# RUNNING LIGHTROOM OFF EXTERNAL SSD DRIVE ?



## enlightened (Sep 25, 2019)

Hi, I'm running a mid 2011  27 inch iMac and I'm planning to run my system off an external SSD drive instead of the internal spinning hard drive. 
Do I have to reinstall Lightroom onto the new drive or can I just drag across the applications folder to the new drive ? 
Thanks for your help.
Darren


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Sep 25, 2019)

I would expect that you have to reinstall it.


----------



## Conrad Chavez (Sep 25, 2019)

It depends on how you are transferring your system from the internal drive to the external drive. You should never do it by dragging the Applications folder, because many applications including Adobe ones keep a significant number of support files outside the Applications folder. If you  just drag the Applications folder, you'll miss preference files, Application Support files in ~/Library, invisible licensing files, etc. This will not just cause major problems with Lightroom, but with most of the other applications and system settings you have. In addition, in the recent more-secured versions of macOS, the Applications folder is a special type that requires authentication when you move things in or out of it, so moving the entire folder could cause complications.

If you haven't already considered this, the simplest way is probably to use software such as SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the complete contents of the internal drive as a bootable clone on  the external SSD. This would completely replicate how things work now, so you'll have to adjust and reinstall as little as possible. What makes these cloning applications superior to dragging is that they're smart enough to know how to preserve special folder permissions, special macOS permissions, invisible support files, invisible Unix folders, and all of the other stuff you would lose or might screw up by drag-copying.

The second simplest way would be to manually install macOS on the external SSD, then see if you can use Apple Migration Assistant to bring over your existing configuration from the internal drive.

Whichever method you choose, some applications may detect that they've been moved and may require you to reinstall, or at least sign in again, so always have your registration info for your apps.


----------



## enlightened (Sep 25, 2019)

Thanks for your help.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Sep 26, 2019)

Be aware that booting off that external drive and running Lightroom from it will possibly cause Adobe CC to think that this is a different computer. No big problem, but it does mean you need an internet connection and may have to deregister the ‘old’ one.


----------



## enlightened (Sep 26, 2019)

Although it's an external drive, it will be set up as the main boot drive so there shouldn't be a problem.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Sep 26, 2019)

enlightened said:


> Although it's an external drive, it will be set up as the main boot drive so there shouldn't be a problem.


It won't be a problem, but like I said, it may result in the computer being recognised as a new computer.


----------



## nsapcor (Sep 27, 2019)

Similar issue with different setup. Using Windows, with new laptop   LR will be on SSD hard drive on laptop (through CC) but intend to import files from camera onto external SSD portable drive as the image files would exceed the 512 GB internal SSD. Any special procedure for importing to portable, (i.e. friend suggests  only need to create smart previews) ?  I  intend all files other than smart previews to be on external portable SSD.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Sep 27, 2019)

nsapcor said:


> Similar issue with different setup. Using Windows, with new laptop   LR will be on SSD hard drive on laptop (through CC) but intend to import files from camera onto external SSD portable drive as the image files would exceed the 512 GB internal SSD. Any special procedure for importing to portable, (i.e. friend suggests  only need to create smart previews) ?  I  intend all files other than smart previews to be on external portable SSD.


Assuming you will use Lightroom Classic, then there won't be a problem storing the images on the external drive. Generating smart previews would give you the bonus that you can still edit them even when that external drive is not connected.


----------

