Today’s Question: I’d like, for simplicity, to move my Lightroom Classic catalog to a new folder and rename it. Can you provide guidance on this?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can rename the catalog easily within Lightroom Classic using the Rename Catalog command. You can then quit Lightroom Classic and move the folder containing the catalog files to your preferred location.
More Detail: Adobe recently added a Rename Catalog command, making it very easy to rename the Lightroom Classic catalog and all associated helper files. Simply open Lightroom Classic with the catalog you want to rename and then choose File > Rename Catalog from the menu.
In the Rename Catalog dialog, enter your preferred name for the catalog. If you’re certain that there aren’t any photos within the folder structure that contains the catalog, you can also turn on the “Rename parent folder” checkbox if you want the folder containing the catalog to have the same name as the catalog. Click the Rename button to apply the change, which will also cause Lightroom Classic to restart.
To move the folder containing the catalog files, you first need to know exactly where that folder is. If you’re not sure, in Lightroom Classic choose “Catalog Settings” from the Edit menu on Windows or the Lightroom Classic menu on Macintosh. Go to the General tab and click the Show button toward the top-right of the dialog. That will open a window in your operating system with the folder containing the catalog highlighted.
Be sure to quit Lightroom Classic before moving the folder containing the catalog. If you don’t have a full backup of the catalog, it is a good idea to copy the folder to the new location, then rename the folder in the original location to indicate it is now a backup copy.
You can then open the catalog folder in the new location and double-click the primary catalog file that has a filename extension of “.lrcat”. I also recommend going to the General tab of the Preferences dialog and selecting the renamed catalog in the new location from the Default Catalog popup. That will ensure that this catalog will always be opened by default whenever you launch Lightroom Classic.
