If you wish to change Lightroom Catalog location, you need to make sure you’re not lacking out on any important steps.
Let’s begin from the start. Lightroom has three essential parts:
- Lightroom set up (program information)
- Lightroom catalog
- Lightroom picture library
If you wish to transfer Lightroom to a brand new laptop, it’s essential transfer all three parts.
Nonetheless, for those who’re going to maneuver solely images to an even bigger laborious drive, you need to transfer one part – the picture library.
I’ve devoted tutorials for each eventualities (see under)
On this article, we’re going to give attention to the right way 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 pictures you import and their respective settings to your Lightroom workflow. The catalog comprises a preview of every picture, metadata reminiscent of key phrases, rankings, develop settings, and galleries group construction.
The catalog helps Lightroom to maintain observe of all of your images and their respective settings. You may have a number of catalogs for various tasks, or you should use only one catalog for the whole lot.
A Lightroom Catalog additionally shops:
- picture previews: they vary from low-resolution JPGs to full-size pictures
- growing data
- metadata (captions, key phrases, and so on.)
- galleries construction
Probably the most vital benefit of a Lightroom Catalog is that each one the edits you do in your images 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 House on Your Laborious Drive
In case your import course of will get caught, the commonest cause is that the pc has run out of area.
Even for those who retailer all of your pictures on a big exterior laborious drive, Lightroom wants loads of area subsequent to the catalog to retailer JPEG previews for every picture you import.
In case your laborious drive the place you retain the Lightroom catalog is getting full, it’s a good cause to maneuver the catalog to a brand new location with a ton of area.
An alternative choice is to scale back the dimensions of preview information Lightroom generates on import. However it is just a brief resolution.
- Go to Edit within the higher toolbar
- Choose “Catalog Settings”
- Choose “File Dealing with”
- Scale back preview measurement
You Need to Pace Up Lightroom
Lightroom can get extremely sluggish, particularly when coping with a big picture library. However there are methods of creating 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 Need to Again up Lightroom Catalog
When you may have just one copy of your catalog, dropping that catalog means dropping your pictures! So it’s at all times a good suggestion to again up your photos.
Lightroom frequently backs-up catalogs, but it surely does that utilizing the identical location. Shifting your catalog to an exterior drive ensures that your images are protected in case your laborious drive dies fully.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to robotically tie your Lightroom catalog to a cloud storage location (like Dropbox). Nonetheless, this might entail paying an extra month-to-month subscription charge.
Find out how to Change Lightroom Catalog Location
There are a few steps it’s essential observe to vary the Lightroom Catalog location:
1. Find Lightroom Catalog from Catalog Settings
At first, you need to discover the situation of your catalog.
Find out how to find Lightroom Catalog:
- From the highest essential menu, find the “EDIT” tab (“Lightroom Traditional” on Mac) and click on on it
- Choose “Catalog Settings”
- Within the “Common” 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 would possibly need to make sure you’re additionally copying all of the supporting information when copying a whole catalog.
Supporting information embody 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.
You need to change the situation of your catalog by copying, not by shifting.
When copying a catalog, you may have the unique one and create a reproduction within the new location. I believe it’s higher to be protected than sorry: eradicating information from the unique location solely when the method of shifting is profitable ensures you gained’t lose any of your work.
You already know the situation of your Lightroom Catalog (.LRCAT), so that you solely have to repeat it from there to the brand new location.
Find out how to copy and paste Lightroom Catalog:
- Spotlight all of the information contained in the Lightroom catalog folder (search for the lrcat file extension: catalog.lrcat, catalog.lrcat-data, Previews.lrdata, Helper.lrdata, and so on.)
- Proper-click on them and choose “Copy.”
3. Paste Lightroom Catalog and Supporting Information to New Location
Find out how to Paste Lightroom Catalog and Supporting information to New Location:
- After clicking on “Copy,” go to the situation you need to transfer your catalog and information in
- Proper-click and choose “Paste.”
- Wait till the switch is over. It’d take a while in case you have massive picture library.
4. Open Lightroom Catalog from New Location
It’s time to examine in case your catalog was copied efficiently by opening it from the brand new location.
Find out how to open Lightroom Catalog from a brand new location:
- Double-click on the .lrcat file within the new location
5. Discover Lightroom Lacking Folders (Non-obligatory)
When you see a query mark subsequent to information within the Folder panel, Lightroom can’t discover sure folders or images. On this case, you’ll should search for them manually.
Find out how to 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 robotically map folders to the brand new location
6. Double-Verify the New Catalog Location (Non-obligatory)
It will possibly’t damage to examine once more, so observe the steps you probably did firstly when discovering your catalog:
MAC: Lightroom Traditional > Catalog Settings > SHOW > Verify the catalog location
PC: Edit > Catalog Settings > SHOW > Verify the catalog location
Ought to I Transfer Lightroom Catalog to Exterior Laborious Drive?
The reply to this query is: it relies upon!
However I’d not do it.
Let me clarify.
It is not uncommon for touring photographers to maneuver the Lightroom catalog to an exterior laborious 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 isn’t well-known for being a quick software. And the simplest method to enhance its efficiency is to run the Lightroom catalog from the quickest drive, ideally from an inside SSD.
Shifting the Lightroom catalog to an exterior laborious drive, which is at all times a lot slower than inside, will jeopardize the efficiency of Lightroom. It’ll run painfully sluggish. I do know; I attempted it.
However I’ve another resolution, which I exploit throughout my journeys.
I create a Short-term Catalog on my laptop computer for each journey and merge it with the grasp catalog after I return house.
For a devoted tutorial, check with this text on the right way to merge Lightroom Catalogs.
Change Lightroom Catalog Location | Closing Ideas
A Lightroom Catalog is a database file that shops your images, metadata, and all of the processing you may have utilized to your images.
No matter your causes for shifting your Lightroom catalog, now you may 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.
