Absolutely fantastic! I wish someone would have told me....get organized before you import 1000's of pictures into your computer! I was checking each box for each issue you mentioned...done that, done that, done that! Thanks for driving and showing how to manage a catalog and folder from Lightroom. No more OS. My clean up took me a few hours and now I'm confident on where my pics are at and better yet, I've created a new process for importing only the pictures I want to edit into Lightroom. Thanks a million, Terry! You're a great teacher.
You have one of the few videos that explain how to connect an external drive and then move the photos from your computer to the new drive in LR. So simply, first plug in the hard drive :), I really appreciate how easy you made this for me Terry
Excellent Class, Terry. Tysm.. I've bookmarked your amazing Web Page for my go to tech hub in the future. Previously, I messed up my entire catalog due to reorganizing on the external drives themselves. If the catalog data must remain on the HD itself, (how much space does it take up?), is it best to begin a new consolidated catalog on internal HD and "import from another catalog" even tho a the data is now on several diff externals? prob 30 T of material on 10 diff externals. How best to reorganize to not lose the edits? I heard the instructions at 27:00!! so clearly but I've already screwed it up.
THANK you SO MUCH!!! mY computer crashed and my reinstalled LR no longer recognized anything, anywhere. Plus I also added a new external HD to store everything to have 3X backups. I now know how to put everything back together. Priceless
Thanks for the detailed explanations and numerous examples of the various problems in lightroom classic. This video helped me a lot to understand the working of the program LRC and thus to work better with it in the future/Germany 07/23
Great points, but I wish there was some content on how to have photos synched and keeping it less messy between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom (the cloud version). I've been using Lightroom earlier and the pics I wanted to edit are in cloud. They also exist in my hard drive as backup. Now I started using Lightroom classic, and I turned on Sync , now my Cloud photos are brought into LrC, while I have imported the same photos from my hard drive to LrC as well. Now I am not sure how I can remove these duplicates. I would like to keep the edited versions from Cloud but its hard to find and compare what was uploaded and what was not. Its also bringing full size images to LrC, effectively doubling the space for every single photo (in my harddrive and one from the cloud)
Hello Terry, I’m a long time follower of yours. I really appreciate your thorough explanations and tutorials. Just a side note, I have been using Adobe Lightroom since the first Beta releases. Some time back you had a tutorial on your conversion from Drobo to Synology NAS and it was most helpful. I too have the Drobo system and want to make the move to the 5 bay version. I have all my photos on a 5 bay 5D drobo and those files are backed up in a RAID configuration on another (Drobo S) back up. Can you offer any tips or suggestions related to this setup for converting over to the Synology NAS? I can’t quite get my head around this, but I am assuming this will just replace my current setup.
Thanks! Having gone from Drobo to Synology this year, I only wish that I had done it sooner. Here's my blog post on my switch: terrywhite.com/how-to-store-and-backup-your-photos-like-a-pro/
It's unfortunate, but the reason I go to the OS for library management is because if you want to reorganize your library, LR is super slow to move around folders full of files and has only manual (one at a time) rename capabilities. A simple example: I sometimes realize that during an import I had LR add info to the filenames that was incorrect or a word was misspelled. In my OS file manager (Directory-Opus), it takes about a minute to do a search and replace on the whole set of file names to correct them. It would be a manual, one at a time effort in LR. The easy solution, if you need to do something like that, is to make sure to 1) have LR write out the latest metadata to the sidecar files for all photos that will be changed externally..this can .take time but it's all done by LR on its own. 2) Move or rename the files as needed in the OS, doing the same with any sidecar files 3) Tell LR to synchronize the folder or the hierarchy of affected folders. There are a number of examples I could list where LR's file management capabilities are just too poor to suggest users never take advantage of other programs to do file management where LR is limited. So I think that's a method worth pointing out to your viewers. Caveat: I'm not sure whether this method would preserve links to collections, since currently, I don't use them to store "permanent" groupings/associations, and I have not tested that. But in the cases where I need to go to the OS, it would still be worth it to me. For reference, I love Lightroom Classic and I have used it since version 1, and even before as its predecessor Pixmantec's Rawshooter). I just wish they'd make it even easier to work with the files directly in the OS when necessary. I do understand it keeps it's own database and that complicates matters, but where there's a problem, clever people rise to the occasion with a solution! Maybe another good use for AI.
great stuff so thank you. Well I have photos everywhere and started using folders instead of collections. will make the switch now. Any recommendation on how best to do this? I was doing all the renaming in LRC though. 10 years worth of pics basically multiple places and USB's internal and external hard drives etc. Trying to clean up the mess. got a few exclamation points on pics. Thanks for all the free help.
