How often do you create new Lightroom catalog?

[sh1209]

My current catalog is really starting to get sluggish with certain tasks especially doing backups. I have images back to 2017 in the current catalog with roughly 50K images. I cull very heavy and honestly should throw away less images. I have collections synced with Lightroom mobile for organization as well as access to my favorite images which complicates things a bit as far as creating a new catalog. I really think it’s time to start fresh and was just curious how often others do this?

 

[R.Philip]

My current catalog is really starting to get sluggish with certain tasks especially doing backups. I have images back to 2017 in the current catalog with roughly 50K images. I cull very heavy and honestly should throw away less images. I have collections synced with Lightroom mobile for organization as well as access to my favorite images which complicates things a bit as far as creating a new catalog. I really think it’s time to start fresh and was just curious how often others do this?

I have one catalog on my laptop for when I travel and for speed of editing. When done editing, I export to a primary catalog on an SSD drive that I back up to a couple other externals. I keyword the primary so I am able to find my images in the primary. I used to have close to 50K in images. I went back and culled almost 30k more worth of shots. I keep the primary image that is my keeper/wallhangers and get rid of almost all the other variation images. I have about 21k. For example, I went out shooting eagles on the Mississippi River on the Iowa/Illinois border last winter. I shot over 4000 images. I kept 10 images. Long story answer, I have one primary and do not start new catalogs.

Some say to keep the older images. I personally think that is a waste of memory. I refuse to use the cloud. There are enough expenses in this hobby. I find the top shots and get rid of everything else. I never found myself going back and editing or re-editing old images. My photography keeps improving and I really do not care to revisit the old images.

I use a smugmug website like a family photo album for memories. Pro's only show a limited number of what they consider portfolio images on their websites. When we are no longer around, who will want to keep our images? Will someone maintain your catalog?

 

[sh1209]

I have one catalog on my laptop for when I travel and for speed of editing. When done editing, I export to a primary catalog on an SSD drive that I back up to a couple other externals. I keyword the primary so I am able to find my images in the primary. I used to have close to 50K in images. I went back and culled almost 30k more worth of shots. I keep the primary image that is my keeper and get rid of almost all the other variation images. For example, I went out shooting eagles on the Mississippi River on the Iowa/Illinois border last winter. I shot over 4000 images. I kept 10 images. Long story answer, I have one primary and do not start new catalogs.

Some say to keep the older images. I personally think that is a waste of memory. I refuse to use the cloud. There are enough expenses in this hobby. I find the top shots and get rid of everything else. I never found myself going back and editing or re-editing old images. My photography keeps improving and I really do not care to revisit the old images.

That’s pretty much how I feel as well at this point.

 

[Replytoken]

In general, it is not the number of images that causes a catalog to be sluggish as much as the types and amounts of editing associated with each image. There are folks with catalogs with hundreds of thousands of images that do not experience performance issues. Also, you lose the ability to do a full search of your images if you do have multiple catalogs.

Travel catalogs may also make sense in a multiple catalog environment, but most folks do merge these at the end of their trips.

Having said that, there are circumstances where multiple catalogs may make sense. If you have personal and professional bodies of work, that may may sense. Or if you have your own work and you also do work on behalf of a specific client, or class of clients, you may want to keep them separate.

I am sure that others will offer differing advice, and you should take it all under consideration. They are after all, your catalogs, and YMMV.

--Ken

 

[sh1209]

In general, it is not the number of images that causes a catalog to be sluggish as much as the types and amounts of editing associated with each image. There are folks with catalogs with hundreds of thousands of images that do not experience performance issues. Also, you lose the ability to do a full search of your images if you do have multiple catalogs.

Having said that, there are circumstances where multiple catalogs may make sense. If you have personal and professional bodies of work, that may may sense. Or if you have your own work and you also do work on behalf of a specific client, or class of clients, you may want to keep them separate.

I am sure that others will offer differing advice, and you should take it all under consideration. They are after all, your catalogs, and YMMV.

