# Splitting a Lightroom catalog into two



## Gene_mtl (Nov 25, 2017)

Operating System:Windows 10 64bit
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info):CC 2015.12

My Lightroom catalog has gotten quite large (1.57 GB - 26.300 images) and spans about 10 years.  Was wondering if there are advantages into splitting the catalog into two, last 2 0r three years and balance in an archive catalog.  The idea is that I would use the current catalog frequently and the archive much less frequently.

Any thoughts? Pros vs Cons?  And if it is highly recommended to split large catalogs, can anyone point me to a tutorial on how to do so?

Appreciate all feedback


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## johnbeardy (Nov 25, 2017)

That's not large, Gene, and you would only have disadvantages from fragmenting control of your pictures.

John

PS See More than one catalogue? – Lightroom Solutions for my thoughts on the disadvantages


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 25, 2017)

I use a single catalog with 170,000 images and even that is dwarfed by some...


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## Gene_mtl (Nov 25, 2017)

Thanks John & Johan.

My concern comes from looking at the size of Lightroom data on my C:\ drive which is a smallish SSD drive.  So would I be better off moving the catalog and previews, etc to another drive where I am not as concerned about drive space?  I have a second SSD drive which would allow the same access read/write speeds.  Is it complicated to move  what now resides in C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\Lightroom (Backups/Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata/Lightroom Catalog.lrdata) to a different drive?


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 25, 2017)

No, that is not difficult at all. Move the entire folder to the other disk, then open the folder and start Lightroom by double clicking on the catalog file. You only have to do that once for Lightroom to know the new location.


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## Gene_mtl (Nov 26, 2017)

Thanks, Johan. Appreciate the help.


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