Changing Backup Location

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Today’s Question: You suggested backing up the catalog to the same external drive as the one used for photo storage. Currently my backup is stored on my MacBook Pro. Where do I make this change? I don’t see a setting for that in Preferences.

Tim’s Quick Answer: The location where you want to store the backup copy of your Lightroom catalog can actually be specified within the actual backup dialog that appears when it is time to create a new backup of your catalog.

More Detail: Within the Catalog Settings dialog you can specify the frequency for backing up your Lightroom catalog. The options include backing up daily, weekly, monthly, every time you exit Lightroom, or never. In addition, there is an option to backup the next time you exit Lightroom. However, within the Catalog Settings dialog (as well as the Preferences dialog) there is not an option to specify the location where you want to store the backup.

Instead you can specify the backup location within the Back Up Catalog dialog. The Backup Folder label identifies the current location for your catalog backup, which by default will be the same folder location as your actual catalog files. As noted in yesterday’s Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, I recommend storing the backup in a location separate from the catalog.

Within the Back Up Catalog dialog you can click the Choose button to the right of the Backup Folder label where the existing path is indicated. You can then choose a new location for your backup, such as the external hard drive where you store your photos if that is the approach you use. Once you change the backup location, that will remain the location for the backup of the current catalog unless you change the location again in the future.