--Ken

It has just gotten so sluggish, especially over the last year. It contains nearly 5tb of images all with edits. I never keep any unedited images for anything. Perhaps that is why it’s slowing down. It takes 6-8 minutes just to do a catalog backup at this point. I am running the last late 2020 intel iMac with 96GB of ram and at times Lightroom alone is using 50GB of that.

 

[Viathelens]

I have over 200,000 images in my main catalog. I don't find it slow to back up but then I also don't wait around for it to do that. I'm on a Mac Studio. I have two other catalogs for a very different use that I don't do much with. I do use a trip catalog when I travel and I merge that with my main catalog when I return home.

 

[bleirer]

You got me googling. I'm not a power user but I only ever had one catalog, but i only have used lightroom since 2019.. At year end I start up a new folder for the new years raw files and eventually archive previous years folders onto backup storage, but I keep the one catalog Iinked to that folder on the backup drive in case I need something old. Lightroom queen mentioned a catalog with 13 million images. And I saw this article:

» Avoid using more than one catalogue

Lightroom makes it easy to create and work with more than one catalogue, which makes some people think that is how they should work. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I originally wrote this post back in 2007. But the question of running more than one catalogue keeps popping up in blog...

lightroomsolutions.com

 

[sh1209]

You got me googling. I'm not a power user but I only ever had one catalog, but i only have used lightroom since 2019.. At year end I start up a new folder for the new years raw files and eventually archive previous years folders onto backup storage, but I keep the one catalog Iinked to that folder on the backup drive in case I need something old. Lightroom queen mentioned a catalog with 13 million images. And I saw this article:

» Avoid using more than one catalogue

Lightroom makes it easy to create and work with more than one catalogue, which makes some people think that is how they should work. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I originally wrote this post back in 2007. But the question of running more than one catalogue keeps popping up in blog...

lightroomsolutions.com

I normally keep the current year images on my desktop and offload at the end of the year to an external drive. I just mostly do this to free up space.

 

[sh1209]

You got me googling. I'm not a power user but I only ever had one catalog, but i only have used lightroom since 2019.. At year end I start up a new folder for the new years raw files and eventually archive previous years folders onto backup storage, but I keep the one catalog Iinked to that folder on the backup drive in case I need something old. Lightroom queen mentioned a catalog with 13 million images. And I saw this article:

» Avoid using more than one catalogue

Lightroom makes it easy to create and work with more than one catalogue, which makes some people think that is how they should work. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I originally wrote this post back in 2007. But the question of running more than one catalogue keeps popping up in blog...

lightroomsolutions.com

I suppose I will just keep using it if there's no need to create another one.

 

[Replytoken]

It has just gotten so sluggish, especially over the last year. It contains nearly 5tb of images all with edits. I never keep any unedited images for anything. Perhaps that is why it’s slowing down. It takes 6-8 minutes just to do a catalog backup at this point. I am running the last late 2020 intel iMac with 96GB of ram and at times Lightroom alone is using 50GB of that.

Versions of LRC 13.x had a number of bugs that caused a lot of issues, slowdowns and massive memory consumption. Before you do anything else, see if you can upgrade to LRC 14.x. That may take care of some issues you are having.

--Ken

 

[sh1209]

Versions of LRC 13.x had a number of bugs that caused a lot of issues, slowdowns and massive memory consumption. Before you do anything else, see if you can upgrade to LRC 14.x. That may take care of some issues you are having.

--Ken

I’ve had that version since it was released and it seems worse than ever. Today before I restarted the iMac it was using 56GB of ram. Nothing else was open or running other than safari. Something is definitely wonky with it after this last update

 

[sh1209]

I’ve also deleted the raw cache as well as the previews in the catalog. Also having issues in masking with the brush or gradient lines not showing up, only the overlay. I did uninstall and reinstall Lightroom but it is still doing it

 

[Replytoken]

I’ve also deleted the raw cache as well as the previews in the catalog. Also having issues in masking with the brush or gradient lines not showing up, only the overlay. I did uninstall and reinstall Lightroom but it is still doing it

Try an open a new catalog and see if the problems persist. Report back what you find. It may be a catalog issue, a hardware or a software issue. It helps to rule out what you can.

