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Where Are My Lightroom Photos, Presets, and Catalogs Stored? (2021)

30 Jun

The post Where Are My Lightroom Photos, Presets, and Catalogs Stored? (2021) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Helen Bradley.

Are you struggling to determine where Lightroom stores your photos? Looking for your Lightroom catalogs? Need to identify the location of your presets?

In this article, I’m going to share quick, easy ways to determine where Lightroom has stored all of these items – photos, catalogs, presets, and more.

And by the end, you’ll know exactly where to find your files.

Let’s dive right in.

where are my Lightroom photos, presets, and catalogs stored?

Where is my Lightroom catalog stored?

To find the storage location of your current Lightroom catalog, simply select Edit (Lightroom, if you’re on a Mac), then tap Catalog Settings:

Lightroom will display where your catalog is stored:

view the location your catalog is stored

To open your catalog’s location, click Show:

You’ll be taken to your catalog folder. And if you look inside, you’ll see your .lrcat files, which contain your catalog data.

You can also find the location of your catalog by right-clicking on the Lightroom title bar, then selecting Show Catalog location:

select Show Catalog Location to see where your Lightroom catalog is stored

Your catalog file will pop open (though note that you’ll be one level deeper in the folder hierarchy compared to the previous method).

Where are my Lightroom presets stored?

There are two simple methods of finding your Lightroom presets; the first will take you to the folder containing all of your presets, while the second will take you to the location of an individual preset.

Method 1

To find where your Lightroom presets are stored, select Edit>Preferences (Lightroom>Preferences if you’re on a Mac):

select the Preferences option in Lightroom

The Preferences window will open. Select the Presets tab:

Finally, select the Show Lightroom Develop Presets button (depending on your version of Lightroom, this might instead say Show Lightroom Presets Folder):

hit the Show Lightroom Develop Presets button to see where your presets are stored

And you’ll immediately be taken to your preset storage location.

Note: You’ll need to click to see each individual preset folder:

Method 2

To find the location of an individual preset, here’s what you do:

First, open the Lightroom Develop module:

Then navigate to your Presets panel on the left-hand side:

Right-click on a preset, then select Show in Explorer:

Lightroom will instantly open the preset in its corresponding folder:

see your presets in the preset storage location

And you’ll be able to see many of your other presets, as well.

This is useful for situations when you’ve created your own preset and want to share it with others. You simply need to find the preset file, then share it!

Where are my Lightroom photos stored?

Lightroom is a catalog program, which means that it doesn’t actually store your images – instead, it simply records where your images are stored on your computer, then stores your edits in the corresponding catalog.

In other words, the images you import into Lightroom are located exactly where you chose to store them on your hard drive, USB drive, etc., and not in your Lightroom catalog.

So to find the location of a photo, simply right-click on its thumbnail, and select Show in Explorer (or Show in Finder for Mac users):

The relevant folder will appear with your image selected.

You can also see where an image exists inside Lightroom by right-clicking on that image, then selecting Go to Folder in Library:

clicking Go to Folder in Library to see where a Lightroom photo is stored

This will switch you over to the Library module and select the folder in which your image is stored:

your storage location for a particular photo

(Note that the selected folder corresponds to the actual hard drive location of your file.)

Why are my images stored in that location?

When you import photos into Lightroom, you’re given three broad options:

Copy, Move, or Add.

You can copy the photos, which creates a copy of each file in the selected location but leaves the originals alone. Then, when you ask Lightroom to show the location of the images, it will display the location of the copies.

You can move the photos, which deletes the originals and copies the files into your new selected location.

Or you can add the photos, which leaves the originals in place and makes no copy of the files; instead, Lightroom just records where you’ve stored your images. In this case, the images will stay where you initially stored them.

Where are Lightroom backups stored?

When you back up your Lightroom catalog, the actual catalog is backed up, but not your photos.

By default, the backup of your catalog is stored in the same location as your Lightroom catalog (in a folder called Backups).

However, if you want the exact backup location, or you’re struggling to find your backup folder, simply select Edit>Catalog Settings (or Lightroom>Catalog Settings on a Mac):

Then switch the Back up catalog option to When Lightroom next exits:

force Lightroom to back up when it exits

That way, the next time you exit Lightroom, you’ll see your backup folder location:

view the location of your Lightroom backups

And you can also change the backup location if you like (by selecting a different folder).

Lightroom photos, presets, and catalog storage: conclusion

Hopefully, you now know the exact location of your Lightroom files.

So you should be ready to do anything you might need – such as move catalogs, find photos, and more.

Good luck!

The post Where Are My Lightroom Photos, Presets, and Catalogs Stored? (2021) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Helen Bradley.

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How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

25 Aug

In Lightroom, a catalog is a database that tracks the location of your photos and information about them. When you edit your photos and add metadata or keywords to them in Lightroom, all of these changes are stored in the catalog. The photo files themselves are not touched.

There is fierce debate about on how to best approach catalogs in Lightroom. Some photographers say that it’s best to have one master catalog. Others say it’s best to have multiple catalogs, organized by client or shoot or date (like one per year).

