Lightroom cleanup

**Bruce Clark** · 07-19-2021, 09:03 PM

While under Covid 19 lockdown and several days of lousy weather, I am taking the opportunity to tidy up my computer.

I have had several versions of Lightroom installed at various times. I am currently running Adobe Lightroom Classic release 10.3 as well as Photoshop V22.4.2. The applications sit on my C Drive, a 250 GB SSD while the images are stored on F drive, a WD 1.8 TB HHD. The Lightroom Catalogue resides on the HDD in a separate folder to the images. I did this on the understanding that constant writing to the catalogue would ultimately degrade the SSD. The Camera Raw Cache resides on the C Drive.

I have read that the Cache and Catalogue should be together for better performance. Obviously having these on the SSD would be preferable from a performance perspective. Should I worry about high read/write cycles wearing out this drive?

I also have what looks like leftovers from previous installations. Under C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Adobe, there are folders labelled Lightroom, Lightroom CC, Lightroom CC Helper, each of which contains various subfolders. What if anything is safe to delete?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

MarkJerling · 07-19-2021, 10:35 PM

I would recommend that you have your Lightroom Catalogue in whichever segment that is regularly backed up. In my case, I therefore have it deliberately on my Onedrive and I don't see any issue with performance.

**brightseal** · 07-19-2021, 10:57 PM

Storage is cheap enough. You can get a Seagate 2TB SSD for $60 w/ 3 months free Adobe LR & PS (If they still offer the coupon) at walmart. Move or copy all the old folders to the new drive then delete from your C drive. Or use your WD HDD to clear all that stuff off your C drive until you figure out what you want to or if you want to permanently delete. Try to keep your C drive less than 50% full.

Gray · 07-19-2021, 11:00 PM

Whatever you do, backup, backup, backup. Photographs are irreplaceable but so easy to duplicate nowadays. Modern digital files and media are fragile.

For many years I've had my photos + LR catalogs on one removable HD. Almost 200,000 images, now, going back many years. My portable HD (+ laptop) is constantly with me on the move. Having a portable HD means I can use the LR catalog on multiple computers. But I have a daily backup of new images + catalog to a second removable HD stored at home, with a third mirrored HD stored in a safe in a strongroom at a different location.

I don't have the bandwidth / capacity to backup all my images online. That will come though, but I'll still have physical backups that I own and in my possession.

Last edited by Gray; 07-19-2021 at 11:22 PM.

PDish · 07-20-2021, 12:48 AM

I bought a ssd/hd toaster and use a 2tb ssd to back up my pictures. Then when done, I pack it away in a cool box that is ready to go in emergency. This means it's not running at all times and shouldn't wear out.

MarkJerling · 07-20-2021, 02:22 AM - **2 Likes**

Originally posted by brightseal

Storage is cheap enough. You can get a Seagate 2TB SSD for $60 w/ 3 months free Adobe LR & PS (If they still offer the coupon) at walmart. Move or copy all the old folders to the new drive then delete from your C drive. Or use your WD HDD to clear all that stuff off your C drive until you figure out what you want to or if you want to permanently delete. Try to keep your C drive less than 50% full.

Originally posted by PDish

I bought a ssd/hd toaster and use a 2tb ssd to back up my pictures. Then when done, I pack it away in a cool box that is ready to go in emergency. This means it's not running at all times and shouldn't wear out.

Humour me for a moment:
You get up in the morning and decide to walk a few blocks to the nearest corner shop to grab the morning paper, two croissants and some cat food. While there, your neighbour's gas cooker goes "poof", blows up the house and incinerates the entire block. Your house and everything in it is no more. You have nothing but your crocs and slightly too small pajamas and much too large dressing gown and your reading glasses and wallet.

Where's your SSD?

Now, if you've answered: "Absolutely safe - I store a day-old copy at my brother's house down the road." Then great. If not, then oops.

I mention this because surprisingly many people do not store their data off-site. If, like me, your business would implode if you did not have access to your data, then now's a good time to find a solution.