Im watching your Lightroom Masterclass. After an external SSD is added correctly through LR & images added, does LR recognize the SSD if I connect it to another USB port the next time I access the SSD? Does the SSD have to be connected to the same USB input to be recognized? Thank you!
Great masterclass Terry, I see you are using a Mac. I am trying to create a new catalog and am not able to move my SSD file setup into LRC by dragging and dropping. Is there another step or process to setup my file system in LRC for a PC ? Thanks for anyone's reply for this.
Hi Terry. I just found your channel and have been binging on your content ever since. I’ve been a LR user for ten years and everything is organized by date. I probably have upwards of 400,000 photos in LR. It’s impossible to find anything. I love your system, but how can I possible organize all those photos into your system. Please tell me it’s possible without spending the next 5 years of my life doing it.
400.000 sounds a lot, is it personal/family and work/photography mixed or more of something specific? You have folders by date I guess. Are the photos a mix from different cameras/cards and sources/origin with original unstructured file names OR do you import and rename photos with date or numerical? Are you also saving photos from a mobile, either downloaded through Adobe cloud to your main directory or saved manually into separate folders later imported into Lightroom? Lightroom or Lightroom Classic?
My preference filepath and filename for my imported photos is: YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD/YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-ÖM-9464. xxx A photo from my camera: ”IMG_9464 .xxx” could be: 2025/2025-12-31/20251231-235959-ÖM-9464 .xxx After Lightroom import I add descriptions AFTER the date in the folderpath. 2025/2025-12-31 City-Place Event Client’s/ If to many folders in a year, I instead move the folder to “Weddings”, “Family”, etc. Depending on origin of images I use different main directories: Images-Camera/ (From dedicated cameras, imported to Lightroom Classic) Images-Cloud/ (Select/album mobile photos from AdobeCloud to Lightroom Classic) Images-iPad/ (Manually saved/backuped image folders from iPad) Images-iPhone/ (Manually saved/backuped image folders from iPhone) Images-Other/ (Images from older phones, scanned docs, projects, family-tree) Images-Unsorted/ (Images needing more structure, often from family or friends) ---- --- ------------------------------------ Needs more thought … (((If exported for website: 20251231-2359-Photo-by-Örjan-Magnusson.xxx ???))) (((If exported for weddingclient : 20251231-2359 Description Photo-by-Örjan-Magnusson.xxx ???)))
@@orjanjhmagnusson thanks for your reply. I don’t think I understand your system, but I know I need to find a better organization strategy than by date as it is.
I am fairly new to editing and currently working on organization of all of my images. so after watching your class, I now have an improved plan for the original files.........what about the edited pictures, how do you track on edits or unfinished edits (especially for JPEG's that I had for years and scanned pictures), what system should I implement? What kind of folder system do you have for the finished and exported pics? And, I abandoned my first catalogue, is there a way to just recoup the completed or unfinished edits that were not exported? So glad I found your classes. Lots and lots to learn for this amateur.
Terry thanks 4 your teachings, QUESTION: I found a way SYNC RAW FROM CAMERA TO THE CLOUD. Prior to importing I created a Smart Collect called { My Synced images} Now, on import I have it set to { copy as DNG} and next, click { ad to collection} when you do a drop down opens where i click { My Synced images }. From there I click import. When done the library opens and it show in { images synced to cloud} the NO. of images say I just did 2 - it will show 2. Then i go to my smart collection and open { My Synced images } and there it is -- the original High resolution RAW file. Therefore, Doing it this way, will my RAW once synced still be reduced in size?
When starting a new catalog, why build the folder structure in the OS? Can't you build that whole structure from within Lightroom? Anyone's answer is appreciated.
Because it’s usually faster. It’s where the images are already located. It’s an easy concept for beginners to grasp and reminds them that this is where your images really reside.
Is any of this written down? Lightroom as a DAM, The way of working with collections and smart collections? If I edit and image in both or eighter, and save a copy does it automatically appear in the collections? Then on to Lightroom in the cloud and publish collections and finally portfolio. I would like written logic and diagrams please.
How do you duplicate or copy this catalog? I have watched many videos of how to move the catalog but how do you copy so you can back it up whenever you add files to the catalog?
If I access a photo via a Collection, then Run the photo through Topaz Auto AI, I dont seem to be able to find the now DNG file, just the original CR3 file. I assume its because the new file has not been identified in the collection. Is there a work around for this?
