Your Lightroom Catalog can be stored anywhere on your computer or even on an external drive. If you store it on an external drive, that drive will need to be plugged in when you want to use Lightroom. The only thing that really matters is that Lightroom and you know where it is!
Where should I store my Lightroom Classic catalog?
Decide in advance where you want to store your Lightroom Classic catalog. You can’t store it on a network . You’ll probably store it on your computer’s hard drive or an external disk. After you decide where you’ll save the catalog, consider the specific folder or path where you’ll put it.
One of the next things we wanted the answer to was: where are Lightroom backups stored?
Although Lightroom itself creates backups, these are stored in the same location as the catalog, meaning that if you had a hard drive failure you could lose both your catalog and the backup.
Should I store my Lightroom catalogs locally or on an external drive?
There are pros and cons to both options. Storing a catalog locally means you can always open the catalog without having to connect an external drive. Storing a catalog on an external drive gives you the flexibility to open that catalog from any computer (running Lightroom) on which that drive is mounted.
What is the best way to store Lightroom photos?
For the best performance, store your Lightroom catalog on your local hard drive. A Solid State Hard Drive (SSD) is even better. If you need to be portable, store your Lightroom catalog and photos on a fast external hard drive. Why store photos on a separate drive?
What is a Lightroom catalog file?
Since a catalog is a database that stores the location of our photos, we can have the catalog file; ending in the extension . lrcat, saved in one location and our photos stored in another. If you only access Lightroom on a single computer, create a folder on your local hard drive, name it Lightroom Catalog and save the catalog to this location.
The Lightroom Catalog is the place that Lightroom will store links to your photos, previews of your photos, and all the developing info you do to your photos along the way. Your photos ARE NOT actually stored in the catalog, they are stored on your hard drive. At any time you can go and find the photos on your hard drive.
How do I Find my Lightroom presets in the catalog?
Keep the Explorer/Finder window open in the background and switch back to Lightroom. Check the Store presets with this catalog checkbox and press the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button again.