MarkJerling · 07-20-2021, 02:25 AM

Originally posted by Gray

My portable HD (+ laptop) is constantly with me on the move. Having a portable HD means I can use the LR catalog on multiple computers. But I have a daily backup of new images + catalog to a second removable HD stored at home, with a third mirrored HD stored in a safe in a strongroom at a different location.

That does sound like a good solution.

**jersey** · 07-20-2021, 02:47 AM

Cloud storage + RAID matrix depending on how important your data is. RAID 1 (2 disc, 1 may fail without data loss) or RAID 6 (4 discs, 2 may fail). You can configure cloud storage so that it automatically backs up with every change on physical discs.

If it is only for personal use, just SSD and configure OneDrive or any other cloud storage you have with enough space for you to have autoback up in net. You do not need to care about data los due to read/write cycles. It is not as bad as it was in past and after you edit photos they stay there, there are no constant changes to them.

3by2 · 07-20-2021, 02:57 AM

My catalog is on a 2nd drive in my machine, backed up to another drive and I use Idrive for an online backup. When Lightroom closes I've ticked the option for it to check the integrity of the catalog and I've unticked the option for it to keep multiple copies of the catalog.

**Bruce Clark** · 07-20-2021, 08:42 PM - **2 Likes**

Thanks for all the responses, you have all given me something to think about. I had certainly not considered cloud backup. I have a Google Drive, a One Drive and a Dropbox account but have only used these as an adhoc storage medium

In summary:
I have deleted all leftover folders and files from previous installations.
My Catalogue and related files are now on the C Drive SSD with the program files.
Catalogue backups go to a separate HDD.
Photos are all stored on an exclusive HDD with regular backup to a third HDD.

Things to do:
SSD is nearly full (75%) and will be upgraded to a 1 TB unit.
Investigate cloud backup of catalogue and images.

Thanks again for all your input, it is most valuable.

slartibartfast01 · 10-23-2021, 01:45 AM

Originally posted by brightseal

Storage is cheap enough. You can get a Seagate 2TB SSD for $60 w/ 3 months free Adobe LR & PS (If they still offer the coupon) at walmart. Move or copy all the old folders to the new drive then delete from your C drive. Or use your WD HDD to clear all that stuff off your C drive until you figure out what you want to or if you want to permanently delete. Try to keep your C drive less than 50% full.

Can you really get a 2TB SSD for $60?

**brightseal** · 10-23-2021, 01:11 PM

Originally posted by slartibartfast01

Can you really get a 2TB SSD for $60?

Originally posted by slartibartfast01

Can you really get a 2TB SSD for $60?

Probably not anymore the way things are going. Everything seems to be on pandemic prices. Check walmart, the Seagate One Touch Slim they still have by me.
Ohhhh! I'm probably thinking SSD but it's really HHD. I purchased so many I used the coupon to get Lightroom free for about a year.

slartibartfast01 · 10-23-2021, 01:21 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by brightseal

Probably not anymore the way things are going. Everything seems to be on pandemic prices. Check walmart, the Seagate One Touch Slim they still have by me.
Ohhhh! I'm probably thinking SSD but it's really HHD. I purchased so many I used the coupon and wound up with something around a years free Lightroom subscription.

That makes more sense

**brightseal** · 10-23-2021, 01:24 PM

Originally posted by slartibartfast01

That makes more sense

Yes, they are so small I confused them as SSD but I think they are hybrid.

