How to Move Lightroom to External Hard Drive - Catalogue and Photos for LR Classic

Welcome to this quick video, where I explain how easy it is to move your Lightroom Classic Catalogue and Photos to an External Hard Drive to free up space on your computer, plus make it easier when you replace your computer.

This video includes how to move both the Catalogue and the Photos, on a Mac

#lightroomexternalharddrive #lightroomtip #lightroomworkflow

[lamialenoire]

Watching this for my non-Mac desktop PC and I thought it made perfect sense. A helpful tip for those who think Richard is going too fast or slow: click the settings gear on the video > playback speed > adjust to your preference, maybe turn on the subtitles. 😂

[duncanwilson]

Excellent tutorial Richard, a potential minefield made straightforward thanks to your video.

[magnegrimen]

Great video, spot on for my needs! Thank you! 😀

[petemaineyphoto]

Thank you so very much. Just followed your very easy instructions and successfully moved all my LR images and Cat with no issues.

[jeanjeanbrun]

Thank you Richard very helpful! Just did it to free up space in my hard drive. Suggestion for another video, how to move as well to the external drive the Lightroom backup files. Cheers!

[ArgirisBothos]

What if i already have the photos on my external drive and i need to move only my LR catalog there? is it possible to transfer only the catalog with no conflict? So i have a Lacie D2 10TB and a Samsung T7 4TB, which configuration or destination is the best for Lightroom to work smoothly and safely? dump everything on Lacie or split and keep the photos i already have stored on Lacie and add the catalog there and maybe dump the app itself on the SSD to work faster? or maybe im talking rubbish

[markstevens]

Wow that’s Awesome… Just what I needed

[richardpesce]

Thanks, it was very useful and clear!

[AndyGlavac]

Why would you move the catalog to external and not leave it on the computer hard drive I am just trying to move 4 externals to one 5TB drive Thanks for the great video

[throsturv]

Thanks Richard for explaining and making this easy for us!

[MindGymMeditations]

Is this the same from a tablet to an external hard drive?

[bjorgdemeza]

Thanks for a quick an easy explaination :D However moving folders from on e hard drive to another harddrive in Lightroom containing 80000 photos take forever... yikes. I am wondering if there is a quicker way to move and then link in bulk - the wrong way you showed - i know that ;-)

[conniechristenson]

After procrastinating the task of moving my LR photos from one external hard drive to another I am finally comfortable with your tutorial. Excellent and timely! 2 questions as I am nervous about the move. I have 30, 000 images organized by year date month and location in a hierarchy that makes sense to me. Will I maintain the same hierarchy and do I move the entire library at once safely just year by year? Second question is what if I simply wish to copy library to another hard drive keeping this external as a back up. What is the process for 'copy" instead of move. Thank you in advance. Now I can once again delay the process as I wait for

[CalvinLee]

Another great video Richard. I was planning to move the catalog and photos to an external hard drive (WD Elements 10TB). Until I heard that if you move the catalog to an external hard drive. Lightroom with be slower than on your internal drive. Have you noticed any slowdowns? Thank you 🤓

[kafuji]

HI Richard, amazing tutorial - and your photos are stunning. I was wondering what brand of 20 TB hard drive you use?

[kenstav]

Thank you, very clear. When I move my files it does not maintain my file edits.

[photonsonpixels]

Thanks Richard. Will the move to the new hard drive preserve all my settings, preferences, etc.? Thank you!

[oneeyedphotographer]

Useful? Yes & no,

I want to export a catalogue to the filesystem, so I can use Bridge. I'm concerned there might be unpleasantry surprises. For example, how are virtual copies handled?

[breezodinerooo]

So I’ve got a folder already with 1900 images and I recently took 500 more and those are on the drive I’m trying to move them to the folder with the 1900 but it tells me I can’t because Lightroom is open any help please

[StevenPhillips-ke]

Richard,
I have 11 years of pictures in my folders on Lightroom Classic and I'm in need of saving to an external drive. Do I need to move each year separately to the external drive and then move the catalog? The last two years I've added a lot of pictures eating up space on my hard drive and concerned about losing stuff.