How to get your Lightroom Catalog onto an External Hard Drive
I posted an article recently about my photo storage system. In my article, I talk about the tremendous advantages you get from storing all of your digital images, and your Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog files, on an external hard drive. Today’s tutorial video is on how I get those Lightroom Catalog files over to my external disk.
This process of moving an existing Catalog, or creating a brand new Catalog, on an external drive is one of the very first things that we do in my Lightroom workshops. I know that this process is not one of the most interesting part of digital photography, but I truly believe that the long-term benefits are worth the extra hassle.
The very first time that you launch Lightroom, it creates a folder for your catalog files inside of your “Pictures” or “My Pictures” folder.
Windows:
[User]/My Documents/My Pictures (except in Vista where they just call it Pictures)
Mac
[User]/Pictures
By default, the program names this folder “Lightroom” and automatically creates its own file for your image previews and a separate file for your catalog information. Think of this entire “Lightroom” folder as the card catalog, or as the central index, for your image library. This is great but I want this folder and all of its components over on my external hard drive. Hopefully, this tutorial video will show you just how easy it is to move your Lightroom Catalog folder from one drive to another. There is even a bonus trick in this video for folks who have never launched the program. (Hint: hold down the ALT key when launching the application for the very first time to change its default folder.)
Putting the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog onto an External Hard Drive from David Marx on Vimeo.
Update: The article, and video, on how to move your images from one drive to another is finally up. Its really the second part of this tutorial.
Filed Under: FAQ • Getting Started • Tips • Tutorials • Workflow
About the Author: David’s sports and landscape images are often used on the web and in outdoor sports publications. He has an extensive knowledge of digital photography and is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. David is a talented instructor and his entertaining teaching style works for students of all skill levels.
In 2009, David Marx led digital photography programs for the 
No need to thank me Scott, you’re the one sharing a lot of information for a newbie like me.
Pascal
David,
Just re-installed LR and set up w/external drive for catalog and photos as you showed above using the alt key method. Reimported pics from cd and all is well. I need to know if the following is normal. I have noticed that there is a LR folder on my mac drive too, with a lrcat folder and a settings folder inside it. Should these be deleted? What brought me to the question is, if I launch LR without the external attached I get the LR catalog not found message. If I close and relaunch with the external attached I get a blank LR screen everytime with no folders showing, just like it was launched for the 1st time. Then I close and relaunch using the alt click method to get the select catalog box. Go out and choose the external catalog at which time I am asked if I want to relaunch with this catalog(the external one) I do and all is fine. Is this normal? Is having the LRcat folder on my mac causing this indecision with LR? Sorry for the long question.
David,
I have taken your advice and moved all my images to one portable external drive so now I can be “synchronous” with both my imac and macbook pro. But it occurred to me–if you are traveling and have your external portable drive along with your macbook pro, what happens if your external drive fails? You would have no access to your images to work with.
Thanks,
Dave
Dave,
That’s right. It’s vital that you never have an image on only one drive. To be truly protected, those images must be on at least two separate physical disks (in two separate physical locations).
Review this article on a two-drive storage system.
-Scott
Scott,
Just to followup my question and your response. I understand the need for backup in at least 2 different physical locations. But if you are away from home and your external drive fails, should you have all your images on your macbook pro also just in case? Or on yet another separate portable hard drive with you? This would eat up lots of laptop space and would be awkward having yet a second external portable drive to take. What to do?
Dave
All great questions, Dave. There’s no right answer…just whatever works best for you.
The problem with keeping images on the laptop’s hard drive as well is that many folks don’t have room on those internal drives for all of their images.
I typically have a drive at home with everything and a drive at a different safe location with everything. For my trips, I carry my favorite portable drives: LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500 GB FireWire 800/FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
They’re relatively lightweight, heavy-duty, bus-powered (no power cord needed), and fast. I have a number of these.
-Scott
Hi, one more newbie
Scott, I’m running Windows 7 ultimate, LR2.5. All of my images are on my external hd. LR see the images after I imported the drive.
Here were the fun starts, clicking on the + (folders) I can make a new folder but its grayed out and when I try to move files to it, by dragging them to the new or any folder in LR. I get a warning “encounter an unknown error” and the files will not move.
On the internal drive no problem. Any ideas.
Dear Dave,
Sorry to jump back into this after Scott, but I wanted to add a few other options into the mix. I think that Scott is completely right when he suggest that there is no single answer to your questions.
In my two external hard drive storage system I have a primary photo storage drive and a backup drive. I bring only my primary storage drive with me when I am traveling to an event where having instant access to all of my images makes sense.
I often take my primary drive with me when I am going to teach a class or lead a workshop. My backup drive always stays at home where it is safe and sound. Again, this is what I do when I need access to all of my images. If I need just a couple of images to show friends or demo a technique, I make a collection in Lightroom and then export these files to my Laptop’s desktop.
I completely agree with Scott about the advantages of “pocket style” external drives, meaning drives that do not require their own power supply, but the truth is that my photo library lives on a LaCie d2 Quadra 1TB External Hard Drive which fits perfectly inside a bombproof Pelican 1120 Case. Trust me, when that drive is in the pelican box it is safe!
Now let’s say that I’m out on the road with my laptop, and my primary storage drive, and I shoot a bunch of new images. At the end of the day, I use Lightroom to copy these new files onto my primary image storage disk. So now the big question is how should I protect my new files?
Solutions.
A: If it is a quick trip, and if I have plenty of spare memory cards, then I just set the ones that I have used aside and I do not reformat them until I get home. This way I still have two copies of every new file– one on my hard drive and one on the memory card. I won’t reformat these cards until I am home and I have made a complete backup of the primary drive. This is my usual routine these days since memory cards are so cheap.