07-19-2021, 09:03 PM	#1
Bruce Clark Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ocean Grove, Victoria Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,458	Lightroom cleanup While under Covid 19 lockdown and several days of lousy weather, I am taking the opportunity to tidy up my computer. I have had several versions of Lightroom installed at various times. I am currently running Adobe Lightroom Classic release 10.3 as well as Photoshop V22.4.2. The applications sit on my C Drive, a 250 GB SSD while the images are stored on F drive, a WD 1.8 TB HHD. The Lightroom Catalogue resides on the HDD in a separate folder to the images. I did this on the understanding that constant writing to the catalogue would ultimately degrade the SSD. The Camera Raw Cache resides on the C Drive. I have read that the Cache and Catalogue should be together for better performance. Obviously having these on the SSD would be preferable from a performance perspective. Should I worry about high read/write cycles wearing out this drive? I also have what looks like leftovers from previous installations. Under C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Adobe, there are folders labelled Lightroom, Lightroom CC, Lightroom CC Helper, each of which contains various subfolders. What if anything is safe to delete? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

10-23-2021, 01:11 PM	#12
brightseal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2015 Photos: Albums Posts: 629	Originally posted by slartibartfast01 Can you really get a 2TB SSD for $60? Originally posted by slartibartfast01 Can you really get a 2TB SSD for $60? Probably not anymore the way things are going. Everything seems to be on pandemic prices. Check walmart, the Seagate One Touch Slim they still have by me. Ohhhh! I'm probably thinking SSD but it's really HHD. I purchased so many I used the coupon to get Lightroom free for about a year. Last edited by brightseal; 10-23-2021 at 01:21 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Beach Cleanup	pixie	Monthly Photo Contests	5	04-13-2018 08:30 AM
Routine Marketplace Cleanup	SRT-202	Site Suggestions and Help	1	01-25-2008 12:13 PM

07-19-2021, 10:35 PM	#2
MarkJerling Moderator Site Supporter Join Date: May 2012 Location: Wairarapa, New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 20,406	I would recommend that you have your Lightroom Catalogue in whichever segment that is regularly backed up. In my case, I therefore have it deliberately on my Onedrive and I don't see any issue with performance.

07-19-2021, 10:57 PM	#3
brightseal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2015 Photos: Albums Posts: 629	Storage is cheap enough. You can get a Seagate 2TB SSD for $60 w/ 3 months free Adobe LR & PS (If they still offer the coupon) at walmart. Move or copy all the old folders to the new drive then delete from your C drive. Or use your WD HDD to clear all that stuff off your C drive until you figure out what you want to or if you want to permanently delete. Try to keep your C drive less than 50% full.

07-19-2021, 11:00 PM	#4
Gray Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Cape Town Photos: Gallery Posts: 536	Whatever you do, backup, backup, backup. Photographs are irreplaceable but so easy to duplicate nowadays. Modern digital files and media are fragile. For many years I've had my photos + LR catalogs on one removable HD. Almost 200,000 images, now, going back many years. My portable HD (+ laptop) is constantly with me on the move. Having a portable HD means I can use the LR catalog on multiple computers. But I have a daily backup of new images + catalog to a second removable HD stored at home, with a third mirrored HD stored in a safe in a strongroom at a different location. I don't have the bandwidth / capacity to backup all my images online. That will come though, but I'll still have physical backups that I own and in my possession. Last edited by Gray; 07-19-2021 at 11:22 PM.

07-20-2021, 12:48 AM	#5
PDish Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Santa Rosa,CA Posts: 79	I bought a ssd/hd toaster and use a 2tb ssd to back up my pictures. Then when done, I pack it away in a cool box that is ready to go in emergency. This means it's not running at all times and shouldn't wear out.

07-20-2021, 02:22 AM - 2 Likes	#6
MarkJerling Moderator Site Supporter Join Date: May 2012 Location: Wairarapa, New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 20,406	Originally posted by brightseal Storage is cheap enough. You can get a Seagate 2TB SSD for $60 w/ 3 months free Adobe LR & PS (If they still offer the coupon) at walmart. Move or copy all the old folders to the new drive then delete from your C drive. Or use your WD HDD to clear all that stuff off your C drive until you figure out what you want to or if you want to permanently delete. Try to keep your C drive less than 50% full. Originally posted by PDish I bought a ssd/hd toaster and use a 2tb ssd to back up my pictures. Then when done, I pack it away in a cool box that is ready to go in emergency. This means it's not running at all times and shouldn't wear out. Humour me for a moment: You get up in the morning and decide to walk a few blocks to the nearest corner shop to grab the morning paper, two croissants and some cat food. While there, your neighbour's gas cooker goes "poof", blows up the house and incinerates the entire block. Your house and everything in it is no more. You have nothing but your crocs and slightly too small pajamas and much too large dressing gown and your reading glasses and wallet. Where's your SSD? Now, if you've answered: "Absolutely safe - I store a day-old copy at my brother's house down the road." Then great. If not, then oops. I mention this because surprisingly many people do not store their data off-site. If, like me, your business would implode if you did not have access to your data, then now's a good time to find a solution.

