How do you backup in lightroom
It is in the preferences - general and is quite straight forward. I keep two back ups and delete earlier one.
How do you backup in lightroom
thanks geoff
It's here.
Just a note. All the backups stay saved so you will need to delete older backups
When the backup runs you see this dialog:
As you can see I've chosen an external drive for my backups.
Thanks for the graphics Sean - quack, quack!!!
Do you want this in the FAQ?
Not a silly idea at all Sid. Some things aren't so obvious to new users.
The part where it says 'for this run of Lightroom' is different depending on the choice you make in case that confuses anyone.
Online now - Ta Sean
How long would you expect a backup to be once you have, say, 100,000 images in the database? Does the backup run detached, or do you have to wait for it? Any plans to be able to set this up to run ''off-hours''?
As to the question re: the FAQ, as a new user evaluating the product, I would say that it should be there, as no one is going to ''figure out'' that you will get a choice of storage location from what you can set in preferences.
That's why I posted the image.
I'd prefer it in preferences also.
Bill, the backup is quick as it's literally a file copy. It's the integrity check that takes time.
Thanks, Sean. Given that it is, basically, a file copy, can you ''roll your own'' backup by doing a copy? For example, I use a program called Fileback to manage my backups, and this would be a very locgical file to have automated to make a backup copy every day with my standard backup.
And on the subject of the DB, if I am doing a batch of some large number of files and my DB goes whacko, or my system does, then I will lose edits on all the files modified since the backup unless I am also saving as XMP? Sorry for such basic questions, just trying to get ''up to speed'' quickly.
Thanks,
Bill, I have never yet had a loss of data and use the LR back up as my standard. XMP is only for Raw files so I don't use them now after converting to DNG and archiving my raw nefs to DVD after shooting and downloading.
Okay. So where is the menu item for manually initiating a backup? Because I backup to an external drive that isn't always online, I'd like to chose Never from the preferences and backup from within Lightroom when I choose, much like one can update the vault manually in Aperture.
That aside, in terms of discoverabilty, friendliness, functionality, just about any respect, Lightroom looks more like something Apple would design. It really is a hoot! The damn app is just bright-eyed and eager to run. I myself would prefer it a touch less modal, but other than that, LR truly grabs you and says, ''Hey dude, let's party!''
With all due apologies, naturally, to Spicolli.
You can look in the FAQ at www.lightroomextra.com for the backup info.
Whats the advertising rate for the site now Sid???
LOL
Geoff, ''Just because you are Paranoid DOESN't mean that someone ISN't out to get you'' (heard that quite a while ago, and it is SO true LOL) ..... just because you have not lost data, simply means that, and unless you have had a power outage, system failure, at the wrong time, which Murphy guarantees will happen, the fact that it hasn't yet, is exactly why backups and planning are important. And if the answer is ''convert all to DNG'' that doesn't fly for those of us who do use our camera manufacturers RAW formats, for various reasons.
In the case of LR, if all these edits live only in the DB I need to be aware of how to deal with an outage if, and when, it does occur. I am quite unwilling to have to ''remember'' how to redo some large number of image adjustments, if I even could. When the edit information is stored with the content this is not a problem. And this is certainly not a LR issue, per se, but one that hits all Content Management type systems, which at heart is exactly what this portion of LR has become.
Just a matter of trade-off in determining safety.
Sid, the FAQ at Lighroom Extra certainly does show the ''how'' to Backup, but I see no way to control it directly, like ''backup now''. It looks like the closest is to leave it Never, start LR, set it to ''Next Time it Starts'', shutdown LR, make sure your exteranl drive is online, backup, reset, and do the dance again. Seems a touch cumbersome, don't you think?
Backing up the library is important guys and gals but lets not forget to back up the photos! If I lost my library, I'd be real upset. If I lost the photo's, I'd kill myself. Backup both.
What exactly does the backup save?
NSA
Personal view:
LR has a basic backup function.
But, users should all have a backup application anyway, for all their other work.
And it should be run regularly, external space is inexpensive, really inexpensive.
It looks like LR backs up the a very small index file or something.
MY LR back up is about 30mb. But my actual picture files are about
11gb.
Is there any way in LR to back up my picture files? There is a very nice backup program in PE that does this very easily. I don't see anything like it in LR. andy
I turns out I was simultaneously trying to figure out how to do what Bill was asking about (user manually initiated backup) and couldn't find a way either.
Unless there is a keyboard short-cut or some other mechanism we haven't found in Verion 1.0, this seems like an obvious improvement needed for the next release.
Dan
I think v.2 will be a little to late to change something as important as backing up. The whole idea of LR is to make a simpler work flow for photographers. Without a user friendly backup program, the whole purpose is defeated.
andy
When you import images they can be copied to another location at the same time as LR is placing them in the library.
But then hopefully you have a back up programme in place already?!?!
