# LR classic cc catalog help



## brewer (Aug 10, 2018)

I am not a techy and am lost....

Have LR6 but recently purchased PS and LR subscription bundle.  Finally got around to updated/installing LR Classic CC.  MY LR6 catalog is on a external hard drive.  Since I don't know what I am doing I now have a catalog labeled 2.  Both catalogs  are on the external hard drive and they are the same.  I suppose I don't need LR6 anymore although I can just not use it verses uninstalling it.  Do I really need to do anything other than tell LRCC to back up to my external hard drive instead of my  c drive?  Never noticed before also, in the upper left - catalog says 3500 photos but in the folder section in F: my external hard drive is showing 2500.  I am so lost.


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## wheel64 (Aug 10, 2018)

The catalog labled '2' is the new LR CC classic catalog.   you can rename if so you know it is the new one ( .lrcat)   There should be a file for the previews, (.lrdata)  and  there is also a helper file.   All 3 have to be renamed exactly the same.      You might  try to sync your photo  folder ( from inside lightroom) and it might fix the count.    you can look in the help folder.


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## brewer (Aug 10, 2018)

while I thank you for your response, it doesn't really address my issue.  Maybe I wasn't clear enough.  I now have 2 lightrooms,  6 and classic.  When I installed/updated the CC classic version it wanted to know the name of my catalog.  Fearing a problem with letting it use my current catalog I said name it 2.  It appears that my original catalog in 6 and catalog-2 are duplicates.  I don't see the other files (I don't think) but cannot confirm as I am not with my laptop right now.  Do I just merrily go along with the one labeled 2 in Classic CC and at some point get rid of LR6?  I see both listed when I click on the catalogs in the upper left of my screen.  Again, I am going from memory as I don't have my laptop in front of me.

The count difference is I believe - the hard drive stores all the photos on my computer and the F: drive has only those imported to lightroom.  I don't at this point see the need to sync them as I don't want all those photos in lightroom.  If this is not correct - can someone correct me?


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## LouieSherwin (Aug 10, 2018)

Hi brewer,
What wheel64 was trying to say when upgrading major releases Lightroom will need to create a new catalog with new internal structures. If your LR6 catalog file was named "MyCatalog.lrcat" Lightroom Classic CC will read that catalog file and by default create a new catalog file named MyCatalog-2.lrcat.  This is a new catalog that will only work with LR Classic CC. This appears to be what has happened. 

It will also rename any of the other support files (.lrdata) with the new name. 

MyCatalog-2 Previews.lrdata
MyCatalog-2 Smart Previews
MyCatalog-2 Helper.lrdata

Your old MyCatalog.lrcat is untouched and can only be opened with Lightroom 6.

After the update is complete you can rename your catalog to any valid file name that you wish. However, you need to also rename the support files at the same time using the new catalog file base name as the prefix including a following space to each of the support files.  Be sure to quit Lightroom first.

-louie


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## LouieSherwin (Aug 10, 2018)

brewer said:


> Do I really need to do anything other than tell LRCC to back up to my external hard drive instead of my c drive?



The backup function in Lightroom ONLY backups the catalog NOT any of your image files. It will create a backup folder at the same level as the catalog file and store a compressed snapshot of the lrcat file. This is useful in the unlikely situation where the lrcat file gets corrupted. Usually some kind of system crash. Lightroom it self is pretty stable these days. 

To also protect your image data you need to establish a consistent backup of all your hard drives. 



> Never noticed before also, in the upper left - catalog says 3500 photos but in the folder section in F: my external hard drive is showing 2500. I am so lost.



There can be different reasons for this difference.  Can you send a screen shot of the left panel?


-louie


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## brewer (Aug 10, 2018)

Thank you louie.  That makes a bit more sense.  I will check that I have the other support files later. I guess I don't have to rename them as I can clearly tell the two apart- one has a 2.

Secondly - this is where I get very confused - the whole back up thing.  When I exit LR it will do a backup.  I also do a computer wide back up using Veem do a different external hard drive.  End of world scenario - my computer crashes, if the Veem backup & my lr backup are good, what am I left with?
Thanks


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## LouieSherwin (Aug 10, 2018)

brewer said:


> if the Veem backup & my lr backup are good, what am I left with?



Well you need to do both. So if you run them both on a regular basis then you should be prepared for the disaster.... 

I have Lightroom to backup every time I quit. So if I do a big import or batch of editing then I will quit and restart LR, making a backup of my catalog before, do my work, the quit  and restart LR after. That gives me a before and after backup of the catalog.

For my full system I use two backup applications. 

First I use TimeMachine that does an hourly incremental backup  of my whole system to a local disk. This is automated and runs in the background and I never have to think about it. This allows for quick recovery of local disruptions like disk crash etc. 

Second I use CrashPlan to make a selected backup of all my image files and other personal data to a secure (encrypted) cloud server. This protects against catastrophic events like fire, flood etc.. that could destroy my whole computer system. 

-louie


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## brewer (Aug 10, 2018)

I do both - LR every I log out and Veem runs behind the scenes.   Thank you very much!!  As for the screen shot - later if I can figure out how.  Thanks!


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## LouieSherwin (Aug 10, 2018)

Just found this article on one of my favorite blogs. It is written by the BackBlaze staff (a good alternative to CrashPlan) so is somewhat biased to their product but non the less it its a good over view of backup strategies.

Backup article on LensRental Blog:
3-2-1-backup-best-practices-using-cloud-archiving

-louie


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## John Little (Aug 11, 2018)

No offense if what I'm saying is already obvious! But it's not clear that you understand the difference between the LR catalog and your photos themselves. The catalog does not contain the photos. Backing up the catalog doesn't back up the photos, as Louie said. It sounds as if you think your photos are on two different drives (C and F).  Is that the case, or is only the catalog that is on the F: drive?
To put it another way, the LR catalog is a database that contains info about your photos (importantly, including their location), but not the photos themselves. Maybe Google "database" to get a clearer idea what that means. Also take a look at The Top 10 Gotchas for a more authoritative point of view.

Good luck
John


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## brewer (Aug 11, 2018)

None taken, John.

On my external drive I find the following folders:
backups
my pictures
lightroom photos and in that folder - previews.lrdata
smartpreviews.lrdata
lightroom settings

also and stated earlier - it was suggested that I change the lrdata titles because of downloading the classic cc version.  No where do I find catalog-2 file other than the backup files.  

If I open LR classic CC (what I would call the new LR) and try to open file recent -  it will ask which catalog Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat or Lightroom Catalog.lrcat.  The first one is checked.  If I check the latter is will ask to close current catalog and relaunch lr.   

I need more than luck.


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## Dan Marchant (Aug 13, 2018)

brewer said:


> If I open LR classic CC (what I would call the new LR) and try to open file recent -  it will ask which catalog Lightroom Catalog-2.lrcat or Lightroom Catalog.lrcat.  The first one is checked.  If I check the latter is will ask to close current catalog and relaunch lr.


When LR launches it automatically opens the catalog that was being used when it closed.
If you select "Open Recent" the currently open  catalog is ticked so you know which one is in use.
LR can only use one catalog at a time so if you want to open a different one it must close the current one and relaunch - that is how it works. So just click the Relaunch button and it will open the catalog you want.


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