If you wish to change Lightroom Catalog location, you could make sure you’re not lacking out on any important steps.
Let’s begin from the start. Lightroom has three primary parts:
- Lightroom set up (program recordsdata)
- Lightroom catalog
- Lightroom picture library
If you wish to transfer Lightroom to a brand new pc, you’ll want to transfer all three parts.
Nonetheless, in case you’re going to maneuver solely pictures to a much bigger exhausting drive, it’s a must to transfer one element – the picture library.
I’ve devoted tutorials for each eventualities (see beneath)
On this article, we’re going to deal with learn how to transfer Lightroom Catalog to a brand new location!
What’s Lightroom Catalog?
A Lightroom catalog is a database that shops all of the details about photos you import and their respective settings in your Lightroom workflow. The catalog comprises a preview of every picture, metadata resembling key phrases, rankings, develop settings, and galleries group construction.
The catalog helps Lightroom to maintain observe of all of your pictures and their respective settings. You possibly can have a number of catalogs for various initiatives, or you need to use only one catalog for every thing.
A Lightroom Catalog additionally shops:
- picture previews: they vary from low-resolution JPGs to full-size photos
- growing data
- metadata (captions, key phrases, and so forth.)
- galleries construction
Probably the most important benefit of a Lightroom Catalog is that every one the edits you do in your pictures are nondestructive. Any change you make to your picture shall be saved as further metadata XMP format, and the unique picture will keep untouched.
Causes for Altering Lightroom Catalog Location
You Run out of Area on Your Arduous Drive
In case your import course of will get caught, the most typical purpose is that the pc has run out of area.
Even in case you retailer all of your photos on a big exterior exhausting drive, Lightroom wants loads of area subsequent to the catalog to retailer JPEG previews for every picture you import.
In case your exhausting drive the place you retain the Lightroom catalog is getting full, it’s a good purpose to maneuver the catalog to a brand new location with a ton of area.
Another choice is to cut back the scale of preview recordsdata Lightroom generates on import. However it is just a short lived resolution.
- Go to Edit within the higher toolbar
- Choose “Catalog Settings”
- Choose “File Dealing with”
- Scale back preview dimension
You Wish to Velocity Up Lightroom
Lightroom can get extremely sluggish, particularly when coping with a big picture library. However there are methods of constructing the app extra responsive: you’ll be able to transfer your catalog to an SSD drive to hurry up Lightroom.
Lightroom catalog runs a lot sooner on SSDs than on HDDs.
On the identical time, SSDs are typically much less cost-effective than spinning HD, and storing massive picture libraries on them is value prohibitive. However operating Lightroom catalog off SSD is a really efficient resolution.
You Wish to Again up Lightroom Catalog
When you could have just one copy of your catalog, dropping that catalog means dropping your photos! So it’s at all times a good suggestion to again up your footage.
Lightroom often backs-up catalogs, however it does that utilizing the identical location. Shifting your catalog to an exterior drive ensures that your pictures are protected in case your exhausting drive dies fully.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to routinely tie your Lightroom catalog to a cloud storage location (like Dropbox). Nonetheless, this might entail paying a further month-to-month subscription price.
Change Lightroom Catalog Location
There are a few steps you’ll want to comply with to vary the Lightroom Catalog location:
1. Find Lightroom Catalog from Catalog Settings
At first, it’s a must to discover the placement of your catalog.
find Lightroom Catalog:
- From the highest primary menu, find the “EDIT” tab (“Lightroom Basic” on Mac) and click on on it
- Choose “Catalog Settings”
- Within the “Normal” panel, click on “SHOW.”
- Explorer/Finder will open the catalog file location – you’ll be able to acknowledge it by the .lrcat file extension
2. Copy Lightroom Catalog and All Supporting Information
Issues to think about:
You may need to make sure you’re additionally copying all of the supporting recordsdata when copying a complete catalog.
Supporting recordsdata embrace Previews File, Sensible Previews file, or the Helper. lrdata catalog. They comprise all of the related data out of your Lightroom Catalog – like settings, previews, and presets.
It’s best to change the placement of your catalog by copying, not by transferring.
When copying a catalog, you could have the unique one and create a replica within the new location. I feel it’s higher to be protected than sorry: eradicating recordsdata from the unique location solely when the method of transferring is profitable ensures you received’t lose any of your work.
the placement of your Lightroom Catalog (.LRCAT), so that you solely have to repeat it from there to the brand new location.
copy and paste Lightroom Catalog:
- Spotlight all of the recordsdata contained in the Lightroom catalog folder (search for the lrcat file extension: catalog.lrcat, catalog.lrcat-data, Previews.lrdata, Helper.lrdata, and so forth.)
- Proper-click on them and choose “Copy.”
3. Paste Lightroom Catalog and Supporting Information to New Location
Paste Lightroom Catalog and Supporting recordsdata to New Location:
- After clicking on “Copy,” go to the placement you need to transfer your catalog and recordsdata in
- Proper-click and choose “Paste.”
- Wait till the switch is over. It’d take a while when you have massive picture library.
4. Open Lightroom Catalog from New Location
It’s time to verify in case your catalog was copied efficiently by opening it from the brand new location.
open Lightroom Catalog from a brand new location:
- Double-click on the .lrcat file within the new location
5. Discover Lightroom Lacking Folders (Elective)
If you happen to see a query mark subsequent to recordsdata within the Folder panel, Lightroom can’t discover sure folders or pictures. On this case, you’ll need to search for them manually.
discover lacking folders:
- Within the Folders panel, right-click on the lacking folder (search for the query mark)
- From the dropdown menu, go to “Discover Lacking Folder.”
- Re-link the lacking folder by going to the brand new location – Lightroom will routinely map folders to the brand new location
6. Double-Examine the New Catalog Location (Elective)
It will possibly’t damage to verify once more, so comply with the steps you probably did initially when discovering your catalog:
MAC: Lightroom Basic > Catalog Settings > SHOW > Examine the catalog location
PC: Edit > Catalog Settings > SHOW > Examine the catalog location
Ought to I Transfer Lightroom Catalog to Exterior Arduous Drive?
The reply to this query is: it relies upon!
However I’d not do it.
Let me clarify.
It’s common for touring photographers to maneuver the Lightroom catalog to an exterior exhausting drive to allow them to run Lightroom from desktop computer systems at house and from laptops when touring.
Sadly, this course of slows down Lightroom considerably.
Lightroom just isn’t well-known for being a quick utility. And the simplest approach to enhance its efficiency is to run the Lightroom catalog from the quickest drive, ideally from an inner SSD.
Shifting the Lightroom catalog to an exterior exhausting drive, which is at all times a lot slower than inner, will jeopardize the efficiency of Lightroom. It should run painfully sluggish. I do know; I attempted it.
However I’ve another resolution, which I take advantage of throughout my journeys.
I create a Non permanent Catalog on my laptop computer for each journey and merge it with the grasp catalog once I return house.
For a devoted tutorial, consult with this text on learn how to merge Lightroom Catalogs.
Change Lightroom Catalog Location | Closing Ideas
A Lightroom Catalog is a database file that shops your pictures, metadata, and all of the processing you could have utilized to your pictures.
No matter your causes for transferring your Lightroom catalog, now you could have a step-by-step tutorial that can assist you alongside! As luck would have it, a mislaid Lightroom catalog is a straightforward sufficient factor to vary.