Sid, I completely agree with you regarding backups. But saving to another location on ''Import'' only saves the original, this is easily done in many ways, but saving what I have done to create a ''final'' version is another thing entirely. What I am not completely understanding, and maybe I just need to do more reading, is the exact relationship of what I ''change'' and where it goes. It sounds to me as if all the ''adjustments'' I make are kept as metadata in the LR database, as good a place to keep it as any, no problem there. But this also means that if I edit, say, 50 files in a day, have not generated a backup yet, and something happens to the DB my changes are lost. In this case, even a RAID system may not protect me, if the corruption happens due to something like a program error or memory failure that is then propagated to both.
Not a specific ''knock'' on LR, although I will say that any program that stores things in a DB should have a journal that you can recover from between backups this has been standard for years, but I need to understand this prior to dumping multiple 10's of thousands of images into LR to be managed.
My preference would be to let my current program manage the ''file copy'', but I need to know what and when, and then have the ability to do a ''verify'' now and again via LR. And to have all changes journaled such that I can recover swiftly from my last full backup and the latest journal of changes. In these cases we accept that the last transaction may get lost, not much you can do about that.
Hope this makes it more clear, and why folks may find this an important feature.
When you do this does Lightroom backup the entire library each time or only new and changed files?
Please say yes
So, I just went looking for the DB file and such, where the heck are they? Can't set my std. Backup Program without knowing where the data is, and I don't find an entry in ''Preferences''. Pointers please?
Apparently it only backs up the metadata in the data base.
Having another backup program is not a good solution. We need to have a smooth work flow.
There are endless amounts of times when we need to go to PS or PE to do additional editing. Lr creates tiff or psd files that come back into LR. Thus creating new files. These are not backed up when we import new files into LR. So we have to go out of LR again to back up our data files.
For me this means going back to PE, importing the new files into PE, and then backing them up.
This is not elegant to say the least.
Andy
Having another system wide backup program is mandatory IMO.
I agree. Backups of your files to other media is a system-wide thing, not something that should be local to LR or any other application.
Lee Jay
Absolutely agreed. System maintenance tools should not be duplicated across every application.
Bill,
The library is named ''Lightroom Database.lrdb''. Edit/ Preferences/ General Tab/ Choose Button near the top right selects where the library is stored. You can press it to see where the file you want to backup resides.
Dan
Metadata backup is already built in - but there isn't a way to say, do it now. That's all that is being suggested.
I would like the ability to take a verified metadata snapshot at a time of my choosing. Say after 4 hours of development that I'm pleased with. Not instead of a system backup, but as a relatively light-weight checkpoint if you will. It can be done by toggling between ''Never'' and ''Next time Lightroom starts only'', as Bill suggests, which is an acceptable work around for now. Options under the Library tab to verify and backup (snapshot) would be nice in the next release. Locking out edits during the file copy would be fine.
Dan
Dan, thanks a bunch, I would have put money on my not being able to find the darned file right on me missing something obvious.
As to backups in general, I certainly don't want a ''system'' backup within LR, that would be, well, not an appropriate function, but I do want a way, as I have explained, to be able to safeguard my work. Where this does fit in LR is that if ''stuff'' is going to be kept in a central DB, a method should be provided such that a user does not incur the risk of losing edits that they would normally think are in a ''finished'' state.
In my case I can set my backup to make a new copy whenever the DB changes and limit the number of copies, which then would only leave the issue of having a way for LR to validate a backup. Not a bad beginning, I think.
%26gt; Metadata backup is already built in - but there isn't a way to say, do it now. That's all that is being suggested.
Well, there is a quick workaround for this.
Set your preferences to back up the library at next restart only. Then exit and restart.
Lee Jay
Lee Jay - slow down! Your posting answers that just clutter things up - better to not reply. Look at your note and my #35.
You guys are doing a great job, but ration your time please.
Dan
Oops...sorry
No problem
I import into LR with IIpro and that also backs up my originals to a external hard drive. I then do basic manipulations in LR and expert the DNGs to an external HD. After this plus my weekly hard drive backup I am thiking that maybe I need a LR backup to its own location, does this make any sense?
Thanks
I am not saying that there should be a system wide back up. But there should be a backup for all photo files, not just the metadata.
This is how they do it in PS organizer and it makes a lot of sense.
Andy
Dan, the database was not where you said I should look, it was in My Documents-%26gt;My Pictures-%26gt;Lightroom. And what the heck are all the folders and files in the Lightroom Previews.lrdata folder? I have not done much, but have already chewed up 96 MB and 75 files in 90 folders. All the files are marked as Type=NOINDEX. Can I simply move this lrdb file to somewhere else and then point the ''Preference'' to it? I am really confused as to why the Preference is not pointing to this My Pictures library, as I don't recall changing anything, or even being asked, but that could simply be a case of my not remembering and taking the default.
But I do want to know what all these extra files and folders are, and if I have to keep them around.
Those are the Preview files BIll. They're actually some kind of Jpg. You don't need to back them up because Lightroom can recreate them.
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