--Ken

 

[sh1209]

Try an open a new catalog and see if the problems persist. Report back what you find. It may be a catalog issue, a hardware or a software issue. It helps to rule out what you can.

--Ken

So there are some folks in Lightroom queen stating they’re having the ram issue as well. I messed with mine again this am with another catalog and within 20 minutes I was at 64GB of ram out of 96GB. This is never happened in the past in fact, even while running DXO pure RAW simultaneously with Lightroom and several other programs and hardly ever went past 40 gigabytes until this last update. This morning there was absolutely nothing running in the background other than Lightroom classic and it just keeps climbing. Some guy on Lightroom queen said he has a Mac studio that it keeps shutting down because of this. There’s something definitely wrong that they need to address. I’m going to try to call them today and see what they recommend.

 

[sh1209]

One other thing I would like to add to that as well is no other programs on the machine or having any issues whatsoever. It is only Lightroom classic also, I have a 4 TB internal SSD and hardly ever have more than one – 1.5 TB on it so it’s not that either. I might have to call Adobe later today and see if they have any advice because it definitely seems to be Lightroom related

 

[Anjin San]

I can’t say I’ve ever created one except for the first time I launched LrC…and I’ve been using it since 2014 or so.

 

[Ken Miracle]

I have only use1 LRC catalog. There are some old renamed catalogs from previous updates to Light room where they renamed the catalog was updated to the new LRC version and got a new name. I am in the process of deleting some of those old catalogs. I have to be cautious not to delete folders that have presets etc. just the catalogs. I do not use the cloud. All of my images, my catalog and back ups, presets are all kept together on one external 4TB OWC SSD that is as fast as my mac studio. I delete excess LRC back ups regularly and rarely keep more than 4. I use carbon copy cloner to create exact duplicates to 4 other fast SSD's and named in such a way that to have LRC think they are the same drive as always I just have to remove a number from the end of the name. I can connect any of those drives with the correct name to my mac studio or my macbook and LRC works the same way.

I do not know which operating system you are using?

I just updated to 14.7.1 a new security update this am. I am still holding off on Sequoia which is now at 15.1.

I am on LRC 13.5.1 so have not gone to the new 14.01 yet ... plan on waiting for 14.1

I search for birds via keyword all of the time for my non profit clients, journalists, media agencies and myself on regular basis so a fast and accurate catalog is important to me.

 

[sh1209]

I have only use1 LRC catalog. There are some old renamed catalogs from previous updates to Light room where they renamed the catalog was updated to the new LRC version and got a new name. I am in the process of deleting some of those old catalogs. I have to be cautious not to delete folders that have presets etc. just the catalogs. I do not use the cloud. All of my images, my catalog and back ups, presets are all kept together on one external 4TB OWC SSD that is as fast as my mac studio. I delete excess LRC back ups regularly and rarely keep more than 4. I use carbon copy cloner to create exact duplicates to 4 other fast SSD's and named in such a way that to have LRC think they are the same drive as always I just have to remove a number from the end of the name. I can connect any of those drives with the correct name to my mac studio or my macbook and LRC works the same way.

I do not know which operating system you are using?

I just updated to 14.7.1 a new security update this am. I am still holding off on Sequoia which is now at 15.1.

I am on LRC 13.5.1 so have not gone to the new 14.01 yet ... plan on waiting for 14.1

I search for birds via keyword all of the time for my non profit clients, journalists, media agencies and myself on regular basis so a fast and accurate catalog is important to me.

I think there is a sequoia update that I need to install today. Updated the phones last night, but never got around to doing the computer.

