So, in the spirit of “Backup Your Photos Monday,” I thought I’d share how I make a backup of my backup external hard.

To keep my backup hard drive synced with my 2nd backup hard drive it’s a simple two-step process thanks to a software utility I use called “Carbon Copy Cloner.” It’s a Mac-only application, but a popular alternative for Windows (which does the same thing) is Acronis True Image, and it also offers a cloud-backup option, which is nice. (If you need more Windows alternatives, including free options, check out this article).

Here’s how it works:

STEP ONE: You plug in both of your external hard drives (in this case, my Photo Backup 1 and Photo Backup 2) and launch Carbon Copy Cloner. A window appears, and a bar displaying any available drives appears (seen above). You click on a Source drive (which external hard drive you want to copy) and then click on a Destination (which external drive you want to copy to) (as seen above).

Step Two: It’s very visual and clear what’s going to happen. You can see my Source is Photo Backup 1, and I’m copying any files that have changed since my last backup to Photo Backup 2. Once it’s clear that it’s set up correctly, click the Clone button, and it makes an exact duplicate (a clone of your first external hard drive). That’s it.

You can set up a schedule to do all this (that’s what I do) — it can send you reminder emails or just automatically backup any time you plug in your Photo Backup 2. It’s got some nice options, and it’s super easy to use, which I love.

Tons of Lightroom Classes Coming Up At the “Photoshop World Conference 2024”

It’s back again this September, and it’s three full days, multiple training tracks, all online, featuring your favorite Photoshop World instructors and the Photoshop World experience, complete with an opening keynote, Midnight Madness, the attendee party, the Guru Awards — the whole nine yards and it is going to be awesome! Tickets are available now; if you sign up now, you save a bunch! Check it all out at photoshopworld.com

Here’s wishing you a great backed-up feelin’ Monday!

-Scott

The post It’s “Back Up Your Photos” Monday (and How To Make a Back Up Of Your Backup) appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

You can buy this course by itself for $29.99 or watch it as part of a KelbyOne Pro Membership, where you can watch all our Lightroom courses (I don’t think there’s anyone out there with nearly as many full-length courses on every aspect of Lightroom and Photoshop)as we do).

Here’s a link to the course.

Have a great Monday, everybody, and here’s to finally getting really organized, backed up, and loving your Lightroom experience.

-Scott

P.S. If you use Lightroom ‘cloud’ edition, I have a separate version of the SLIM system just for you folks. Here’s the link to the cloud version.

The post New Course: My Simplified Lightroom Image Management System (the “SLIM” system) appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

For example, if you backed up your catalog two days, and this morning you launched Lightroom, and your catalog was totally corrupted (this happens very rarely, but it can happen), then you’d only lose two days work. If you haven’t backed up your catalog in two months, then everything you’ve done since then (two months of work in Lightroom) would be lost, and you’d be picking up right where you left off two months ago. Usually, once a week is fine for most folks (again, a catalog crash is a very unlikely event, but so is a “water landing”). Still, if I wind up working on a big project, and I spend a lot of time working in Lightroom, sometimes I’ll manually back up my catalog right then and there because I don’t want to lose all that work I just put in if something bad did happen (better safe than sorry).

If you decide you want to backup right now, here’s how: Quit Lightroom, and when the Catalog Backup window appears, switch it to “Just this time” (as shown above), and it will back up your catalog right now. Just don’t forget to switch it back to “Once a week” next time you quit Lightroom. 

NOTE: If you’re using a daily overall computer backup program, something like Apple’s Time Machine, it backs up everything on your computer, so as long as you store your catalog on your computer (and you should for much better performance), then you’ve already got a backup.

Have a great Monday, everybody. It’s a new week – full of awesome possibilities – let’s make the most of it!

-Scott

The post How Often Do You Need to Backup Your Lightroom Classic Catalog? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

A few years back Adobe added the step of compressing the backup copy of the catalog in a zip file to both reduce the file size footprint of the backup copy and reduce accidental opening of the backup copy by curious people (which can cause problems). Both Mac and Windows operating systems have the ability to extract files from zip files, so you don’t need any special software to do it. On a Mac, just double-click the zip file to extract its contents. On Windows, I prefer to right-click the zip file and choose Extract from the contextual menu that appears.

