How to Move Your Lightroom Catalog to a New Location

The first time I tried to move my Lightroom catalog was a disaster. I was running out of space on my laptop‘s internal drive and wanted to relocate my catalog to an external SSD. But in my haste, I forgot to copy a couple crucial files and didn‘t bother to relink my photos after the move. The result? Corrupted previews, missing thumbnails, and a whole lot of frustration trying to get everything working again.

I don‘t want you to have to go through the same headache. Moving your Lightroom catalog to a new drive or computer doesn‘t have to be scary. In fact, when you know what you‘re doing, the whole process only takes about 5 minutes. In this article, I‘ll teach you how to relocate your Lightroom catalog safely and confidently in just 4 steps:

1. Find your current catalog
2. Copy the catalog to the new location
3. Open the catalog from its new home
4. Relink any missing photos

But before we dive into the how-to, let‘s talk about some of the main reasons you might need to move your Lightroom catalog in the first place.

4 Reasons to Relocate Your Lightroom Catalog

1. Switching to a New Computer

According to a 2019 survey by Macrumors, the average Mac user upgrades their computer every 4 years, while PC users wait closer to 5 years. If it‘s time for you to make the jump to a shiny new machine, you‘ll definitely want to bring your Lightroom catalog along for the ride.

2. Collaborating with Other Photographers

In the age of COVID-19, more and more photographers are collaborating remotely. Whether you‘re outsourcing your editing or partnering with another creative, you may need to send a copy of your Lightroom catalog to someone else. Knowing how to quickly and safely share your catalog is key.

3. Keeping Your Catalog Backed Up

Your Lightroom catalog contains all the hard work you‘ve put into organizing and editing your photos. Imagine losing all those hours of effort to a hard drive crash. It‘s not a pretty thought, especially considering that hard drives have a 5.1% average failure rate per year according to BackBlaze‘s 2020 report. Making periodic backups of your catalog to an external drive is just good business sense.

4. Saving Space on Your System Drive

As you import and edit more photos, your Lightroom catalog inevitably grows in size. For reference, my catalog containing roughly 50,000 photos takes up about 5GB of space. If you‘re working on a laptop or a computer with limited SSD storage, moving your catalog to a secondary drive can free up valuable space.
Now that we‘ve covered the why, let‘s get into the how.

Step 1: Find Your Lightroom Catalog

Before you can move your Lightroom catalog, you need to pinpoint where it currently lives. By default, Lightroom Classic stores the catalog in your Pictures folder:

• On Windows: \Users[your username]\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
• On macOS: /Users/[your username]/Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog.lrcat

However, your catalog might be in a different spot if you chose a custom location when you first launched Lightroom. To quickly locate your catalog:

1. Open Lightroom and go to Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom > Catalog Settings (Mac).
2. In the General tab, look for the line specifying the location of your catalog.
3. Click the Show button to open that folder in Windows Explorer or Finder.

[Insert screenshot of Catalog Settings window]

In your catalog folder, you‘ll find several important files:

• Catalog.lrcat: This is the main Lightroom catalog file, containing information about your photo edits and organization.
• Previews.lrdata: Stores the preview images you see in Lightroom‘s Library module.
• Smart Previews.lrdata: Holds lower-resolution copies of your photos that allow you to edit even when the originals are offline.
• Helper.lrdata: Contains sync data if you use Lightroom mobile or web.

To properly relocate your catalog, you need to move ALL of these files together. Let‘s look at how to do that.

Step 2: Copy Your Catalog to the New Location

Found your catalog folder? Great. Now, before you do anything else, close Lightroom if it‘s currently running. This ensures Lightroom isn‘t actively writing to the catalog while you‘re trying to move it.

Next, you have a decision to make. You can either:

1. Move your catalog, so it exists ONLY in the new location, or
2. Copy your catalog, so you have versions in both the original and new locations.

I highly recommend copying rather than moving, at least initially. That way, if anything goes wrong, you still have your original catalog to fall back on. Once you‘ve verified everything is working properly in the new location, you can always delete the old catalog files.

