# Catalog Size



## MarkNicholas (Aug 13, 2017)

I'm on the road at the moment and have created a new catalog on my laptop just for my photos whilst away.

So far I have 1,289 no. CR2 Raw photos in my new catalog and the catalog size is just 37Mb ! On that basis I roughly calculate that for my main catalog which has around 50,000 photos, the catalog size would be 50,000/1,289 x 37 = 1.4Gb. However, it is actually around 5 or 6 Gb. Any idea what is causing my main catalog to be so disproportionately large. Could it be the extent of collections, keywords, other Metadata etc ?


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## Johan Elzenga (Aug 13, 2017)

Your catalog contains all the edits, metadata, and any other work you've done. While on the road you probably haven't made too many edits yet, so your math is simply not right. So yes, it's the extent of your edits, keywords and other metadata.


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## clee01l (Aug 13, 2017)

Your catalog file is the *.lrcat file and does not include the previews folder or the Smart previews folder. The *.lrcat file rarely exceeds 2GB (even with 50K images). If the *.lrcat file is larger than this,  I think you have a problem with the catalog file that may lead to corruption down the road.  Use the "Export as Catalog" to create a new catalog containing all of your images and leave the garbage records behind in the old catalog file.
You do not need the Smart previews folder unless you plan to disconnect the EHD containing the master image files.  Don't create them automatically on import and delete the Smart Previews folder


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 13, 2017)

Don't forget that one of the biggest causes of an "enlarged" catalog is the edit history, so the more editing that's done on images (especially things like brush/spot work) the more the catalog will grow in size, even without adding more images. If Mark does a lot of that type of work, there may well be nothing wrong with his current catalog. Deleting the edit history is an option to reduce the size of the catalog, but once it's deleted of course it's gone (nothing on the edit state changes, just the history of how you got there is erased).


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## MarkNicholas (Aug 23, 2017)

OK I just got back and checked my PC. My catalogue size is 4.4Gb. I will delete the edit history (I have only used once or twice in many years) and see how much it reduces the catalog file size.


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## MarkNicholas (Aug 23, 2017)

Ok. I just deleted the history to 60K+ photos. I was surprised how fast LR did this. I did this in ~10K chunks. Immediately after deletion I checked the file size and it was still 4.4Gb. I then turned LR off and optimised etc. This was notably faster than usual an then checked the file size.... Now its only 1.4Gb !!! woohoo.

I think the edit history is only really useful during an actual editing session. It would be useful to have a feature that allows auto deleting of the history after a period of time ?


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## johnbeardy (Aug 23, 2017)

MarkNicholas said:


> edit history is only really useful during an actual editing session. It would be useful to have a feature that allows auto deleting of the history after a period of time ?



I agree and have suggested something similar, just preserving the "milestones" like when a picture was printed or exported. Best not to hold your breath....

John


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## Gnits (Aug 23, 2017)

johnbeardy said:


> just preserving the "milestones" like when a picture was printed or exported



Great idea.


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## Dan Marchant (Aug 26, 2017)

MarkNicholas said:


> Ok. I just deleted the history to 60K+ photos. I was surprised how fast LR did this. I did this in ~10K chunks.


Do you mean you bulk deleted the histories? If so can you explain how? I tried selecting multiple images, going into Develop and then deleting the History but it only cleared the first image.


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## johnbeardy (Aug 26, 2017)

From the Develop _menu_, Clear History.

John


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## Dan Marchant (Aug 26, 2017)

johnbeardy said:


> From the Develop _menu_, Clear History.
> 
> John


Obvious Doh! Thanks John.


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## Sandro (Sep 7, 2017)

Deleting your catalog history will drastically reduce the size of your catalog, particularly if you use the adjustment brush. I have a catalog on each of two machines and delete my history once a month. Last month's numbers are: 

(before > after)
5.80 GB > 2.12GB desktop machine with 108k images
1.20 GB > 400 MB laptop with 14.5k images


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