Total Newb on backups.

[drummerpip]

Lightroom Version Number

8.2.1

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

Hi, I recently bought a micro 4/3rds camera and have just installed Lightroom on my new Imac for photo-processing only. Can you get any more newb? I have the Imac backing up to an external hard drive using Timemachine. Do I need any further backup precautions before I get going.? Thanks. Iam reading LQ's Basics guide and will buy the FAQ book when I get more acquainted with the programme. At the moment it seems like I have dived into a very deep pool and need to start swimming before I drown.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi drummerpip, welcome to the forum! Everything you need to get started is in that Quick Start eBook, and Time Machine is a decent backup, so you should be good to go.

 

[drummerpip]

Thank you. I am setting up Lightroom on the Imac by following your book on my IPad. Here goes.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

We're here to hold your hand if you get stuck.

 

[mcasan]

@ Drummerpip,

The wife and I use Olympus m43 camera systems. We love the small size, weight, and cost of m43. We take our systems everywhere from standing in the rain in Alaska shooting brown bears to dusty safaris in Kenya. Zero problems. Welcome to m43 photography!

We both have iMacs with Adobe Photography Plan running Lr Classic and Ps. No, we don't run Lr CC (Lr lite).
In the field we carry iPad Pros to do email, web access...etc. The iPads also have Lr Mobile which we rarely use. In the field every evening we backup the SD cards to the iPad (1TB storage) and to a WD Passport Pro (which does incremental backups). Once all cards are backed up to both the iPad and Passport, the cards can go back into the camera bodies for reformatting. Always format a card in a camera body, not in a computer.

In the field and on the way home we can use Lr Mobile to cull. We can also do a light edit of a few images if we need to share some while on the trip. Once we get home, we use Image Capture on the iMac to download all the images from the iPad to a temp folder on the iMac. Then we tell Lr Classic on the iMac to import the images in the temp folder. We have Lr Classic import the images into folders based on capture date and also rename the images. You can decide how you want Lr Classic to handle your destination folders. We then exit Lr Classic and have it set to ask us for backup every time it exits. We always have it test the catalog before it makes the backup and optimize the catalog afterwards. Those are both options in the backup dialog box. Needless to say the catalog backup is to a different drive than the one that contains the working catalog. Then we delete the temp folder and tell Time Machine to do a complete file system backup (to a large drive dedicated to Time Machine backups).

So you end up with a working catalog one drive, the catalog backup on a second drive (which could be the drive with folders of images), and Time Machine's complete file system backup (which includes the working catalog and the backup catalog and all the images) to a third drive. The good news is large drivers are very inexpensive these days.