Here‘s how to copy your catalog:

1. In Windows Explorer or Finder, navigate to your Lightroom catalog folder.
2. Right-click the folder and choose Copy.
3. Go to the new location where you want to store the catalog. This could be on an external drive, a network attached storage device, or just a different folder on your computer.
4. Right-click in the new parent folder and choose Paste.

[Insert screenshot of copying process]

The copy process may take a few minutes depending on the size of your catalog. For best performance, I recommend using a fast external SSD connected via USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. In my testing, I was able to copy a 5GB catalog from my MacBook Pro‘s internal SSD to an external Samsung T5 SSD in about 30 seconds.

Step 3: Open the Catalog from Its New Location

With the catalog copied, you‘re ready to open it from the new location. You can either:

1. Double-click the .lrcat file in the copied catalog folder, or
2. Open Lightroom and go to File > Open Catalog. Then navigate to and select the copied .lrcat file.

Upon opening the catalog, you may see question mark icons (?) next to some or all of your folders in the Folders panel. Lightroom is telling you it can‘t find the photos linked to the catalog.

[Insert screenshot of Folders panel with missing photos]

Don‘t panic! This is totally normal after moving a catalog. In the next step, we‘ll reconnect Lightroom to your photos.

Step 4: Relink Any Missing Photos

To relink missing photos after moving your Lightroom catalog:

1. In the Folders panel of Library mode, right-click a top-level folder with a question mark icon.
2. Choose Find Missing Folder from the menu.
3. Navigate to and select that same folder in its current location, then click Choose (Mac) or Select Folder (Windows).

[Insert screenshot of relinking process]

Repeat this process for any other top-level folders showing as missing. Lightroom will then update the links for all the photos and subfolders inside.

To avoid relinking in the future, I recommend keeping your photos in a consistent folder structure, either on your computer or on an external drive. If you do need to move your images, do it within Lightroom by dragging and dropping folders in the Folders panel. That way the catalog and photos stay in sync.

Verify and Clean Up

Once you‘ve relinked your photos, take a few minutes to verify everything is working properly in the relocated catalog:

• Scroll through your collections and folders to confirm all photos are showing up.
• Preview a few recently edited photos in the Develop module to make sure your adjustments are intact.
• Check that any Publish Services or plugins are still functioning.

If everything looks good, congratulations! You‘ve successfully moved your Lightroom catalog. At this point, it‘s safe to delete the catalog files from the original location if desired.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Here are a few things to keep in mind when moving your Lightroom catalog:

• Always make a backup of your catalog (via Edit > Catalog Settings > Backup) before attempting a move. Better safe than sorry!
• Lightroom can only open one catalog at a time. If you double-click a catalog file while Lightroom is already running, it will close the current catalog and open the one you clicked instead.
• If you‘re upgrading from an older version of Lightroom (like Lightroom 6 to Lightroom Classic), it‘s often better to create a new catalog and import your old photos rather than converting your legacy catalog.
• If your preview thumbnail are blank or Lightroom says your catalog is corrupted after moving it, don‘t delete the original catalog files! This likely means the moved catalog is not completely intact. Replace the moved catalog with a fresh copy of the original catalog and try again.
• After moving, it‘s a good idea to optimize your catalog by going to File > Optimize Catalog. This can help improve Lightroom‘s performance.
• If you‘re sharing a moved catalog with another photographer, be sure to provide them with the full catalog folder, not just the .lrcat file. They‘ll also need access to the original images if they plan to edit them.

You‘ve Got This!

If you‘ve made it this far, you now have all the knowledge you need to confidently move your Lightroom catalog to a new storage location. Whether you‘re migrating to a new computer, collaborating with other creatives, or just tidying up your hard drive, the 4-step process remains the same:

1. Find your catalog
2. Copy it to the new spot
3. Open it from the new location
4. Relink any missing photos

By proactively managing where your Lightroom catalog lives, you can keep your editing workflow humming along smoothly for years to come. And remember, if you run into any hiccups along the way, you‘ve got a friend in me. Drop a comment below with your Lightroom catalog questions or conundrums. I‘m always happy to help a fellow photographer out!