Locating the Backup Copy

By default, LrC will save the backup copies within a folder called Backup in the Pictures folder on your startup drive. There’s nothing wrong with that location as long as you are regularly backing up that entire drive to another location (or the cloud) in case that drive is lost/stolen or fails. If you are not finding your backup copies in that location, then the only place in all of LrC to find and control where backup catalog copies are stored is the popup dialog that prompts you to run the backup process itself. So, if you are not sure where you configured LrC to place the backup copies, and the prompt doesn’t always appear when you exit the program, go to Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings (PC: Edit > Catalog Settings), select the General tab, and set the Back up catalog frequency to Every time Lightroom exits.

I like this reminder each time I exit, but if it is too much for you, you can always change it later. Then quit the program to trigger the prompt to run the backup.

Look at the path shown in that prompt to discover where LrC is storing those backup copies. You can choose Skip this time if you have backed up recently or take the few moments to let it run in honor of World Backup Day.

Restoring from the Backup

Now that you know where the most recent backup copy is stored you can complete the process of getting back to work. If the reason you need the backup is because your working catalog file became corrupted, then you need to move the bad catalog file out of the folder where it is stored (by default, the Lightroom folder in your Pictures folder). You could just move it to your desktop for now. If you lost the drive where the original catalog was located and you are starting from scratch then you can create a new folder at a location of your choosing for where you want the catalog file to reside (such as a folder named Lightroom in your Pictures folder).

Note, if your original catalog file became corrupted, then you could try leaving the various preview cache files that work along side the catalog so that LrC doesn’t have to recreate those too. If you are starting from a clean slate, then once the catalog is open and running LrC will automatically start re-populating the preview cache as you work.

Recently, Adobe also added a new file to the backup process with the same name as your catalog, but with a lrcat-data file extension (this contains the masks created by select subject and select sky in Masking). I would replace this file with the backup copy of it too just to keep things simple.

When extracting the contents of the zip file it was probably placed within a folder right next to the zip file, so open that into your file browser to see the backup copies of the catalog and new lrcat-data file.

Drag and drop those files into the folder where your catalog used to be (or where you want it to be now).

Once the files have successfully moved to the desired location, double-click the catalog file (the .lrcat file) to open it into Lightroom Classic and make sure all works as expected. You’ve just restored from your latest backup copy!

The post Recovering from Catalog Loss or Corruption appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Thanks, Terry!!! OK, this week is off and running — it’s going to be a great one!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Scott

The post Lightroom ‘cloud’ Users: How to Back up Your Images To Your Computer appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Default Catalog

By default, Lightroom Classic is configured to “Load most recent catalog” when the program is launched. This works fine for most people … until it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t, things go horribly wrong. The thinking is that if you only have a single LrC catalog, then it would be the most recent one used, so it would be the one that opens on next launch. And that is true for most people most of the time. Until that is, they decide to go look at an old backup copy of the catalog out of curiosity or necessity. They then quit LrC to close that copy of the catalog, and the next time they launch the program it opens that old catalog. All LrC catalogs tend to look the same unless you are paying attention, and I’ve seen this issue catch so many people out over the years, to no end of tears and frustration, as they think their original catalog was lost or changed by LrC.

The worst version of that story is from people who had opened a backup copy of the catalog in the backup location, exit LrC, then launch LrC and never realize that they are now using a catalog stored among their backup catalogs, and that they’ve orphaned their master catalog in its original location. Now all new work is added to the one in the backup location, and then they learn about the need to delete old backup copies of the catalog, and … yes, they delete the catalog they had been using, and all the new work. So, to avoid that scenario, just set a specific catalog as the default, or if you want to choose each time LrC is launched, set it to Prompt me when starting Lightroom (good for multiple catalog users).

Backup Catalog Default Location

Speaking of catalog backups … Now, this isn’t really so much a bad default setting, but rather a hard to find option. If you decide to utilize the automated backup catalog function in LrC (and I recommend that you do), then you set a frequency option and forget about it, until LrC reminds you it is time to run on a future exit from the program.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that prompt is the only place where you can configure the location for where the backup copies of the catalog are stored. We just see the Skip or Back up buttons and seem gloss over the Choose button for backup folder location. If you don’t make a specific choice LrC simply creates a folder alongside the actual catalog and dumps all backups in there. The problem with this is that if you experience drive failure that backup copy of the catalog is lost along with the working catalog. A better choice is to specify a folder on a different drive, or in my case because I only have a single internal drive, I point it to a folder in my Dropbox folder so that it is automatically synced to the cloud (and my other computer). You just want to have it duplicated to another drive as quickly as possible, however that can be best achieved on your system.

