What You Need To Know About The Lightroom Classic Catalog

One of the reasons that photographers encounter problems in Lightroom Classic is that they don’t understand how the Catalog works, or why its best to avoid using multiple Catalogs. In this article I’ll explain exactly what the Lightroom Classic Catalog is, where you can find it, and how you can back it up. We’ll also explore the many benefits of using a Catalog.

What is the Lightroom Classic Catalog?

The Lightroom Classic Catalog is an SQLite database containing information about your photos. It includes all your developing work along with your photos’ metadata. The main database file is accompanied by folders containing extra information it needs, like previews (used in the Library module) and AI masks (used in the Develop module).

One of the benefits of using a Catalog is that it enables non-destructive editing of all types of photo file, including the most commonly used formats of Raw, DNG, PSD, TIFF and JPEG.

Lightroom can do this because it lists any changes you make as a series of text commands (or parameters) in the Catalog. This is called parametric image editing.

Develop Presets are also parametric. A Develop Preset is nothing more than a text file containing parameters. You can open one in a text editor to read it. Here’s an example, showing some of the text associated with a Develop Preset:

It’s not difficult to see which text commands relate to which sliders in the Develop module.

What other benefits does using a Catalog have?

Using a Catalog has several other benefits:

1. Organization – you can add photos to Collections which are a powerful, flexible and robust organizational tool. You can’t do this with file browsers like Adobe Bridge.

2. You can search your photos using all kinds of metadata based criteria, like the creation date, focal length, folder name and camera settings.

3. Your Catalog only contains photos that you import into it. The other photos on your hard drive can’t distract you.

4. You can view and develop photos without your photo files using Smart Previews. This is ideal when traveling or for viewing and developing photos on a different computer or device.

5. You can use the entire Lightroom ecosystem – Lightroom for mobile, Lightroom for desktop, Lightroom for web and Adobe Portfolio. Your Catalog sits at the center and enables it through Smart Previews and synced Collections.

Where is my Lightroom Classic Catalog?

The default location for the Catalog is in the Lightroom folder in the Pictures folder (for both Mac and PC).

The quickest way to find your Catalog is to open Catalog Settings (go to Lightroom > Catalog Settings on a Mac or Edit > Catalog Settings on a PC) and click the General tab.

This tab has important information about your Catalog, including it’s name, location and size.

Click the Show button next to Location to open the folder containing your Catalog in Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (PC). You’ll see something like this:

Your file names will be different if your Catalog has a different name to mine. This are what each file or folder is for:

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14 Helper.lrdata A cache for Folder panel searches.

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14 Previews.lrdata Contains thumbnails for minimal, standard and 1:1 Previews.

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14 Smart Previews.lrdata Contains thumbnails for Smart Previews (read The Ultimate Guide to Using Smart Previews in Lightroom Classic to learn more about Smart Previews).

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14 Sync.lrdata A cache used by Lightroom Classic when it syncs.

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14.lrcat This is the Lightroom Catalog, the database containing information about your photos.

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14.lrcat-data Contains the masks created in the Masks panel.

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14.lrcat-shm A temporary folder created when Lightroom Classic is open.

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14.lrcat-wal Another temporary folder created when Lightroom Classic is open.

Lightroom Classic Catalog-v14.lrcat.lock Prevents somebody else opening the Catalog while you have it open. This could happen if your hard drive is on a network and somebody else can access it.

Lightroom Settings A folder that contains Develop presets, Export presets, Print module templates and other files Lightroom Classic needs to function properly. Appears here if you’ve ever checked the Store presets with this Catalog box in Preferences > Presets > Location.

Tip: Don’t check the Store presets with this Catalog box unless you know what you’re doing. It creates more problems than it solves.

Mobile Downloads.lrdata The default location for photos downloaded from a synced phone or tablet. You can change the folder where these are saved by going to Preferences > Lightroom Sync > Specify location for Lightroom’s Synced images. This folder is empty in my screenshot because I’ve moved the photos to another folder.

Old Lightroom Catalogs A folder containing a zipped backup of your Lightroom Classic 13 Catalog. You can delete this if you have at least two backups of your Lightroom Classic 14 Catalog, you no longer need it.

Three more things you should know about the Lightroom Classic Catalog

That covers the basics, but there are a few more things you need to know.

1. The Lightroom Catalog doesn’t contain any of your photos

Some photographers think their photos are stored in the Catalog itself. It’s easy to see why this misunderstanding occurs, as the Import process implies your photo files are added to the Catalog. So let’s take a look at what happens when you import photos into Lightroom.

• Lightroom adds information about the imported photos to the Catalog. This includes the folder they are saved in and metadata (camera settings, copyright information etc.).
• Lightroom builds previews so you can see view the photo.

Always remember that your photo files are not saved in the Catalog. The best place for them is an external hard drive (see How to Organize Photos for Lightroom).

2. You should only use one Catalog

Users of earlier versions of Lightroom reported a slow down in performance when they added too many photos to the Catalog. Adobe has improved the Catalog performance and now you can add over a million photos to the Catalog without affecting performance.

It makes sense to import all your photos to a single Catalog, and organize them using Collections and Collections Sets. This is the only way you can view and search all your photos, as Lightroom only lets you open and search one Catalog at a time. It also means you don’t have to deal with backing up and keeping track of multiple Catalogs.

3. You should back up your Catalog regularly

As the Catalog contains so much information about your photos it’s important to back it up regularly to avoid losing the results of all your hard work to hard drive failure or theft.

The default location for back ups is in the Lightroom folder. This is not a good place for it – if the hard drive fails you will lose both Catalog and back up.

The best place to save the Catalog back up is the external hard drive that contains your Raw files. To change the location, go to Catalog Settings > Backups and click the Choose button.

I also recommend setting Back up Catalog to Every time Lightroom Exits. Some photographers find that Once a week, when exiting Lightroom is enough.

Managing Lightroom Classic Catalog backups

Since the Lightroom Classic 14.2 update you can manage your Catalog backups here as well. They are listed under backups, with the most recent at the top.

When you click on a backup you can use the Delete button to delete it from your hard drive. This prevents your backups accumulating and taking up valuable hard drive space.

I recommend keeping your two most recent backups. You don’t need any more than that.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has helped you understand what the Catalog is, how it works and why it’s so important to back it up. If you have any questions about your Catalog, then let me know in the comments. You should also take a look at my new ebook Lightroom Classic Q&A II, which answers lots of readers’ questions about the Catalog.

My new ebook Lightroom Classic Q&A II: 101 More Readers’ Questions Answered features 101 genuine questions from readers about Lightroom Classic, including a chapter about the Catalog.

Click here to learn more or buy