Import Which file(s) to back up?

[bobbabe]

Lightroom Version Number

14.2

Operating System

1. macOS 15 Sequoia

Hi- Im away from my desktop computer and am backing up my sd cards to a small SSD. I'm just checking to see which files or folder (s) I must back up to the SSD, so that the backup is complete and if /when necessary, I can use it for LR and other backup systems I have in place. Ive attached a screenshot of the sd card. Thank you- JK

 

[jrobnz]

All your images are in subfolders within DCIM (100_FUJI & 101_FUJI). But I'm not familiar with Fuji cameras so not sure what the other folders are used for.

 

[bobbabe]

Thank you. Perhaps another Fuji user here may know for sure.

 

[Gnits]

If you are only backing up your stills images then the DCIM and its subfolders are key. If you are recording video clips also.. then my recommendation is to backup the entire card

...... or .........pay attention to the following.


I have just written a utility to Ingest images from cards to disk. For now, I only shoot with Sony and have built it to suit my specific Sony workflow. There may be specific Fuji quirks which I would not be aware of.

In the past I only backed up the DCIM folders/subfolders.. because I do not shoot video. I was always worried at some stage I would shoot a video clip and then leave it behind.

So now.....

Here is my basic concept.
1. Everything that is in the DCIM folder or any sub folders gets backed up to my Target folder (see *** note below).
2. Everything else (I mean everything else) gets backed up (and relative subfolders maintained ) to a sub folder of my Target folder, titled 'SonyVideo Stuff'. (If I can think of a better folder name in future I will.. but I give it this name because there is a lot of stuff in this folder and its subfolders.

Here is the reason why.

The following screen grab is a summary of a card I used to recently test video features of an FX3. On this card I shot one sample stills image and a number of video clips.

No.1 is the DCIM folder and subfolder/s containing the single raw stills file.
No.2 is a CLIP subfolder which contains the video clips and their related Xml files
No.3 THMBNL subfolder contains the jpg icon for the video clips captured.
No.4. Is various data files that I do not fully understand.

This example may not be complete as I have only test captured bog standard video clips and have not played with Luts, video compression codecs, etc.

Be careful.
The Dcim stills folder may contain multiple sub dcim folders ... which may in turn contain different images with the same filename. If you do not preserve the dcim sub folder structure you risk overwriting original images with a different image (but same file name).

The reason I capture all non DCIM folders is that modern video editing software recognises and can make use of all of the video clips, related xml files and other related data files. My knowledge of video editing is nil... so I want to make sure any cards I copy to disk have all necessary files.

*** My Ingest app caters for complex scenarios, including copying cards with multiple sub dcim folders, copying the same card more than once into the target folder and copying multiple cards (from possible multiple cameras)into the same target folder. This was not a trivial task.

 

[bobbabe]

Gnits, sorry for the typo.

 

[Gnits]

Not sure …. What typo.

Just fyi.

When travelling I use Beyond Compare to copy cards to disk.

The reasons are several.

1. For a particular trip I can create a preset so that the source and target folders are preconfigured.
2. I like the way I can view the contents of a card, with options to view all folders expanded or collapsed or any combo.
3. I can see what is on the target folders expanded and can see if files on the card are already copied to the target ( and dates and size and hash totals match)
4. I can select an option to select only orphan images from the source …so only new or edited images on the source are copied….
5. The GUI is superb and I can monitor the progress of the copy and (after a while) get an estimate of the copy duration.

So. I use Beyond Compare to copy my card to disk.
I then use Beyond Compare to copy the target disk to a second backup disk. I keep the disks separate (eg one in my camera bag a second in my computer bag).. or if backing up in say a hotel room… keep the second disk in the room safe.

 

[clee01l]

When I travel, I use an iPadPr to import into Lightroom and the Adobe Cloud. The iPadPro has a "Files" app that can read and write to the External disk. The Only thing you want to preserve off of the Camera Card are the original image files. For me this is most easily done by drilling down to the image folders inside DCIM and copying them to a folder on my External disk.

"Activity", "FFDB", and "UPD" Likely do not contain information necessary for Lightroom. You can determine this easily enough by Formatting a camera card IN your camera and then checking to see which folders the camera creates. I'm betting the "UPD" (update?) folder is not present and perhaps others. My Nikon CF Express card contains only two folders, "DCIM", and "NIKON". The "NIKON" folder only contains an empty Sub folder labeled with the camera model name. The Import process in Lightroom only reades the DCIM folder and ignores any others.