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 important parts:
- Lightroom set up (program information)
- Lightroom catalog
- Lightroom picture library
If you wish to transfer Lightroom to a brand new pc, it is advisable transfer all three parts.
Nevertheless, should you’re going to maneuver solely photographs to an even bigger exhausting drive, you must transfer one element – the picture library.
I’ve devoted tutorials for each situations (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 pictures you import and their respective settings on your Lightroom workflow. The catalog accommodates a preview of every photograph, metadata resembling key phrases, rankings, develop settings, and galleries group construction.
The catalog helps Lightroom to maintain observe of all of your photographs and their respective settings. You’ll be able to have a number of catalogs for various initiatives, or you should utilize only one catalog for every little thing.
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 important benefit of a Lightroom Catalog is that each one the edits you do in your photographs are nondestructive. Any change you make to your picture can 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 Arduous Drive
In case your import course of will get caught, the commonest purpose is that the pc has run out of house.
Even should you retailer all of your pictures on a big exterior exhausting drive, Lightroom wants loads of house 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 house.
Another choice is to scale back the scale of preview information Lightroom generates on import. However it’s only a brief answer.
- Go to Edit within the higher toolbar
- Choose “Catalog Settings”
- Choose “File Dealing with”
- Cut back preview dimension
You Wish to Velocity Up Lightroom
Lightroom can get extremely gradual, particularly when coping with a big picture library. However there are methods of creating the app extra responsive: you possibly can transfer your catalog to an SSD drive to hurry up Lightroom.
Lightroom catalog runs a lot quicker 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 price prohibitive. However operating Lightroom catalog off SSD is a really efficient answer.
You Wish to Again up Lightroom Catalog
When you have got just one copy of your catalog, shedding that catalog means shedding your pictures! So it’s at all times a good suggestion to again up your footage.
Lightroom usually backs-up catalogs, nevertheless it does that utilizing the identical location. Transferring your catalog to an exterior drive ensures that your photographs are protected in case your exhausting drive dies utterly.
Alternatively, you possibly can robotically tie your Lightroom catalog to a cloud storage location (like Dropbox). Nevertheless, this might entail paying a further month-to-month subscription price.
Learn how to Change Lightroom Catalog Location
There are a few steps it is advisable observe to alter the Lightroom Catalog location:
1. Find Lightroom Catalog from Catalog Settings
At the beginning, you must discover the placement of your catalog.
Learn how to find Lightroom Catalog:
- From the highest important 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 possibly can acknowledge it by the .lrcat file extension
2. Copy Lightroom Catalog and All Supporting Information
Issues to contemplate:
You may wish to make sure you’re additionally copying all of the supporting information when copying a complete catalog.
Supporting information embody Previews File, Good Previews file, or the Helper. lrdata catalog. They include all of the related data out of your Lightroom Catalog – like settings, previews, and presets.
It is best to change the placement of your catalog by copying, not by transferring.
When copying a catalog, you have got the unique one and create a replica within the new location. I feel it’s higher to be protected than sorry: eradicating information from the unique location solely when the method of transferring is profitable ensures you gained’t lose any of your work.
You realize the placement of your Lightroom Catalog (.LRCAT), so that you solely have to repeat it from there to the brand new location.
Learn 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
Learn how to Paste Lightroom Catalog and Supporting information to New Location:
- After clicking on “Copy,” go to the placement you wish to transfer your catalog and information in
- Proper-click and choose “Paste.”
- Wait till the switch is over. It would take a while when you have massive photograph library.
4. Open Lightroom Catalog from New Location
It’s time to test in case your catalog was copied efficiently by opening it from the brand new location.
Learn 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 (Optionally available)
If you happen to see a query mark subsequent to information within the Folder panel, Lightroom can’t discover sure folders or photographs. On this case, you’ll need to search for them manually.
Learn 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-Test the New Catalog Location (Optionally available)
It may’t damage to test once more, so observe the steps you probably did firstly when discovering your catalog:
MAC: Lightroom Traditional > Catalog Settings > SHOW > Test the catalog location
PC: Edit > Catalog Settings > SHOW > Test 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 is not uncommon for touring photographers to maneuver the Lightroom catalog to an exterior exhausting drive to allow them to run Lightroom from desktop computer systems at residence and from laptops when touring.
Sadly, this course of slows down Lightroom considerably.
Lightroom will not be well-known for being a quick utility. And the simplest means to enhance its efficiency is to run the Lightroom catalog from the quickest drive, ideally from an inside SSD.
Transferring the Lightroom catalog to an exterior exhausting drive, which is at all times a lot slower than inside, will jeopardize the efficiency of Lightroom. It is going to run painfully gradual. I do know; I attempted it.
However I’ve another answer, which I exploit throughout my journeys.
I create a Momentary Catalog on my laptop computer for each journey and merge it with the grasp catalog after I return residence.
For a devoted tutorial, seek advice from this text on learn how to merge Lightroom Catalogs.
Change Lightroom Catalog Location | Remaining Ideas
A Lightroom Catalog is a database file that shops your photographs, metadata, and all of the processing you have got utilized to your photographs.
No matter your causes for transferring your Lightroom catalog, now you have got a step-by-step tutorial that will help you alongside! As luck would have it, a mislaid Lightroom catalog is a simple sufficient factor to alter.