Today’s Question: I updated to Lightroom Classic version 14, and was prompted to update the catalog. However, my catalog was not renamed to reflect the update. The files still reference version 13, even though I’ve confirmed I am running version 14. Should I be concerned about this discrepancy?
Tim’s Quick Answer: This is perfectly normal with version 14 of Lightroom Classic, and is related to Adobe having finally added a feature to rename your catalog from within Lightroom Classic.
More Detail: Adobe has taken various approaches to updating the name of the catalog files when you update Lightroom Classic, which has led to considerable confusion. Compounding this issue is that prior to version 14 the only way to rename your Lightroom Classic catalog was to manually update the core portion of the base filename for all catalog-related files.
Lightroom Classic version 14 now includes a command to rename the catalog, found on the menu at File > Rename Catalog. If you choose this command you can update the base filename for your catalog. There is also a “Rename parent folder” checkbox, which if you turn on will cause the folder containing your catalog to be renamed to match the new name of your catalog.
As part of this update, and to preserve the catalog name you may have specifically chosen, Lightroom Classic will now not change the filename for the catalog when the catalog is updated. The existing catalog will be backed up into a ZIP file, and the updated catalog will retain the previous filename.
That makes now a perfect time to use the Rename Catalog command. With prior variations in how your updated catalog was named, it is quite likely that you have a catalog name that includes “-2” in the filename possibly multiple times, along with a reference to the version number such as “v13-3” at the end of the filename for Lightroom Classic version 13.3. Now you can rename your catalog to something more meaningful, knowing that future updates won’t cause that updated name to be changed.
