For those that have finally seen the light!
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If you're like me and backup your LR catalog regularly, you may have noticed that the Lightroom Backups folder can get quite large. The way mine was going that folder would soon be larger than all my photo files :!:

So I did some poking around and was wondering if LR did either a full backup of the catalog every time it did one, or did an incremental, so I tried a few things. Searching in the LR help files didn't find anything. There was only one reference to increment, and none to incremental, so that was no help. I started looking in the folders themselves and found that each backup was progressively larger than the one before, so it seemed that LR was performing a full backup each time. So I renamed the Lightroom Backups folder to something else and created a new backup folder and reran the backup. The new backup file matched the size of the one that had been taken just a few minutes before, suggesting it did a full backup each time since the earlier ones were missing. I now felt it safe to get rid of all the previous backups that were in there since I first started using LR (about 18 gigs worth!). And then I did a backup of the backup....... :D

Just a tip to help save you some HD space!

Now.....does anyone know of a way to make the database files a bit smaller, other than getting rid of files? I already did a catalog optimization, and that didn't seem to do anything. I also got rid of the 1:1 image previews and set LR to generate one each time I looked at the pictures and to get rid of them after one day to try and save some space. LR will regenerate those each time you go into a folder in the Library.

To optimize your catalog in LR go to File -> Catalog Settings and on the General tab there is a button to "Relaunch and Optimize". This will also help speed up LR if your catalog is large and you add and delete a lot of pictures.

HTH! :mrgreen:
GeneVH

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That is interesting. I will have to look and see if I can find the multiple backups. I back up to an extenal Crossfire hard drive.
[url]http://www.sheilascorner.com/photography.html[/url]
Gene....

Thanks for the tip on the backup folders. I'm suprised you had about 18G worth since mine is only about 800Mbytes.

The Preview folders are what takes up most of the space and I think these are dependent on what size Previews you've set LR to render. I have just less the 2G in Previews. I tend to keep all my 1:1s because currently disk space is not a problem and I'd rather have them available than have to wait for them to be generated on demand.

Colin
__________________________________________
WinXp, PSE4, PS CS, Lightroom 1.2, Proshow Gold
Colin:

It surprised me that my files had built up like that, too. But then, I have all my pictures (and I do mean ALL) in my LR library. And they go back several years. I also have LR set to back up every time I open it, which can be more than once a day since my PC is shared in the household. They had also been building up since I started using LR not too long after it became generally available.

Now, if they would only give you an option to backup when you close LR! :mrgreen:
GeneVH

My SmugMug
My PrestoPhoto
Now on Flickr

CS5/LR4/Nikon D300 & D70s/Win7
Gene....

I don't have all my collection in LR since I decided to use it going forward. Occassionally I'll come across a RAW image that I think I could do better and will import that but currently my LR library is only about 2600 images.

To be honest I'm not sure why I let LR do the catalog backup since I have a complete backup strategy anyway. So maybe one day I'll stop LR from doing it's own thing.

Have you looked at the difference between the Elements Catalog files and the LR files? LR seems to generate a a lot more Mbytes.

Colin
__________________________________________
WinXp, PSE4, PS CS, Lightroom 1.2, Proshow Gold
I can't make that comparison because I don't use the PSE catalog. And if I'm not mistaken, the LR catalog backup is backing up not only your tags in LR, but the editing changes you make to your files, so I would hate to lose those if my C drive decides to go belly up some day.
GeneVH

My SmugMug
My PrestoPhoto
Now on Flickr

CS5/LR4/Nikon D300 & D70s/Win7
Gene....

My own backup includes the LR catalog, previews etc. Similarly it includes the Elements Catalog and caches etc. So I have no worries on that front.

Colin
__________________________________________
WinXp, PSE4, PS CS, Lightroom 1.2, Proshow Gold
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