Page 24 - Lightroom Magazine Issue 26

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extensions. Using your File Browser, you can rename the catalog file, but keep the file extension the same (.lrcat). Then, rename the preview caches the same way, but retain the word “Previews” or “Smart Pre- views” in the name along with the original file exten- sion. So, for example, if your catalog and preview caches were named:
Lightroom 5 Catalog-2-2.lrcat
Lightroom 5 Catalog-2-2 Previews.lrdata Lightroom 5 Catalog-2-2 Smart Previews.lrdata
And you wanted to change it to “Lightroom Catalog,” you’d end up with:
Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
Lightroom Catalog Previews.lrdata Lightroom Catalog Smart Previews.lrdata
Once that’s done, double-click the catalog file to open it into Lightroom and set that as the default catalog via the General tab in Preferences. The name you choose only matters to you, so don’t feel con- strained to keeping the version number of Lightroom in the file name.
catalog backup
Okay, you know where your catalog is located, you may have even renamed it to something more mean- ingful, and it’s configured as your default catalog to open every time you launch Lightroom. You’re now more in control of your catalog than a lot of other Lightroom users. You may be thinking about that catalog backup function, and how to use it. I urge you to use it no matter what other backup system
you have in place. Here’s why: It’s free, it’s built into Lightroom, and it’s automatic. You can just set it and forget it, and it may just save your bacon one day because there are some pieces of data that only exist in the Lightroom catalog (virtual copies, collection membership, flags, and individual history steps), and if your catalog ever gets corrupted, lost, stolen, etc., you’ll be so relieved that you have an exact copy of the catalog sitting in a safe place. I’ve even seen people who accidentally inflicted damage on their own catalogs (oops, I deleted a saved book collection) and were saved by having a recent backup copy of the catalog from which they could recover. Here’s how to set it up:
step one: Go to the General tab in Lightroom (PC: Edit)> Catalog Settings.
step two: Click the Back Up Catalog drop-down menu, and choose the frequency for the back up to run. I chose Every Time Lightroom Exits because I like to be reminded each time, even if I sometimes skip it.
That’s it. The next time you exit Lightroom on the chosen sched- ule, you’ll be prompted to run the backup process. That prompt is the only place you can configure the location of where you want the backup copy to be saved. Ideally, and to protect against drive failure, you’d choose a separate drive from the one on which your working catalog is located. I work off my laptop, which usually only has one drive attached, so I direct my backup copies to be saved into my Dropbox folder, which are then synced to my other computers and the cloud.
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› › lightroom magazine › issue 26