Lightroom catalog size question

tomkbucks · 22 Jul 2012

When i import my images i put them on a second hard disc , thats fine BUT ive just spotted in the 'my pictures' folder lightroom has a catalog file thats the same size... so what is this ? does it mean i have two copys of each file ? im finding it all quite confusing - and im running out of space on my computer, can i simply delete it ? or stop lightroom doing this ? hope someone can help !

happy haggis · 22 Jul 2012

If the file extension is .lrcat then it is the LR catalog and should not be deleted. There should also be a folder called Lightroom x Catalog Previews.lrdata which stores the image previews used by LR.
If the folder(s) you refer to is identical to the folder(s) on your second HD you need to check your Import settings as it sounds as though you are creating backups of photos on import. This is not necessarily a bad thing unless you already have a robust backup strategy in place.

tomkbucks · 22 Jul 2012

hum... i dont have make second copy to... on import selected - but seems that the cataloug is the same size so a little confused.....

Kerioak · 23 Jul 2012

Can you do a screen shot of the various files and post it, might help.
One thing that does occur if it is not a back up - is it the whole lightroom catalogue file that is the same size? Everytime you do a back up it creates a new file and this can soon mount up into very large files. If you are sure you have the most recent ones backed up you can delete the catelogues

I have just checked and my LR catalogues are currently 1.11 Gb - no wonder it takes so long to back up !

tomkbucks · 23 Jul 2012

cheers, not infront of my machine so will do later, when i 'import' i select a second hard disc to put them in, but what is confusing is it has placed a catalogue file on the local c:\my pictures\ lightroom and yes it is in similar size to all my images - hum... i really need the 100gb back but dont want to simply delete it...

happy haggis · 23 Jul 2012

I'm having to assume that you are using Windows and that catalog and preferences settings are the LR defaults.

'My Pictures' is the default location for the LR catalog, previews and backups.
The structure would be
...My Pictures\Lightroom\
Within that folder is the catalog itself, which name defaults to 'Lightroom X Catalog.lrcat'. This is your catalog and should not be deleted, unless you want to start all over again! The X represents the version of LR you are using.

..My Pictures\Lightroom\Backups\ contains any backups of the catalog made when you exit LR. The frequency of these backups depends on your settings. This can be verified by going to Edit - Catalog Settings from the LR interface. Click the 'General' tab. At the bottom there is a section for Backup. If you have this set to backup each time you exit LR then there will be a lot of sub folders in the Backups folder. I'd suggest just keeping the last 2 or 3 backups and deleting the rest. The folders are named with the date and time e.g. '2012-07-23 0923' for 23 July 2012 @ 9.23am.

..My Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom X Catalog Previews.lrdata\ is the sub folder where all the previews are stored. The X represents the version of LR you are using. The size of this will vary depending on your settings at import. The settings for the previews can be found by going to the Catalog Settings dialog again and clicking on the 'File Handling' tab. It would be helpful if you could do a screen grab of this for us.
Screen grabs of your Import screen and the folders you refer to in Windows Explorer would also be useful.

happy haggis · 26 Jul 2012

Don't mention it. Oh wait a minute, you didn't!

tomkbucks · 27 Jul 2012

ok sorry did not have my computer handy so only just back to this , in the mypictures i have the catalouge file - this is nearly the same size as the images on my second hard disc, very stranger - the number of files matches up too - oh im so confused !

graphilly · 28 Jul 2012

When you import into Lightroom, you don't have the 'Make a Second Copy to:' option selected on the 'File Handling' bar do you?

tomkbucks · 30 Jul 2012

nope ! ive decided to be drastic ive had so many problems with my machine im starting over... ive got lightroom 4 now to time to start over and really hope i pay attention this time!