Lightroom Catalog file sizes

[M38A1]

I'm amazed at the size of my LR backup catalog.... 166GB as in GIGA bytes

The actual .lrcat file is only 1.83GB

The backup folder has a ton of sub-folders in it, each I presume corresponds with the date of the backup. Is there any reason to keep old backups? Wouldn't the most current one suffice? Or are the backups incremental in that when you do a backup it's only items which have changed since the last backup so all are needed?

HELP!


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[Jeff S]

LR backups are snapshots, not incremental. So it you don't see to "go back in time", then delete all but the latest.

I try to treat everything in Lightroom as temporary. Write metadata for each file to disk (CTRL+A, then CTRL+S). Then, save "keeper" edits to disk as new files. Doing this means I never backup, as nothing is in LR that's not also on disk.

 

[M38A1]

Thanks Jeff....

So I got the first part - each time I close LR it asks if I want a backup and it takes a snapshot of the whole catalog contents. Each time I do that, it takes a snapshot so there's really no reason to keep anything but the most recent backup. Correct?

The second part tripped me up...

 

[klb1122]

I think I'm in the same boat. It's currently dragging down my laptop.

 

[M38A1]

I think I'm in the same boat. It's currently dragging down my laptop.

So you 'gonna go delete all those backup sub-folders? You first...

 

[klb1122]

So you 'gonna go delete all those backup sub-folders? You first...

Yep, sure did. Don't feel bad about it one bit. But, that didn't seem to solve my storage issue. I've got some "Documents" that are half of my hard drive.

 

[WoodButcher]

Mine backs up weekly. Every few months I remove all but the last few backups.

 

[M38A1]

Yep, sure did. Don't feel bad about it one bit. But, that didn't seem to solve my storage issue. I've got some "Documents" that are half of my hard drive.

Mine backs up weekly. Every few months I remove all but the last few backups.

well ok then it's my turn!