HD crashed and links lost. Is there a trick to re-establishing the link between LR and a file that has been edited in PS and returned to LR. I've tried to re-link but but LR says it can link to a file only once. ???
Good morning, in my document preflight it shows an error of Text not scaled proportionally, but all the text is with the same scale: 103%. I've changed it to 100% but it's still showing error. Would you help me? Thankful.
I have a collection in LrC sync‘ed with LrM. When I de-sync the collection in LrC, newly added photos will of course no longer be sync‘ed. However, previously synch‘ed photos remain in LrM. They are not removed (de-sync‘ed). Anyone knows how to change that?
I can edit my DNG file in Photoshop then decide to return it as a TIFF in the Lightroom library or I save it as a PSD in a folder outside the Lightroom Library. Now the Lightroom Library has no idea a PSD exists. I’m using a messed up system by adding the keyword PSD to let me know there is an extra PSD in that hidden hard drive folder. What now …is there a fix? Should my PSD’s be stored in my single Lightroom Library?
How about naming a folder by date YYYYMMDD-A. Allows you to have up to 36 folders lettered A to Z a day. Name each photo in folders as (dated given folder name)with number 001 added in sequential order. There is no way I will make more than 35964 photos a day. Next I may create collection ‘Cat Photos’ to collect my prized cat photos.
this is definitely a to each his own preference, but dates are meaningless to me when it comes to looking for photos. I can find a photo I took in Paris if the photo is in a folder called "Paris" much faster then thinking about the date I was there or took it. The only exception to that is that I have Smart Collections by year just so I can see how many shots I took (and edited) in a given year, but not to find a photo.
Absolutely fantastic! I wish someone would have told me....get organized before you import 1000's of pictures into your computer! I was checking each box for each issue you mentioned...done that, done that, done that! Thanks for driving and showing how to manage a catalog and folder from Lightroom. No more OS. My clean up took me a few hours and now I'm confident on where my pics are at and better yet, I've created a new process for importing only the pictures I want to edit into Lightroom. Thanks a million, Terry! You're a great teacher.
You Sir are a really great teacher. Thank you You have really opened my eyes to what Lightroom is about.
Thank you!
Mine in a mess. 😢
Really appreciate your help with this, exactly how I needed to hear it….🤝
Thanks very much, Terry. Great explaination.
A gem of a masterclass!
Most concise simplified lesson on this that I’ve seen. Thanks.
You have one of the few videos that explain how to connect an external drive and then move the photos from your computer to the new drive in LR. So simply, first plug in the hard drive :), I really appreciate how easy you made this for me Terry
Thanks!
Excellent Class, Terry. Tysm.. I've bookmarked your amazing Web Page for my go to tech hub in the future. Previously, I messed up my entire catalog due to reorganizing on the external drives themselves. If the catalog data must remain on the HD itself, (how much space does it take up?), is it best to begin a new consolidated catalog on internal HD and "import from another catalog" even tho a the data is now on several diff externals? prob 30 T of material on 10 diff externals. How best to reorganize to not lose the edits? I heard the instructions at 27:00!! so clearly but I've already screwed it up.
THANK you SO MUCH!!! mY computer crashed and my reinstalled LR no longer recognized anything, anywhere. Plus I also added a new external HD to store everything to have 3X backups. I now know how to put everything back together. Priceless
Thanks for the detailed explanations and numerous examples of the various problems in lightroom classic. This video helped me a lot to understand the working of the program LRC and thus to work better with it in the future/Germany 07/23
Excellent clear explanation of why people experience a mess in LR and on how to avoid it. Thank you so much!
Always super informative. Even though I have been using LRC for many years I always learn something from your classes. Thanks!
Thank you!
Great points, but I wish there was some content on how to have photos synched and keeping it less messy between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom (the cloud version). I've been using Lightroom earlier and the pics I wanted to edit are in cloud. They also exist in my hard drive as backup. Now I started using Lightroom classic, and I turned on Sync , now my Cloud photos are brought into LrC, while I have imported the same photos from my hard drive to LrC as well. Now I am not sure how I can remove these duplicates. I would like to keep the edited versions from Cloud but its hard to find and compare what was uploaded and what was not. Its also bringing full size images to LrC, effectively doubling the space for every single photo (in my harddrive and one from the cloud)
Great tutorial about the library manager in LR!! The library manager is one of the reasons I have chosen for LR!
