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New Catalog is Massive

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Paddy Orchard

New Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2020
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5
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic version: 9.4
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
Hello and Welcome Everyone
This is my first post here.
I've searched for a solution to my issue as there was already some other topics kinda related to the question I have.

I have a ''Main'' Image folder that contains 2.3TB of images and my previous Cat Folder was on drive C: ( 500GB )
I recently got a new SSD ( also 500GB ) and fresh windows on it ( clean install, previous LR catalog is no more )

When I installed LR and Im trying to import all the images from the ''Main'' folder ...its now 20h ( it still going ...) 80% finished, and Im running out of space on that new drive
Is this normal ? New Catalog folder is 300GB and rising...

Forgive me if its a stupid question, but I would like to know how if possible this catalog can be reduced in size.

Cheers!
 
First question: why are you trying to import all your images again? The normal practice is to simply copy the catalog folder from the old drive to the new drive, start Lightroom with that catalog and relink the catalog to all the image from their existing location (if that needs to be done - if the drive letters of the drives remain the same in the new setup, no action should be needed).

Secondly, assuming for some reason that you specifically wanted to start over with a new catalog (meaning you'd likely lose all the work that you'd done in the original catalog), you need to do an "Add" import, which imports them while leaving them in their existing location.

Have a read of this blog post: How do I move Lightroom to a new computer? | The Lightroom Queen
Although it refers to moving to a new computer, that's effectively what you are doing when you replace the system drive.
 
Hello and Welcome Everyone
This is my first post here.
I've searched for a solution to my issue as there was already some other topics kinda related to the question I have.

I have a ''Main'' Image folder that contains 2.3TB of images and my previous Cat Folder was on drive C: ( 500GB )
I recently got a new SSD ( also 500GB ) and fresh windows on it ( clean install, previous LR catalog is no more )

When I installed LR and Im trying to import all the images from the ''Main'' folder ...its now 20h ( it still going ...) 80% finished, and Im running out of space on that new drive
Is this normal ? New Catalog folder is 300GB and rising...

Forgive me if its a stupid question, but I would like to know how if possible this catalog can be reduced in size.

Cheers!
A catalog folder of 300 GB for 2.3 TB of images is not abnormal and almost all of that would be the previews that Lightroom is generating. I assume that Lightroom is still busy doing that (the actual image import should be dome fairly quickly). You can stop this by clicking the small cross at the right side of the progress bar. You could then trash the previews again (i.e. trash the 'catalog name previews.lrdata') because you probably do not need standard-sized previews for every single image in the catalog. Instead, let Lightroom rebuild the previews if and when they are needed.
 
A catalog folder of 300 GB for 2.3 TB of images is not abnormal and almost all of that would be the previews that Lightroom is generating. I assume that Lightroom is still busy doing that (the actual image import should be dome fairly quickly). You can stop this by clicking the small cross at the right side of the progress bar. You could then trash the previews again (i.e. trash the 'catalog name previews.lrdata') because you probably do not need standard-sized previews for every single image in the catalog. Instead, let Lightroom rebuild the previews if and when they are needed.
I will try that!

Thank you so much !
 
Of course the previews will grow again over time, but you can repeat this every now and then if needed.
Thats not a problem at all ... Most files will not be accessed for long time anyway.
Instead of having previews of files that I will probably not touch for months ( This is what the LR was trying to do ) I can just build them up when working with recent images.

Cheers ! :)
 
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