 

[sh1209]

I have only use1 LRC catalog. There are some old renamed catalogs from previous updates to Light room where they renamed the catalog was updated to the new LRC version and got a new name. I am in the process of deleting some of those old catalogs. I have to be cautious not to delete folders that have presets etc. just the catalogs. I do not use the cloud. All of my images, my catalog and back ups, presets are all kept together on one external 4TB OWC SSD that is as fast as my mac studio. I delete excess LRC back ups regularly and rarely keep more than 4. I use carbon copy cloner to create exact duplicates to 4 other fast SSD's and named in such a way that to have LRC think they are the same drive as always I just have to remove a number from the end of the name. I can connect any of those drives with the correct name to my mac studio or my macbook and LRC works the same way.

I do not know which operating system you are using?

I just updated to 14.7.1 a new security update this am. I am still holding off on Sequoia which is now at 15.1.

I am on LRC 13.5.1 so have not gone to the new 14.01 yet ... plan on waiting for 14.1

I search for birds via keyword all of the time for my non profit clients, journalists, media agencies and myself on regular basis so a fast and accurate catalog is important to me.

Everything was going great until this Lightroom version 14 came about but it sorta coincided with Mac Sequoia as well. I am updated both machine to 15.1 as we speak. One of the guys on Lightroom queen that’s having the ram issue like mine is on an Apple silicon machine so that seems to rule out my intel iMac being the culprit. If the OS update doesn’t help then I’m going to call Adobe

 

[Ken Miracle]

We got all of the latest security updates for IOS 17 also. My wife is off to the Apple store right now to preview 18 on the phone and the new hearing aid style airpods and Sequoia for her macbook air It is sometimes best if I am not there asking 10,000 questions a second

 

[sh1209]

We got all of the latest security updates for IOS 17 also. My wife is off to the Apple store right now to preview 18 on the phone and the new hearing aid style airpods and Sequoia for her macbook air It is sometimes best if I am not there asking 10,000 questions a second

I put 18 on my phone and iPad last night and so far no snafus lol

 

[Ken Miracle]

I put 18 on my phone and iPad last night and so far no snafus lol

The apple store had not updated their display phones yet so they could not demo the new airpods yet. The demo computers were on sequoia but the 2 staff members she talked to had not updated their computers yet. So we are still on hold.

 

[sh1209]

The apple store had not updated their display phones yet so they could not demo the new airpods yet. The demo computers were on sequoia but the 2 staff members she talked to had not updated their computers yet. So we are still on hold.

I have been using LRC for the last couple hours. I’ve had no issues in masking and the ram seems about normal. Perhaps it was some sort of interaction between the OS and Adobe?

 

[CoyoteCreationsNW]

I keep multiple catalogs in LR but not really for performance issues. The catalogs reflect the different types of photography I do. My primary catalogs are Wildlife, Fashion, Portraits, Sports and Friends and Family. For a while, I kept a separate Landscape catalog but it has been rolled into Wildlife which would be more appropriately named Nature. The catalogs and images are store on separate, external drives with each back-ed up to offline storage.

 

[MartyD]

I have only one catalog that has over 500,000 images. A large percentage of the images in my catalog are from shooting sports and I have collections back to 2004. My catalog is about 5GB at this point and it does take about 6 minutes to backup. The catalog is simply a database of your editing instructions and values and I don't think a 5GB database is that large. I have about 14TB of images, some on local drives, some on external drives, and some on archival drives. I am asked every now and them for images from 10+ years ago so having them in one catalog makes them easy to retrieve. It is also nice to have lots of old images to revisit when you have better processing techniques and software. I don't notice any sluggishness while editing or working in LrC. There is a little sluggishness when I first open LrC and I give it a minute to get the catalog completely loaded before adding collections and the backup on exit takes about 6 minutes. I am working on a pretty hefty 2020 Windows PC with 64GB of memory.

I do delete my Previews.lrdata folder about once a year because it becomes bloated with lots of previews, and then rebuild the collections as necessary.