Hello Terry,
I’m a long time follower of yours. I really appreciate your thorough explanations and tutorials. Just a side note, I have been using Adobe Lightroom since the first Beta releases. Some time back you had a tutorial on your conversion from Drobo to Synology NAS and it was most helpful. I too have the Drobo system and want to make the move to the 5 bay version. I have all my photos on a 5 bay 5D drobo and those files are backed up in a RAID configuration on another (Drobo S) back up. Can you offer any tips or suggestions related to this setup for converting over to the Synology NAS? I can’t quite get my head around this, but I am assuming this will just replace my current setup.
Thanks! Having gone from Drobo to Synology this year, I only wish that I had done it sooner. Here's my blog post on my switch: terrywhite.com/how-to-store-and-backup-your-photos-like-a-pro/
It's unfortunate, but the reason I go to the OS for library management is because if you want to reorganize your library, LR is super slow to move around folders full of files and has only manual (one at a time) rename capabilities.
A simple example: I sometimes realize that during an import I had LR add info to the filenames that was incorrect or a word was misspelled. In my OS file manager (Directory-Opus), it takes about a minute to do a search and replace on the whole set of file names to correct them. It would be a manual, one at a time effort in LR.
The easy solution, if you need to do something like that, is to make sure to 1) have LR write out the latest metadata to the sidecar files for all photos that will be changed externally..this can .take time but it's all done by LR on its own. 2) Move or rename the files as needed in the OS, doing the same with any sidecar files 3) Tell LR to synchronize the folder or the hierarchy of affected folders.
There are a number of examples I could list where LR's file management capabilities are just too poor to suggest users never take advantage of other programs to do file management where LR is limited. So I think that's a method worth pointing out to your viewers.
Caveat: I'm not sure whether this method would preserve links to collections, since currently, I don't use them to store "permanent" groupings/associations, and I have not tested that. But in the cases where I need to go to the OS, it would still be worth it to me. For reference, I love Lightroom Classic and I have used it since version 1, and even before as its predecessor Pixmantec's Rawshooter). I just wish they'd make it even easier to work with the files directly in the OS when necessary. I do understand it keeps it's own database and that complicates matters, but where there's a problem, clever people rise to the occasion with a solution! Maybe another good use for AI.
Really useful and clear I still don't understand why Adobe couldn't call Collections and Albums the same thing across Classic and CC that doesn't help
great stuff so thank you. Well I have photos everywhere and started using folders instead of collections. will make the switch now. Any recommendation on how best to do this? I was doing all the renaming in LRC though. 10 years worth of pics basically multiple places and USB's internal and external hard drives etc. Trying to clean up the mess. got a few exclamation points on pics. Thanks for all the free help.
Im watching your Lightroom Masterclass. After an external SSD is added correctly through LR & images added, does LR recognize the SSD if I connect it to another USB port the next time I access the SSD? Does the SSD have to be connected to the same USB input to be recognized? Thank you!
Yes. Once added to LrC it uses the drive name to know it’s connected. Doesn’t matter which port.
Great masterclass Terry, I see you are using a Mac. I am trying to create a new catalog and am not able to move my SSD file setup into LRC by dragging and dropping. Is there another step or process to setup my file system in LRC for a PC ? Thanks for anyone's reply for this.
Hi Terry. I just found your channel and have been binging on your content ever since. I’ve been a LR user for ten years and everything is organized by date. I probably have upwards of 400,000 photos in LR. It’s impossible to find anything. I love your system, but how can I possible organize all those photos into your system. Please tell me it’s possible without spending the next 5 years of my life doing it.
400.000 sounds a lot, is it personal/family and work/photography mixed or more of something specific? You have folders by date I guess. Are the photos a mix from different cameras/cards and sources/origin with original unstructured file names OR do you import and rename photos with date or numerical? Are you also saving photos from a mobile, either downloaded through Adobe cloud to your main directory or saved manually into separate folders later imported into Lightroom? Lightroom or Lightroom Classic?
My preference filepath and filename for my imported photos is:
YYYY/YYYY-MM-DD/YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-ÖM-9464. xxx
A photo from my camera: ”IMG_9464 .xxx” could be:
2025/2025-12-31/20251231-235959-ÖM-9464 .xxx
After Lightroom import I add descriptions AFTER the date in the folderpath.
2025/2025-12-31 City-Place Event Client’s/
If to many folders in a year, I instead move the folder to “Weddings”, “Family”, etc.
