Today’s Question: I have two desktop computers in different locations. Both have Lightroom Classic installed, and both have the same folder structure and photos on the E drive synchronized via the cloud. Whenever I close Lightroom Classic on computer 1, I make a backup of the catalog. Is it now sufficient to call up the backup on computer 2 and continue working? Are all presets and mask presets, etc. saved in the backup?
Tim’s Quick Answer: No, the catalog backup does not include any of the presets or settings, and so this approach would not be optimal. I recommend keeping the catalog and photos on an external hard drive that you move between computers, although cloud-based synchronization could theoretically provide a solution as well.
More Detail: When you back up the Lightroom Classic catalog, only the catalog (lrcat) and catalog data (lrcat-data) files are backed up. The previews and other helper files, presets, settings, and any other files associated with Lightroom Classic are not backed up. As such, the built-in catalog backup feature does not provide a solution for using the same catalog on two different computers.
Therefore, the only option is to ensure all catalog files are available on both computers as needed. One option is to keep the catalog and related files on an external hard drive, along with the photos. You can then move the hard drive to the computer you want to work on and access the catalog directly on the external hard drive.
It is also possible to synchronize the catalog and related files via cloud-based storage. However, out of an abundance of caution I don’t recommend this approach. By synchronizing the catalog files via the cloud, there is a risk that you might work with a copy of the catalog that hasn’t yet been updated by synchronization, leading to a risk of data loss.
Note that with either of these approaches you will want to enable the option to “Store presets with this catalog”, found on the Presets tab of the Preferences dialog in Lightroom Classic. However, it is also important to note that enabling this option will not move existing presets to the location where the catalog is stored. You will therefore need to manually move existing presets to the catalog location after enabling the option. New presets you import or create will be saved in the same location as the catalog after you’ve turned on the checkbox.
Needless to say, Lightroom Classic was not designed for the catalog to be accessible from more than one computer. If this is an important issue for you, and you don’t want to move an external hard drive between computers, I would recommend looking at software that doesn’t involve the catalog (such as Adobe Bridge) or a solution that is built around cloud-based synchronization (such as the non-Classic version of Lightroom).
