Operation Manual

160
Managing catalogs and folders
Last updated 11/30/2015
How do I back up a catalog?
You can back up your catalog automatically when you quit Lightroom.
1 Tell Lightroom how often to back up: choose Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom > Catalog Settings
(Mac OS) and specify a frequency in the Back Up Catalog option in the General panel.
2 Quit Lightroom at the designated time.
To back up your catalog manually, go to Catalog Settings, choose Back Up Catalog > When Lightroom Next Exits, and
close the window. Then, quit Lightroom.
On Mac, Lightroom CC/Lightroom 6.1 doesn't zip catalogs larger than 4 GB. This is because the default Mac OS unzip
utility is unable to handle archives larger than 4GB and reports such zipped catalogs as "corrupted".
Important: Backing up your catalog does not back up the photos it references. For more information on backing up
and restoring catalogs, see
Back up a catalog .
What does optimization do to a catalog?
Catalog optimization does several things to your catalog:
• it reorganizes the data in the catalog so it can be retrieved faster,
• it updates the database data so the fastest retrieval method can be used.
How do I delete a catalog?
Using Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac OS), locate the folder that contains your catalog. Then, drag the following
files to the Recycling Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac OS):
• Catalog: [catalog name].lrcat
• Previews: [catalog name] Previews.lrdata
• Smart Previews (Lightroom 5 only): [catalog name] Smart Previews.lrdata
Notice that you're not deleting any photos, nor are you removing the Lightroom application itself. For information on
those tasks, see
Manually uninstall Lightroom and Remove photos from catalogs .