Merging Lightroom Catalogs-DPS - https://www.pexels.com/photo/blur-business-coffee-commerce-273222/

There are pros and cons to each approach.

When you’re opening and closing the same catalog all the time, there is a greater chance for your files to become corrupted. On the other hand, having more than one catalog can become complicated when you want to access different photographs from different folders, as you can’t search through multiple catalogs without opening each one.

Also, Lightroom’s mobile sync only works with one catalog.

So what can you do if you have several catalogs now but just want to have one main one? You can do a database merge of all your catalogs in Lightroom. The important thing is that you do so correctly.

You must import your actual catalogs, rather than your photos, or your virtual copies and collections won’t be imported.

Let’s take a look at the steps that you need to take to merge all of your catalogs into one master catalog.

Identifying Your Catalogs

The first step is to identify the catalog you would like to function as your master catalog. Go to the Lightroom menu (Mac) or Edit menu (Windows) > Catalog Settings and choose the General tab. This will tell you the name of the catalog you are currently working in.

LR Catalog Settings - How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

LR Catalog - How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

Use Spotlight (Mac) or Search (Windows) to search for additional catalogs with an “.lrcat” file extension that you want to include in your master catalog. Make note of their names and locations.

You will likely have a lot of results from this search. Notice how I have several .zip files. These are backup catalogs. I also have some ending with -2, -3. -4. These number extensions are due to upgrading the catalogs with Lightroom updates.

Look for a .lrcat file with the same name but without the number extension. Check the date it was modified. If the two files were modified on the same date, you can ignore the file with the number extension.

Be aware that you can import a catalog from an earlier version of Lightroom Classic CC into a more recent version. The new, updated catalog contains all of the metadata associated with the previous catalog and photos.

Do a Bit of Cleanup

At this point, you may want to open the catalogs that you think you’ll want to import and go through them to see what’s in there. Now is a good time to track down and relink any missing files.

If you look at the Lightroom film strip pictured below, you will see a box with an exclamation mark in the upper right-hand corner of the images. If you click on it, you will get a message stating that the original file cannot be found. This happens when you move the files around on the hard drive without doing inside Lightroom or relinking so Lightroom can find them.

For example, this may happen if you move your files from your computer’s hard drive to an external drive.

missing file error message - How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

missing files - How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

This is the popup message you get if you click the exclamation mark. Click “Locate” and find the file on your hard drive to relink it.

If you want the missing images to show up in your library, take the time to link them now. If a lot of photos are missing, you may want to just link the images you have worked on and remove the unedited photos.

Merging Your Catalogs

If you don’t already have a Master Catalog to important your other catalogs into, you will have to create one.

In my case, I had one main catalog that I’d used for several years before deciding to switch to having several catalogs. When I realized a multi-catalog workflow wasn’t ideal for me, I simply renamed this larger catalog “Master Catalog” and imported the other smaller catalogs into it.

However, if you do not have one main catalog, you can start one and use it for all of your catalogs. If you have numerous catalogs, this will take some time, as you have to merge each catalog individually.

To create a new Master Catalog, go to the File menu and choose New Catalog. A box will pop up that says Create Folder with New Catalog. Type in “Master Catalog” where it says Save As and then hit Create.

Master Catalog - How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

To import a catalog, go to File > Import from Another Catalog.

Import from Another Catalog - How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

Choose the catalog you would like to import into the Master Catalog.

Under File Handling, choose; Add new photos to catalog without moving. Whether your photos are on an internal or external hard drive, you will likely not want to change their location when creating a Master catalog.

It also asks you about “Changed Existing Photos”. You will only need to make a selection here if you have the same sets of files in numerous catalogs. This is not likely to be the case, as you usually important your photos from a given shoot into one specific catalog, rather than several.

Repeat this step with each of your other catalogs until you’ve imported them all into the Master Catalog.

Once all of the photos are all in a single catalog, you can do some organization, such as tidying up your folder structure, removing duplicates, or unwanted photos, etc.

Backing Up

Each time you import a catalog, be sure to back up your Master Catalog. This way, you will have a backup of each step you took. If you make a mistake or end up with an unexpected merge result, you don’t have to start all over again, just revert to the last backup.

Once you have finished importing all of your catalogs, I recommend setting up a back up schedule.

Choose Catalog Settings under the Lightroom tab. Under Back Up Catalog, choose how often you want to back up. I personally back up every time Lightroom exists. I’ve had my catalog become corrupted a couple of times. By having backed it up every day, I was easily able to restore my files from the most recent backup without losing any of my work.

Settings How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

Back Up Preferences - How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One

In Conclusion

Essentially, these are the steps you need to take when merging numerous Lightroom catalogs. Of course, in doing so, you might encounter scenarios or issues beyond what a single article can cover.

However, if you have been relatively organized with importing your images and know where to find your various catalogs, you should easily be able to create one Master Catalog from all the catalogs you have on your hard drives.

The post How to Merge Multiple Lightroom Catalogs Into One appeared first on Digital Photography School.