If I decide to enhance one of my photographs using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, or any other program, then I only work on the image that is stored on my primary (main) photo drive.Copying new images from my Main Photo Drive over to one of my backup drives is my backup software’s responsibility. I do not copy any of my photographs from the memory card to either of the backup disks. When I add new photos into my image library, I copy them from my digital camera’s memory card directly to my primary (main) hard drive using Lightroom’s Import Dialog.Giving all of my drives clear, meaningful names right away also helps me remember the “master plan” which goes like this: I also find that labeling the outside of my hard drives with a permanent marker, or a sticky label, also helps to prevent confusion as the drives get rotated in and out of my office on a regular basis. Simple drive names like “Backup Disk 1,” “Backup Disk 2,” and “Main Photo Drive” are all that’s required here. I like to assign clear names to each drive before I begin configuring my backup software. I find that it really helps to give all of my external hard drives meaningful names. A pair of ordinary “plain Jane” USB external drives are perfectly sufficient for most people’s backup needs. There is no reason to spend extra money on fast drive connections or anything fancy when shopping for external hard drives that are going to be used solely as a backup system for your images.
Most people do not need to invest in fancy RAID drives, dedicated Apple TimeCapsules, or sophisticated data duplication machines to build a really good backup system. As long as you rotate between the two backup disks on a regular basis then you have a robust, redundant backup system!
We can configure software like Apple’s TimeMachine (Mac), Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac), or GoodSync Personal v.10 (PC) to automatically copy everything from your primary disk to one of your backup drives while you are sleeping. To make a robust backup, all that we need to do is configure a backup utility program to copy everything from your primary photo storage drive over to one of your inexpensive external hard drives on a regular basis. All that it takes to make a really good backup system is a pair of inexpensive external hard drives and some simple software. If all of this sounds overwhelming then please don’t panic. It is up to you to design and maintain your own redundant image and Lightroom Catalog backup system. Sadly, none of these options or features actually protect your Catalog or your original images. If you had to resort to using these files after a hard drive failure then you might find yourself adding every keyword, removing every dust spot, and doing a ton of work all over again.įinally some users confuse the “Adobe Creative Cloud,” “Smart Previews,” and “Lightroom Mobile” with some sort of automatic online backup system.
Lightroom will not update your “second copies” with any of the work that you do after the files have been imported.
The problem is that Lightroom never updates these files. This sounds like a backup but there is a huge problem here. If enabled, this feature will make you a second copy of your images as they are added to your Lightroom Catalog and store that copy in a separate place. Some Lightroom users are also fooled by the Make A Second Copy To: feature in Lightroom’s Import Dialog. This feature will not protect your images at all if disaster strikes! This Catalog optimization feature only creates a duplicate copy of your Lightroom Catalog file.Īdobe Photoshop Lightroom’s internal Catalog backup utility is not a backup plan. First, many people mistake Lightroom’s daily / weekly / monthly Catalog Backup feature for a real backup of everything. Many novice Lightroom users are lulled into thinking that their precious images are being safely protected by three very misleading features in this program. The real question to ask yourself is not “when will my hard drive fail” but rather “what steps can I take right now so that I am properly prepared for my hard drive’s inevitable demise?” Lightroom Backup Myths Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a wonderful image management tool but it is not a backup system.