Today’s Question: After reading your newsletter today [Monday], I looked in my Pictures folder to find the files [for the Lightroom Classic catalog] you referred to. While I found those, I also noticed a “Lightroom Library.lrlibrary” folder that I had never seen before. Can you tell me why it’s there? Can I safely delete it?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The “Lightroom Library.lrlibrary” folder represents the equivalent of a catalog for the cloud-focused version of Lightroom (the non-Classic version). This file is a local cache for Lightroom, and can be deleted especially if you’re not using the cloud-focused version of Lightroom.
More Detail: Lightroom Classic is known as the version of Lightroom that uses a catalog, while the non-Classic version is known as revolving primarily around cloud-based storage. But in a way both applications use a catalog.
The difference for the cloud-focused version of Lightroom is that the catalog simply represents a local cache of your cloud-based data, rather than the primary store of data related to your photos. As such, you can safely delete the “Lightroom Library.lrlibrary” folder, especially if you’re not using the cloud-focused version of Lightroom.
The presence of this folder indicates that you have installed and used the cloud-focused version of Lightroom on your computer. If that was not intentional, you can uninstall that version using the Creative Cloud application, so you won’t be confused by the “other” version of Lightroom being installed.
Note, by the way, that while it is entirely possible to adopt a workflow that involves using both the Classic and non-Classic versions of Lightroom on the same computer, I do not recommend doing so. In my view trying to use both Lightroom desktop applications can lead to confusion. Having said that, even if you’re using Lightroom Classic I do recommend that you consider making use of the cloud-based Lightroom ecosystem to provide greater flexibility and utility in your workflow.