07-20-2021, 02:25 AM	#7
MarkJerling Moderator Site Supporter Join Date: May 2012 Location: Wairarapa, New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 20,406	Originally posted by Gray My portable HD (+ laptop) is constantly with me on the move. Having a portable HD means I can use the LR catalog on multiple computers. But I have a daily backup of new images + catalog to a second removable HD stored at home, with a third mirrored HD stored in a safe in a strongroom at a different location. That does sound like a good solution.

07-20-2021, 02:47 AM	#8
jersey Site Supporter Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: 3City agglomeration Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,056	Cloud storage + RAID matrix depending on how important your data is. RAID 1 (2 disc, 1 may fail without data loss) or RAID 6 (4 discs, 2 may fail). You can configure cloud storage so that it automatically backs up with every change on physical discs. If it is only for personal use, just SSD and configure OneDrive or any other cloud storage you have with enough space for you to have autoback up in net. You do not need to care about data los due to read/write cycles. It is not as bad as it was in past and after you edit photos they stay there, there are no constant changes to them.

07-20-2021, 02:57 AM	#9
3by2 Closed Account Join Date: Feb 2019 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 819	My catalog is on a 2nd drive in my machine, backed up to another drive and I use Idrive for an online backup. When Lightroom closes I've ticked the option for it to check the integrity of the catalog and I've unticked the option for it to keep multiple copies of the catalog.

07-20-2021, 08:42 PM - 2 Likes	#10
Bruce Clark Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Ocean Grove, Victoria Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,458 Original Poster	Thanks for all the responses, you have all given me something to think about. I had certainly not considered cloud backup. I have a Google Drive, a One Drive and a Dropbox account but have only used these as an adhoc storage medium In summary: I have deleted all leftover folders and files from previous installations. My Catalogue and related files are now on the C Drive SSD with the program files. Catalogue backups go to a separate HDD. Photos are all stored on an exclusive HDD with regular backup to a third HDD. Things to do: SSD is nearly full (75%) and will be upgraded to a 1 TB unit. Investigate cloud backup of catalogue and images. Thanks again for all your input, it is most valuable.

10-23-2021, 01:45 AM	#11
slartibartfast01 Pentaxian Join Date: May 2015 Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,931	Originally posted by brightseal Storage is cheap enough. You can get a Seagate 2TB SSD for $60 w/ 3 months free Adobe LR & PS (If they still offer the coupon) at walmart. Move or copy all the old folders to the new drive then delete from your C drive. Or use your WD HDD to clear all that stuff off your C drive until you figure out what you want to or if you want to permanently delete. Try to keep your C drive less than 50% full. Can you really get a 2TB SSD for $60?

10-23-2021, 01:21 PM - 1 Like	#13
slartibartfast01 Pentaxian Join Date: May 2015 Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,931	Originally posted by brightseal Probably not anymore the way things are going. Everything seems to be on pandemic prices. Check walmart, the Seagate One Touch Slim they still have by me. Ohhhh! I'm probably thinking SSD but it's really HHD. I purchased so many I used the coupon and wound up with something around a years free Lightroom subscription. That makes more sense

10-23-2021, 01:24 PM	#14
brightseal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2015 Photos: Albums Posts: 629	Originally posted by slartibartfast01 That makes more sense Yes, they are so small I confused them as SSD but I think they are hybrid.