Today’s Question: I’d like to rename my Lightroom Classic catalog. The option for renaming asks about renaming the parent folder. When would I want to do this?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You might want to rename the folder that contains your Lightroom Classic catalog just so the folder name is more clear to you. Just be sure to NOT rename the folder if you have photos stored within the same folder structure as the catalog.
More Detail: With a relatively recent update Lightroom Classic includes an option to rename a catalog. Simply make sure you have the catalog you want to rename open in Lightroom Classic and choose File > Rename Catalog from the menu. You can then enter a more meaningful name in the New Name field, or simply update the filename such as to remove the text along the lines of “-2-2-2-v13” that may have accumulated over the years from various updates to the catalog over time.
In the Rename Catalog dialog there is also a “Rename parent folder” checkbox. If you turn this checkbox on, the folder containing the catalog will be renamed to match the new base filename of the catalog. This can be convenient, since a meaningful name for the catalog probably represents a good name for the folder containing the catalog and related files.
However, if you have any photos stored within the same folder structure as the catalog that have also been imported into the catalog, renaming the parent folder will cause the photos and any related folders to appear as missing in Lightroom Classic.
So, if you’re not sure whether you have any photos stored in the folder structure along with the catalog, it is better to not rename the folder. If you’re certain there are no photos stored in that folder structure (and there’s really no reason for there to be), you can rename the catalog folder if you’d like. If you do have photos stored in the same folder structure, you can rename the catalog as above, but then rename the parent folder from within Lightroom Classic to avoid creating any missing photos or folders.