Wouldn’t it be great if that Choose button for backup location was right on the same dialog for choosing the frequency of the backup?!? I mean, there’s plenty of room, so why make us go looking for it on a dialog that only appears when you exit the program on the chosen frequency schedule? Anyway …

Auto Add from Camera Roll

Talk about the road to heck being paved with good intentions … sure, automatically importing all photos on someone’s camera roll when they have the 1TB plan for cloud storage may really help them when first starting to use Lightroom on their mobile devices. Maybe. I guess. But for every person subscribed to the Creative Cloud Photography plan who only have 20GB of cloud storage, and just want to try Lr out, it is an absolute time wasting freakout session.

I’ve written specifically about the dangers of this option, but it is worth another reminder. Pay attention to all checkboxes when first using an app. Some options are designed to “help” you, but in reality, if you do not understand the repercussions, simply create a new problem for you to resolve. All too often I hear from people who finally got around to trying the new Lr app on their phone only to find that the contents of their entire Camera Roll is now being uploaded to the cloud and has completely filled up their 20GB of storage, and they are in a panic. A common next step is to delete the Lr app, which may stop the upload of new photos, but doesn’t do anything to remove the photos already uploaded. It just creates a completely avoidable mess and unfavorable new experience with an app they were previously looking forward to using.

So, until such time as that option gets unchecked by default (slim chance I suppose), do yourself a favor and uncheck it yourself. You can always import photos from your Camera Roll yourself when you are ready.

Are there any other default options you think should be changed or considered before they cause a problem? Let me know in the comments. Hope this helps someone avoid a problem in the future!

The post Three Default Settings Worth Changing appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

It’s 2021, and if you haven’t backed up your Lightroom Catalog in a while (or maybe ever), well…there no day like today, right? Having a corrupt catalog is pretty rare thankfully, but it does happen (it has happened to me), and backing up your catalog is so easy (literally one click), there’s no reason not to do it right now.

Remember, without a backup, if your LR Classic catalog becomes corrupt you’ve lost all your edits. All your organization. All your star ratings, pick flags, photo books you created, collections — everything — you are starting over from scratch with Lightroom. Don’t let that happen — it only takes 10-seconds (literally) to back it up right now. The single click of a button.

IMPORTANT: backing up your catalog does NOT backup your photos (that’s a completely a separate topic), I’m talking about backing up your database of edits and organization (known as your Lightroom Classic catalog).

Here’s how easy it is to backup your catalog:

When you quit Lightroom Classic, this backup reminder dialog (above) pops up. Don’t just hit the “Skip this time” button (like you’ve been doing). Start by choosing how often you want to see this backup reminder dialog in the first place. Here are your options (and the ramifications of each):

Once a Month: If you choose this one, it means if your catalog got corrupted, and you had to use your backup, you would lose ALL the changes and edits you made in the last month. You’ll be back to what your catalog looked like a month ago. That’s a lot of edits down the drain, but at least you don’t have to start over from scratch.

Once a week: means that if had to use your backup, you’d only lose a week’s worth of edits. That could be a little loss, or a lot, depending on how often you edit and organize in Lightroom during a given week.

Once a day: (my preferred choice), means if your catalog gets corrupted, and you have to use your backup, you’ll only lose the stuff you did yesterday.

NOTE: If you choose this daily backup method, you are going to have A LOT of backups accumulating and taking up needless space on your drive. Anything older than a few days you won’t need, because you have a fresh updated new backup every day, so go back and read my article on how to get rid of those outdated backups.

So, right now, hit the “Backup” button

That’s all you have to do. Hit the Backup button, choose where you want this backup stored (that’s the 2nd click, so technically it’s two clicks the first time you do this), and boom — done — your catalog is backed up, and you’ll sleep better tonight for it, knowing your protected if your catalog goes kerplunk.

IMPORTANT: These backups will be saved into a folder named “Backups” and that folder will be in the same folder where your current Lightroom catalog lives on your computer. That’s fine, as long as your computer doesn’t ever crash or get stolen, which is why I recommend saving your catalog in The Cloud (Dropbox, Backblaze, Google Drive — wherever you do your cloud storage). That way, your backup is never lost, even if your computer is.

Hope that helps to start your week off right. Stay healthy, my friends.