Depending on origin of images I use different main directories:
Images-Camera/ (From dedicated cameras, imported to Lightroom Classic)
Images-Cloud/ (Select/album mobile photos from AdobeCloud to Lightroom Classic)
Images-iPad/ (Manually saved/backuped image folders from iPad)
Images-iPhone/ (Manually saved/backuped image folders from iPhone)
Images-Other/ (Images from older phones, scanned docs, projects, family-tree)
Images-Unsorted/ (Images needing more structure, often from family or friends)
---- --- ------------------------------------
Needs more thought …
(((If exported for website: 20251231-2359-Photo-by-Örjan-Magnusson.xxx ???)))
(((If exported for weddingclient : 20251231-2359 Description Photo-by-Örjan-Magnusson.xxx ???)))
@@orjanjhmagnusson thanks for your reply. I don’t think I understand your system, but I know I need to find a better organization strategy than by date as it is.
@@rheahalona I reworked/simplified/shortened it down a bit if you want to look at it again.
Thanks for your help. Question, where and how do you organize videos files?
And, no matter what the Catalog stays on the Computer more than likely?
Right along side the photos in folders and collections. Yes the catalog always stays on the main drive.
I am fairly new to editing and currently working on organization of all of my images. so after watching your class, I now have an improved plan for the original files.........what about the edited pictures, how do you track on edits or unfinished edits (especially for JPEG's that I had for years and scanned pictures), what system should I implement? What kind of folder system do you have for the finished and exported pics? And, I abandoned my first catalogue, is there a way to just recoup the completed or unfinished edits that were not exported? So glad I found your classes. Lots and lots to learn for this amateur.
Terry thanks 4 your teachings, QUESTION: I found a way SYNC RAW FROM CAMERA TO THE CLOUD. Prior to importing I created a Smart Collect called { My Synced images} Now, on import I have it set to { copy as DNG} and next, click { ad to collection} when you do a drop down opens where i click { My Synced images }. From there I click import. When done the library opens and it show in { images synced to cloud} the NO. of images say I just did 2 - it will show 2. Then i go to my smart collection and open { My Synced images } and there it is -- the original High resolution RAW file. Therefore, Doing it this way, will my RAW once synced still be reduced in size?
When starting a new catalog, why build the folder structure in the OS? Can't you build that whole structure from within Lightroom? Anyone's answer is appreciated.
Because it’s usually faster. It’s where the images are already located. It’s an easy concept for beginners to grasp and reminds them that this is where your images really reside.
Is any of this written down? Lightroom as a DAM, The way of working with collections and smart collections? If I edit and image in both or eighter, and save a copy does it automatically appear in the collections? Then on to Lightroom in the cloud and publish collections and finally portfolio. I would like written logic and diagrams please.
How do you duplicate or copy this catalog? I have watched many videos of how to move the catalog but how do you copy so you can back it up whenever you add files to the catalog?
If I access a photo via a Collection, then Run the photo through Topaz Auto AI, I dont seem to be able to find the now DNG file, just the original CR3 file. I assume its because the new file has not been identified in the collection. Is there a work around for this?
HD crashed and links lost. Is there a trick to re-establishing the link between LR and a file that has been edited in PS and returned to LR. I've tried to re-link but but LR says it can link to a file only once. ???
Good morning, in my document preflight it shows an error of Text not scaled proportionally, but all the text is with the same scale: 103%. I've changed it to 100% but it's still showing error. Would you help me? Thankful.
I have a collection in LrC sync‘ed with LrM. When I de-sync the collection in LrC, newly added photos will of course no longer be sync‘ed. However, previously synch‘ed photos remain in LrM. They are not removed (de-sync‘ed). Anyone knows how to change that?
I can edit my DNG file in Photoshop then decide to return it as a TIFF in the Lightroom library or I save it as a PSD in a folder outside the Lightroom Library. Now the Lightroom Library has no idea a PSD exists. I’m using a messed up system by adding the keyword PSD to let me know there is an extra PSD in that hidden hard drive folder. What now …is there a fix? Should my PSD’s be stored in my single Lightroom Library?
Hello from Malta 🇲🇹
How about naming a folder by date YYYYMMDD-A. Allows you to have up to 36 folders lettered A to Z a day. Name each photo in folders as (dated given folder name)with number 001 added in sequential order. There is no way I will make more than 35964 photos a day. Next I may create collection ‘Cat Photos’ to collect my prized cat photos.
this is definitely a to each his own preference, but dates are meaningless to me when it comes to looking for photos. I can find a photo I took in Paris if the photo is in a folder called "Paris" much faster then thinking about the date I was there or took it. The only exception to that is that I have Smart Collections by year just so I can see how many shots I took (and edited) in a given year, but not to find a photo.