# LR backup



## millan (Mar 27, 2015)

Hi everyone. I use to backup LR catalog regularly. Is it alo recommended to backup the photos previews as well, or just in case of restoration the previews will be generated automatically? BTW, are the keywords stored in catalog?
Many thanks in advance.


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## Marsu42 (Mar 27, 2015)

millan said:


> Hi everyone. I use to backup LR catalog regularly.



Hint: compress the .lrcat files, they shrink to 1/5th of the size. Note that most data from the catalog is also stored in the .dng files or .xmp sidecars if you save the medadata, so that's an additional failsafe.



millan said:


> Is it alo recommended to backup the photos previews as well



Good grief, no, absolutely no reason to do that than to save time in case of complete data loss. The previews can be re-generated from the original files anytime, hence the name.


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## DFM (Mar 27, 2015)

Keywords are catalog-based, but there are several other things you need to back up if you want to be able to restore Lr perfectly - your plugins folder, custom camera and lens profiles, and the main Lr preferences file (which controls recent file lists, UI layouts and defaults).

There's no need to back up the preview data folders, but you should keep at least two or three of Lr's own catalog backups just in case the current version becomes corrupted and you don't notice until after a mirror operation.

There's a donationware plugin that will handle all this automatically - http://photographers-toolbox.com/products/mdawson/tpglrbackup/index.php


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## Marsu42 (Mar 27, 2015)

DFM said:


> Keywords are catalog-based



Nope., just the collections and flags. Use exiftool to peek inside a dng file, will ya, being an Adobe Community Professional and all


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## Hector1970 (Apr 1, 2015)

I've been using Lightroom for years and I wonder at times what is even the benefit of the catalogs.
Once your PC fills up (which is quite regularily nowadays with file sizes) you have to back off the photos and the photos in the Catalog are not even on the laptop anymore. It seems unlikely I'll ever put them on again.
When you move PC's / Laptops you end up with archives everywhere. I know I should be a bit more precise and organized. I'm sure I'll eventually get to the point where I won't be able to find anything anywhere. 
Roll on 1000 TB backup servers with Raid that I can wirelessly communicate quickly with my PC / Laptop.
I'd love something reasonably cheap thats totally bigger than my yearly output. Something that would last for 5 years without filling up. 
I now there is Seagate and WD have cloud drives but I think they are not that quick.
I'm sure it all come at some stage. 
For the moment I'm stuck with my scattered back Catalogs and files on different hard drives (which do fail - 2 this year already - could make you cry - double backup is a minimum - those disks can fail without warning - hopefully SSD will be more reliable and get cheaper).


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## 3kramd5 (Apr 5, 2015)

DFM said:


> Keywords are catalog-based, but there are several other things you need to back up if you want to be able to restore Lr perfectly - your plugins folder, custom camera and lens profiles, and the main Lr preferences file (which controls recent file lists, UI layouts and defaults).



Where are the export settings stored (presets, watermark, etc.)? It doesn't appear to be in the agprefs (windows) or plist (os x) files.



Marsu42 said:


> DFM said:
> 
> 
> > Keywords are catalog-based
> ...



dgn files can contain keywords in exif. So can jpegs. But catalogs do too.



Hector1970 said:


> I know I should be a bit more precise and organized.



I agree.


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## Marsu42 (Apr 5, 2015)

3kramd5 said:


> Where are the export settings stored (presets, watermark, etc.)? It doesn't appear to be in the agprefs (windows) or plist (os x) files.



Windows: %appdata%\Adobe\Lightroom



DFM said:


> Marsu42 said:
> 
> 
> > DFM said:
> ...



Well, the keywords aren't in the exif, but in the iptc and xmp tags - but never mind the details . But we were talking about backup, and it read as if you think you need to backup your lcrat to prevent losing the kws... and that's not the case.


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## 3kramd5 (Apr 5, 2015)

Marsu42 said:


> 3kramd5 said:
> 
> 
> > Where are the export settings stored (presets, watermark, etc.)? It doesn't appear to be in the agprefs (windows) or plist (os x) files.
> ...



Cool. Is there a single file or is it necessary to back up the whole folder?




Marsu42 said:


> Well, the keywords aren't in the exif, but in the iptc and xmp tags - but never mind the details . But we were talking about backup, and it read as if you think you need to backup your lcrat to prevent losing the kws... and that's not the case.



To me it read like keywords are just one of many things contained in the catalog. They are catalog based, and the software can read them from or write them to individual files. I could delete the source data and my catalog would still contain keywords. Your reply made it seem like it was necessary to use DNG in order to have keywords.


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## Marsu42 (Apr 5, 2015)

3kramd5 said:


> Marsu42 said:
> 
> 
> > Windows: %appdata%\Adobe\Lightroom
> ...



They're mostly text files, so it's no bulk to backup. But really, it's pretty straightforward - look at the subfolder names (and google when in doubt) and you'll see what settings go where. It's a good idea to know about this folder structure in any case when using LR on a daily basis.



3kramd5 said:


> Your reply made it seem like it was necessary to use DNG in order to have keywords.



Ah, right... no, dng is absolutely equivalent to cr2 with xmp sidecar files as far as the contained meta data goes. Actually for backup purposes xmp sidecars are even better since you just need to back up these again while the original cr2 remains unchanged.


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## 3kramd5 (Apr 5, 2015)

I had googled it before but never managed to find where export presets are. Kinda strange that they don't put it all into .agprefs, or at least in the same folder under users.

I'm not concerned with data from a size perspective, just a bit anal 

Thanks again!


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## DFM (Apr 6, 2015)

Marsu42 said:


> Well, the keywords aren't in the exif, but in the iptc and xmp tags - but never mind the details . But we were talking about backup, and it read as if you think you need to backup your lcrat to prevent losing the kws... and that's not the case.



RFTM. What I told you is correct.

If you keyword a particular file _and re-write the metadata to the raw file_, then a comma-separated list of keywords as used in that file is added to the XMP. Most people don't update the XMP if they're working with DNGs as it risks corrupting the original image data every time you overwrite the file. Your keyword hierarchy and the hundreds of other keywords you've used in the past but which are not in that _particular_ image - guess where they are stored.


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## degies (Apr 6, 2015)

Hi
A good video to watch is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSwkDC3q7uk from BnH presented by Tim Grey
I have recently lost a drive in a laptop and could not recover from a backup. My catalog backup now goes to my Google drive and I have over 2 TB in photo's , but the catalog is about 700 mb so that works well. 

However the most important setting is about 27:25 into the video and has to do with Metadata and the side car files. I lost my catalog and started a new catalog, but as I had these set at most I had to re-create my collections, file export services and pic flags, but my star ratings was there as well as my changes to the files. In about an hour I had four years of sorting collections in order ,by simply sorting by the star meta data. Yes I lost the history, but I could go to the image with changes made or back to the base image. 
I use stars slightly different than most people. One Star means I touched the file, two to five stars is my own rating scheme. a Flag means it is published on the web or print somewhere. a Black flag for me means I will safely delete the file next time I do a bit of a cleanup. 

Hope that helps


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