B: Burn a copy of the new images to a DVD. I use this method to protect my new images when I am traveling for extended periods of time or when I am low on memory cards. This option is easy too since Lightroom can burn my files right to CD / DVD (except under Vista 64.)
C: A third option I have not used, but could under the right circumstances, would be to upload a copy of all my new files to a server via the internet. A MobileMe or FTP account and a strong internet connection would make this easier.
D: Like Scott suggests I could bring a second hard drive–preferably a pocket drive–and use it just as a backup.
I hope this helps. Again, there is no single answer to your question but thinking about what could go wrong and taking steps to prevent disaster is so important. Thanks for asking.
David Marx
Dear Larry-
How did you format the external drive and how is it connected to your computer? I suspect the trouble you are having is related to either the drive format or the connectivity.
–
David Marx
Hi David,
Used the format from when I used XP. The connect is usb. I unplug from xp and plug in new computer Win 7 usb. Had LR inport files.
LarryG
this is VERY helpful to know. wondering if you are keeping ALL of your photos on one external, are you backing up this external somewhere? if so where and HOW? thx!
Dear Danastar,
There are lots of articles in the “Getting Started Tutorials” section of our site that might interest you. This one in particular on my two external hard drive storage system is exactly what you are looking for.
Happy Holidays,
David
I have all of my Lightroom stuff (photos and catalogs) on my Macintosh drive. If I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom stuff (photos and catalogs), will this slow down my work in Lightroom?
Also the “Reply” shows a Website. I’m not sure what this is for?
My external hard drive can be used also as a start up disk.
My issue is this: When I start up my MacBook Pro 13″ with the internal drive, Lightroom 2.6 is able to open the library but it says that the files are offline or missing.
But when I start up with the external drive, of course this error doesn’t come up.
How can I avoid this problem? In other words, how can I work with my Lightroom library files no matter which start up drive I’m using?
It goes without saying that my Lightroom library is stored fully in my external hard drive, a LaCie Rugged 320GB FW 400/800 & USB 2.0
Dear Larry,
This is a good questions and the answer is maybe. It all depends on the rotational speed of your external hard drive and the type of connector that you use to tie it into the computer.
I don’t think that you will notice a significant performance difference if you move your catalog and images from an internal disk over to an external Firewire 800 or eSATA disk with a 7600rpm rotational speed. With slower drives, or connectors, there maybe a slightly longer pause when the program launches but after that there shouldn’t be too much difference.
The only way to know for sure how much things will slow down is to try it.
Happy Holidays,
David
Dear Frederico,
I don’t have an answer for you but I am wondering if it is possible that you have two Lightroom catalogs: one internal and one external. The other possibility that springs to mind is that the name of the drive shifts depending upon which one you use on start up. If the drive name (Macintosh Hard Drive, External Drive, Etc.) shifts around then it makes sense that Lightroom would believe that the files are missing.
If I may suggest, don’t do this. My gut feeling is that you are itching for trouble here. I would urge you not to startup your Mac from an external disk unless the internal hard drive fails. I fear that booting from an external unnecessarily can cause all sorts of permissions and internal path problems.
If you find a definitive answer though please share it with us.
–
David Marx
Hi David,
I was able to get my catalog over to my external, but I was wondering what I should do for me photo files. Is that why you created a “Photos Live Here” folder in the external as well? If so, how should I bring my other files over? Just drag and drop?
Thanks.
Dear Joseph,
You could move your files with drag and drop but if you do this outside of Lightroom then all your files will be missing! Save yourself from this needless frustration by watching this tutorial on how to move your images from drive to drive within Lightroom.
http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/09/moving-folders-with-adobe-photoshop-lightroom/
You might also want to read this article on my photo storage system so you can see the whole system.
http://www.computersforphotographers.com/2009/11/my-photo-storage-system-two-external.html
best wishes,
David
File numbering on import.
I renumber my images according to the following formula ;
{date (YY)>>}{Image # (00001)>>} {Custom Text}
Which gives me a number like 1000001NZ.jpg. Now the question is how I reset the {Image # (00001) to one at the start of the New Year?
Regards
Ivan
Dear Ivan,
You need to go into your Catalog Settings Menu > File Handling and change the “Import Sequence Numbers” setting.
Happy New Year,
David
hi,
thanks for the tutorial, i’d like to do the same with a network drive (NAS, or nfs share) but it tell me that lightroom can’t use a catalog located on network or removable drive (but it did work on a removable drive)…
is it really impossible? any idea (to make it works)?
Dear FreakDev,
I am not a network storage expert but everything I have read indicates that you cannot put your Lightroom catalog on a NAS disk. My advice would be to use the NAS as a backup system for your images and your catalog rather than trying to use it for your primary image storage. Click here for more on this topic from the lightroomforums.net. If you do find an elegant solution please come back and share it with us!
best of luck,
David
Worked perfect, I’m now operating off an External Drive and using Carbon Clone to back it up to a second external drive. I took the one extra step to back up the RAW photos to my laptop during the LightRoom import process (directing it to a laptop folder in the backup check box). I realize in time this would overflow my laptop HD (as per other post) but this is just temporary until I offload them on a later to another external drive. Memory is so cheap these days, its easy to back up to multiple drives.
As an object lesson I was in the Apple store this week. There was a girl crying hysterically with a Genius Bar guy standing there looking lost. She’d lost everything on her laptop to a complete disk failure, music, pictures, the whole works. No one had ever explained the word back-up to her or that lost data is for the most part unrecoverable.
I’ll shell out the bucks for a few drives.