# catalog backups and MacOSX Time Machine



## jms_nh (Feb 6, 2011)

I already use Time Machine with my Mac to backup my whole hard drive, and it gives me access to older versions of files. Lightroom has catalog backups + database integrity checks.

Those of you on a Macintosh: how do you backup your catalog?

I was thinking about doing it once a week and only keeping the last 2 or 3 backups explicitly on my hard drive, since Time Machine retains older copies.


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 6, 2011)

Time Machine's great, but if it tries to backup your catalog while it's open, it'll be a corrupted backup which is entirely useless.  I'd let LR run its backups, and let TM back up those backups up if anything, and then just keep one or two main backup catalogs plus the TM versioned backups.


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## clee01l (Feb 6, 2011)

In reality, all you need to retain is a copy of the "last good" catalog.  The LR backup  (I do mine weekly) is a copy made when the catalog is closed.  Time Machine maybe backing up the database when LR is open. as such, the referential integrity may be destroyed and and the backup file might be corrupt since it was a snapshot when the catalog was in an unstable state. The best backup to trust would be a backup of the LR Backup copy. 

Now, how do you know which backup copy is the 'last good one'?  You don't unless you physically open the file in LR.  I am not advocating that you go that far, but what I choose to do is keep the last few and all of my import original copies so that I can rebuild my catalog from one of these few backup copies.


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 6, 2011)

"Last good" accounts for computer error but not user error... the only times I've had to go back to backups is when I've done something daft... which, yes, happens to me too.   

So I'd agree, incremental TM backups of LR's backups are a pretty good bet to cover all bases.


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## Mark Sirota (Feb 7, 2011)

I haven't rigorously tested this, but it seems to me that when browsing your Time Machine backups, if a lock file exists, skip that one.  If there's no lock file, then the backup should be good because Lightroom wasn't running at the time of the backup.


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## sizzlingbadger (Feb 7, 2011)

I use that theory Mark. I don't rely on the TM backups of the catalog but I do let it carry on and try to back it up as it can't hurt. I Backup my catalog using LR and them TM copies that to my backup too.


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## ehch (Mar 1, 2011)

*Time Machine does NOT backup LR catalog whilst LR is running.*



Victoria Bampton said:


> Time Machine's great, but if it tries to backup your catalog while it's open, it'll be a corrupted backup which is entirely useless.  I'd let LR run its backups, and let TM back up those backups up if anything, and then just keep one or two main backup catalogs plus the TM versioned backups.


 
Just came across this statement from Apple:
Important: (Mac OS) If you use Time Machine™ while Lightroom 3 is open, Lightroom marks the catalog as excluded from the backup. When Lightroom quits, it removes the catalog from the exclusion list and Time Machine can back it up.

Here is the link:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/WSb03e830bd6f770ee4eb3e37712256a455a6-8000.html

Sofar I've had TM backup my LR catalogs, but I am no longer sure that it is a good idea.


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## clee01l (Mar 2, 2011)

ehch said:


> ...Sofar I've had TM backup my LR catalogs, but I am no longer sure that it is a good idea.


 I don't have Time Machine or a Mac, but I do have the same issue.   I also use LR's automatic back up feature regularly.  Since I know that this is a sfae file to backup, I let my system wide back up backup this file and don't worry if the original gets backed up in an unstable state and is  possible corrupt. If I  have to restore the LR catalog, I forst start with the most recent backup that LR made and if for some reason this is corrupt or missing, I still have my backup of this LR backup to use.


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## jms_nh (Mar 2, 2011)

clee01l said:


> and if for some reason this is corrupt or missing, I still have my backup of this LR backup to use.


Agreed.

ehch: all that means is that Time Machine is only going to back up either LR's backup copies, or the LR catalog when LR is not open. If you edit the catalog, as soon as you close LR, Time Machine will grab a backup the next time it runs a backup (which on my machine is once per hour).


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 2, 2011)

ehch said:


> Important: (Mac OS) If you use Time Machine™ while Lightroom 3 is open, Lightroom marks the catalog as excluded from the backup. When Lightroom quits, it removes the catalog from the exclusion list and Time Machine can back it up.
> 
> Here is the link:
> http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/WSb03e830bd6f770ee4eb3e37712256a455a6-8000.html



I'll check into that, because when I last checked with Troy who was implementing that feature, he said that it didn't make the final builds and that the documentation was wrong.


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## sizzlingbadger (Mar 3, 2011)

I just tested it and it still backs up the catalog while it is open.


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 3, 2011)

Thanks Nik.  I put a report in for them to update the docs.


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## b_gossweiler (Sep 5, 2011)

Just came across this thread and wanted to point out the change in documentation:


> Important:  The interaction between Mac OS X Time Machine™ and Lightroom catalog files is unknown. Running Time Machine backup or restore operations while Lightroom is in use is not recommended.



Beat


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