk clean up was done with LR or with Finder and if it included image files known to LR or not so please explain that. You also did not make note of the current folder structure for your image files or if they are a mess as they say.

Can you also explain what you mean by "only using the catalog when you want images from prior years"? Is there a reason you don't want to use LR for current year images?

And lastly, can you please re-affirm that you would PREFER to abandon all work you've done in LR to date on your entire library of images and revert to the original, out of the camera, RAW (or jpg) files? Boy, if it were me, giving up over 10 years of LR work would be my absolute last choice, not my first choice. The other option is to merge all the LR work you did in the past from your collection of catalogs into a single new Master Catalog.

Once you get back to us on these points, we can provide some options on how to procede.

 

[coyimages]

Boy, if it were me, giving up over 10 years of LR work would be my absolute last choice, not my first choice. The other option is to merge all the LR work you did in the past from your collection of catalogs into a single new Master Catalog.

Once you get back to us on these points, we can provide some options on how to procede.

Think of this as a slate cleaning.

ALL of my images were kept on an external drive from 2009 on. My last stand alone version of LR was 4 or 5 I believe that was on my iMac, which as I stated is now in storage. I pulled the HDD's out of storage and left the iMac. Yesterday, using Finder, I went through each folder on each drive and deleted anything that I knew I would never do anything with, or had no desire to keep. So 'move to trash' and delete. This means that if I were to plug these drives into the old iMac and open LR, it would search for missing images and missing folders.

Whats left on my 1TB external HDD is about 311GB worth of raw .NEF files, or iPhone imports.

I am not opposed to one single catalog that is kept on my external SSD, however I absolutely refuse to keep anything other than absolute necessity on my laptops internal storage. Whether it's true or not, I feel like junking up internal hard drives with written and re-written files are what kills a computer in the long run. My 2009 iMac only had a 500gb drive, and when it went to storage at least 200gb were still available, and that's only because I got sloppy towards the end.

So to summarize:
-500GB external SSD for current year photos.
-2TB external HDD (completely clean) for image folders 2019 and prior
-I have 311GB remaining on the 1TB HDD, worth of images from prior years to sort and organize accordingly
-Single catalog on the SSD, or multiple catalogs for each year stored with each years folders on the external HDD?
-Current state of the existing folders are usually by client name or event under one main image folder (i.e. 'photos'-'sally smith'-'dog park'-'holidays' etc)

I know that it's not the most user friendly, or sane way of going about things, but after ten years of what I'm calling 'not my best work' I want to start over, from scratch, with only my raw files. I feel the need to elevate my post process methods, as well as my photography in general.

I mean who keeps 433,836 image files... and that doesn't include whats remaining on my drives!


///ETA: It is my intention to obtain SSD backup drives within the year for redundant backups.

 

[Califdan]

if you are going to start a brand new catalog from scratch, then the process is pretty straight forward. There are many different ways to approach it but I'd go after it this way

1) let the new version of LR install if it hasn't already. This, by default will create a catalog on your Internal HD.
2) Close LR, and Create a folder on your Ext SSD called "Lightroom Catalogs"
3) Create folder inside of "Lightroom Catalogs" called something like "LR9 Catalog" (when LR10 comes out it will probably require a catalog upgrade and l like each catalog to have its own folder)
4) Copy the entire contents of the default catalog folder (in Pictures -> Lightroom on your internal HD) to the "LR9 Catalog" folder. this is the file ending in .lrcat, various preview folders, etc. unless you've already done some work in this catalog it should be empty
5) Create a folder on the same External SSD which will become the parent folder for all your images. Something like "All Images" or "All LR Images"
6) Open LR and import using the Move option. Select the "by date" option in the destination panel and select the folder structure desired (e.g. YYYY/MM (I think that one exists)
7) Point to the "Master LR Images" folder you created above as the destination for the Move. LR will build the date oriented folder structure under the folder you point to based on the capture date of each image
8) For the source, select the folder or folders a clump at a time from whatever disk drive they are on and import. I don't suggest importing hundreds of thousands of images in one go, but you can certainly do several hundred at a time.

PS: I suggested using "Move" instead of "Copy" so the source folders gradually become empty and anything left in them has yet to be dealt with. However using "Copy" is safer in case something goes wrong but you have to keep better track of what you've done and not done, espeically if you are picking and choosing at the image rather than folder level.

let me know if this doesn't make sense