# Catalog zip backup files



## st.neri (Oct 20, 2019)

I admit I haven't really been conscientious about how I organize and backup files for the last 15 years with lightroom.  I have amassed >200,000 images and have them backed up periodically on the cloud or external hard drives.  I am attempting to get more organized now that I am progressing.

Two questions to that end:

1. When I back up using lightroom backup, I notice that I have several backup zip files.  Is that the most efficient way to perform backups?  Doesn't that just use up more of my external hard drive space?  What is the most efficient way to backup?

2.  Please refer me to a better system to organize my images than I already have.  Link to article or something...  Thanks!

I have attached images that should illustrate my situation.

Jason


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## Califdan (Oct 20, 2019)

those zip files are *ONLY *backups of the LR/Classic Catalog *THEY DO NOT CONTAIN YOUR IMAGE FILES! ! ! !*

Adobe does not provide a backup tool for the actual images - this is up to you, outside of LR/Classic.  It sounds like you are already doing this.

Each time you let LR/Classic do a backup it creates a new Zip file that contains the state of the catalog at that point in time.   How many back versions you keep is purely personal but I had a case many moons ago where I had to go back close to 9 months due to a corrupted catalog problem that Adobe couldn't fix.   My personal handling of these is this.

1)  Take new Backup when I shut down LR the last time each day
2)  Keep them all for 9 months
3)  For those between 9 and 24 months  old, keep the one closest to the 1st of each month
4)  For those older than 18 months, keep 1 per quarter

Another trick I learned is to include the LR version number in the name of my catalog.  For example  "LR8 Master Catalog"  (you don't have to bother with dot releases).   By doing this, if you do have to go back to an older catalog at least you'll know what version of LR it related to and if you will have to update the recovered catalog to the current version in order to use it.


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## st.neri (Oct 20, 2019)

This is helpful.  And yes, I understood that the zip files didnt contain my images.  The files do get bulky though.
Thanks for the response!

Jason


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## LouieSherwin (Oct 21, 2019)

As far as the organization of your images on your hard drive using date based folders as you show is quite adequate. 

Since you are running on a Mac the simplest and most cost effective method of backup is Time Machine (TM). If your not already using it I suggest that you do. 

The last step in implementing a really safe backup strategy is to have something offsite. You could of course use several TM drives and rotate them to some offsite location or even simpler subscribe to one of the dedicated cloud backup services such BackBlaze or CrashPlan. I do not recommend using any of the "free" cloud storage services because they don't provide a true "incremental" backup. Plus they are probably mining your metadata for their own purposed to pay for the "free" service. 

An incremental backup such as those mentioned above detects and stores any changed files so that if a problem occurs you can step back in time to get a version prior to when the problem happened.


-louie


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## bbaddiley02 (Oct 22, 2019)

What would you suggest as a backup tool or program for Windows?


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## PhilBurton (Oct 22, 2019)

bbaddiley02 said:


> What would you suggest as a backup tool or program for Windows?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


There are any number of backup tools for Windows.  A free program seems popular among enthusiasts.  Macrium Reflect.  Of course, there is also a paid version with more features.

At the other end, there is a rather complex but very powerful program called Retrospect.  Go for the Desktop version.

For simple directory synchronization between two drives or systems, I use Beyond Compare and Goodsync.

Phil


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## bbaddiley02 (Oct 22, 2019)

Thanks Phil. I’ll look into these. 


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## Philippe Coudé du Foresto (Oct 22, 2019)

On Windows; you could also have a look at Syncback free. Very powerful and easy to use.


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