{"id":2434,"date":"2014-06-26T23:47:35","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T14:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-06-26\/2434"},"modified":"2014-06-26T23:47:35","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T14:47:35","slug":"lightroom-catalog-maintenance-clearing-out-edit-history-for-potential-performance-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2014-06-26\/2434","title":{"rendered":"Lightroom Catalog Maintenance: Clearing Out Edit History For Potential Performance Gains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 140 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSerene Japanese Garden<\/span>\n'cause nuts-n-bolts digital maintenance like this post is about can give a headache<\/span>\nToji Temple (\u6771\u5bfa), Kyoto Japan, April 2013\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

This post is about trimming down the file size of an Adobe Lightroom\ncatalog. In keeping<\/span> with the off-season them of\nmy previous post (which was filled with fall-foliage\nphotos<\/a>), this post is sprinkled with a few<\/span>\nphotos from Kyoto springs past, chosen more for their mentally-calming\neffect than for photographic quality, which they generally lack. (Sorry)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n

In a nutshell, if<\/i> you have a large<\/span> Lightroom catalog, and\nif<\/i> you don't need the detailed editing history for your photos, you\nmight<\/i> be able to significantly reduce the size of your Lightroom\ncatalog by flushing that edit-history data, which might<\/i> generally\nimprove overall responsiveness when working in Lightroom.<\/p>\n\n

As one data point, my personal Lightroom catalog holding data for 134,026 photos and\nvideos went from 3.9GB to 1.7GB, a savings<\/span> of 56%.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCherry-Blossom Whiteout<\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Before you can do this, you have to decide whether the edit history is\ndata you don't want to keep. It's a log<\/span> of every\nchange made in the develop module, as illustrated here:<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>\n\n

Lightroom allows you to return the image to any given step by clicking\non the step in the list, which can be quite convenient while you're working\non an image. But if you<\/span>'re like me, it's\nof practical use only while actively working on an image. For editing<\/span> states that I\nwant<\/span> to save over time, I use either<\/span>\nsnapshots (such as automatically made via my\nSnapshot on Export plugin<\/a>), or virtual copies.<\/p>\n\n

So I personally don't need the step-by-step editing history to be saved\nfor years and years in the catalog, so I hope<\/span> I'll get some benefit by\nclearing it out.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f\/2.8 @ 14mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>100 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRock Garden<\/span>\nRyouanji Temple (\u9f8d\u5b89\u5bfa), Kyoto Japan, April 2013\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Just how much benefit the clearing-out provides remains an open\nquestion. It's obviously<\/span> better to have a smaller<\/span> catalog file, though I\nhaven't<\/span> run any quantitative tests to put a number<\/span> to it as I have<\/span> in some\nearlier write-ups (such as I did<\/span> in “<\/span>An Analysis of\nLightroom JPEG Export Quality Settings<\/a>”<\/span> and “<\/span>A Qualitative<\/span>\nAnalysis of NEF Compression<\/a>”<\/span>).<\/p>\n\n

A reduction in catalog size clearly makes backups smaller and faster,\nand you are<\/i> backing up your Lightroom catalog, right? It contains<\/span> a\nlot<\/i> of data that would be painful if not impossible to recreate if\nyou lost it. But one assumes<\/span> a smaller<\/span> file makes any of its database\naccess quicker, and so day-to-day interaction with those aspects of\nLightroom should, one reasons, be faster<\/p>\n\n\n

The procedure is easy, but before doing it, it's perhaps interesting to\nknow the size of your catalog file before flushing edit-history data, as a\npoint<\/span> of comparison with after. To check<\/span> the file size, first optimize the\ncatalog (in Lightroom, invoke “<\/span>File > Optimize Catalog...<\/b>”<\/span>, exit\nLightroom, then check the size of the “<\/span>*.lrcat<\/b>”<\/span> catalog file using\nFinder or Explorer.<\/p>\n\n

Then make a backup of the catalog file, just in case. You can do<\/span> so by\nzipping up a copy<\/span> in Finder or Explorer, or you can use\nLightroom's backup mechanism<\/a>, though the latter can be excruciatingly\nslow for large catalogs.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 140 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSearching for Improved Performance<\/span>\nToji Temple (\u6771\u5bfa), Kyoto Japan, April 2013\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Now to flush the edit-history data. Back in Lightroom, select the images\nthat you want to do this to. I selected<\/span> everything, but you can select a\nsubset.<\/span> You might<\/span> select all but recent photos, for example.<\/p>\n\n

If you want to select everything, it's a bit<\/span> complex because of how Lightroom handles photos in\nstacks. First select “<\/span>All Photographs”<\/span> in the “<\/span>Catalog”<\/span> section in the upper left of Library, then visit the “<\/span>Library”<\/span> menu and make sure that “<\/span>Enable\nFilters”<\/span> doesn't have a checkmark<\/span> (click “<\/span>Enable Filters”<\/span> if it does). Then “<\/span>File >\nSelect All”<\/span> and then “<\/span>Photo > Stacking > Expand All Stacks”<\/span>. Then, finally, again invoke “<\/span>File > Select All”<\/span>, and now you should truly have every item in your library selected.<\/p>\n\n

In any case, once you've made your selection, enter the Develop module, and invoke “<\/span>Develop\n> Clear History...<\/b>”<\/span> menu item, and if you've selected more than one image, you'll be\npresented with a dialog<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>\n\n

Choose “<\/span>Selected Photos”<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

You then have to wait “<\/span>a while<\/span>”<\/span> for the process to complete. Lightroom\ngives no indication that anything is going on under the hood, but if you\nhave a CPU<\/span>-activity monitor running, you'll see it working for a while.<\/span> It's unfortunate<\/span> that Lightroom doesn't expose this background task's progress\nso you can know for sure when it's done. If you don<\/span>'t have a CPU<\/span>-activity monitor,\nI'll blindly suggest waiting at least a minute<\/span> for every 25,000 items selected.<\/p>\n\n

You can use Lightroom while this is going on, or just let it sit.<\/p>\n\n

Once you're ready to see the results, again invoke “<\/span>File > Optimize Catalog...<\/b>”<\/span>,\nexit Lightroom, and inspect the new size.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2000 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 1000 —\nimage data<\/a><\/span>\nPoof<\/span>\nyour catalog file might be much smaller now\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Mine reduced to less than half of what it had been, but your results\nwill depend on your own editing history, of course. Lots of\nlocal-correction brush strokes, for example, makes for much larger history\ndata, so when clearing it out, for much more savings.<\/p>\n\n

If you choose to do this, how much savings for how large a catalog<\/span> did you get?<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 160 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCherry Blossoms<\/span>\na nice way to end any post\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a>  ·  2880×<\/span>1800<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is about trimming down the file size of an Adobe Lightroom catalog. In keeping with the off-season them of my previous post (which was filled with fall-foliage photos), this post is sprinkled with a few photos from Kyoto springs past, chosen more for their mentally-calming effect than for photographic quality, which they generally lack. (Sorry)<\/p>

In a nutshell, if you have a large Lightroom catalog, and if you don't need the detailed editing history for your photos, you might be able to significantly reduce the size of your Lightroom catalog by flushing that edit-history data, which might generally [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13,6,4,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}