-Scott

The post Right Now, Go Backup Your Lightroom Classic Catalog (and here’s how) appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

I am officially declaring today ‘Dump Your Outdated Catalog Backups” Friday!

Simply put: Check to see if you’re accumulating a bunch of useless outdated backup catalogs, and throw the ones away you don’t need anymore to free up space

You see that dialog above — the one that appears when you quit Lightroom Classic, asking you if you want to make a backup copy of your catalog? Each time you see it, it asks you to make a COPY of your entire catalog. Each time you hit that ‘Back up’ it makes yet another backup copy. Sure, it compresses that backup quite a bit, but still…those backups can get really big in file size, but worse yet, after a couple of weeks, they’re so outdated that those older ones become useless anyway.

So, go see how many backups you have (you really only need one or two very recent ones).

Look inside your Lightroom folder (the one where your catalog(s) are stored (mine was inside my Pictures folder on my Mac), and look for a folder named ‘Backups” and inside that folder, see if you don’t have a whole bunch of backups that are way out of date (as seen above), just eating up hard drive space for no reason.

If you don’t see a folder named ‘Backups’ that’s because you don’t have any backups (ack!) so if disaster strikes (your catalog gets corrupted), you will be starting over from scratch in Lightroom. For more on backing up your catalog, check out this article we did on backing up your catalog (why you should, and how to do it), hit this link.

I still had some old backups hanging around from 2019. If somehow my catalog got corrupted, I would want to use a backup from August of 2020 — not one from April of 2019, and so on, so those outdated backups are doing just one thing — eating up space. Now’s the time to pitch ’em, seeing as it’s ‘Dump Your Outdated Catalog Backups” Friday!

Hope at the very least it frees up some space for you, and if you looked in your Lightroom folder and didn’t even see a folder named ‘Backups’ maybe it made you go and hit that ‘Make Backup’ button so you at least have one on hand in case disaster strikes.

We are nearly, exactly, well actually less than one month away from ‘The Landscape Conference”

If you haven’t heard about it, check out the video below (high-five to our own Juan Alfonso who did a brilliant job creating it and really capturing the vibe and feeling of what we’re doing). Tickets and details at this link.

Here’s wishing you a safe, happy, healthy weekend, and I hope to see you here again next week. Cheers.

-Scott

The post It’s ‘Dump Your Outdated Lightroom Backup Catalogs” Friday! appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

The first and my current method is using the 3rd party software “Carbon Copy Cloner” which is a Mac-only application, but a popular alternative for Windows (it does he same thing) is Acronis True Image, which also offers a cloud-backup option which is nice. (If you need more Windows alternatives, including free options, check out this article).

Here’s how it works:

STEP ONE: You plug-in both of your external hard drives (in this case, my Photo Backup 1, and Photo Backup 2), and launch Carbon Copy Cloner. A window appears and a bar displaying any available drives appears (seen above). you click on a Source drive (which external hard drive you want to copy), and then click on a Destination (which external drive you want to copy to) (as seen above).

Step Two: It’s really clear what’s going to happen; it’s very visual. You can see my Source is Photo Backup 1, and I’m copying any files that have changed since my last backup to Photo Backup 2. Once it’s clear that it’s set up correctly, click the Clone button and it makes an exact duplicate (a clone of your first external hard drive. That’s it.

You can set-up a schedule to do all this — it can send you reminder emails, or just automatically backup any time you plug-in your Photo Backup 2. It’s got some nice options, and it’s super easy to use, which I love.

The other backup and copy program I’ve used (for many many years now, and it’s never failed me), is SuperDuper. It’s super simple.

There’s really only one step. You plug-in your external hard drives, and from the pop-up menus you choose which drive you want to Copy from on the left, and which one you want it to copy to from the pop-up menu on the Right, and you click Copy Now. They kind of over-explain what’s going to happen and sometimes that makes you read and re-read the explanations so you know you’re doing the right thing, but in reality its hard to do the wrong thing as long as those two menus are set correctly (as seen above).

So, why did I switch to Carbon Copy Cloner?

The single only reason I switched was that so many people asked me questions about Carbon Copy Cloner I felt it would be helpful if I started using it so I could answer those questions. That’s it. They’re both great and do a great job.

I hope you found that helpful, and if you only have one backup of your photo library, please take this is that flashing yellow light warning you to do something important quick.

Have a great weekend, stay healthy, see ya’ll next week.

-Scott

The post Backing Up Your Photos: How To Make a Backup Of Your Backup appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.