Create and manage catalogs

Choose File > New Catalog.

Specify the name and location of the new catalog folder, and then click Save (Windows) or Create (macOS).

Choose File > Open Catalog.

In the Open Catalog dialog box, specify the catalog file and then click Open.

You can also choose a catalog from the File > Open Recent menu.

If prompted, click Relaunch to close the current catalog and relaunch Lightroom Classic.

• Start Lightroom Classic for the first time.

• If you've opened Lightroom Classic previously, choose File > Open Catalog.

Navigate to the old catalog .lrcat file, and then click Open.

If prompted, click Relaunch to close the current catalog and restart Lightroom Classic.

Click Upgrade.

• Start Lightroom Classic for the first time.

• If you've opened Lightroom Classic previously, choose File > Import from Another Catalog.

Navigate to the old catalog .lrcat file, and then click Open.

Lightroom Classic will show a dialog to upgrade the catalog.

Once you upgrade the catalog, a copy of the older catalog will be saved in the Old Lightroom catalogs folder.

Locate the folder that contains the catalog and preview files. In Lightroom Classic, choose Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings (macOS).

In the Information area of the General panel, click Show to go to the catalog in the Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS).

Quit Lightroom Classic.

In the Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS), copy or move the catalog.lrcat, catalog.lrcat-data, Previews.lrdata, and (if present) Smart Previews.lrdata files to the new location.

Double-click the .lrcat file in the new location to open it in Lightroom Classic.

(Optional) If Lightroom Classic can't find folders or photos in the copied or moved catalog, a Question Mark icon appears by folder names in the Folders panel and an Exclamation Point icon appears in photo thumbnails in the Grid view. To restore folder links, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (macOS) a folder with a Question Mark icon and choose Find Missing Folder. To relink individual photos, see Locate missing photos.

Choose File > Export As Catalog.

Indicate whether you want to export the negative files and previews, and then click Save (Windows) or Export Catalog (macOS).

"Negative files" refers to the original files that were imported into Lightroom Classic.

The new catalog contains links to the selected photos and their information. You must open the new catalog to view it.

(Optional) To combine catalogs, import the new catalog into another. See Import photos from a different Lightroom Classic catalog.

Using the Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS), locate the folder that contains your catalog and drag it to the Recycling Bin (Windows) or Trash (macOS).

Important: Make sure that the folder you delete contains only the catalog files you intend to erase, and not additional files. 

To enhance performance, Lightroom Classic builds a Previews folder next to the .lrcat file in the Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS). It is safe to delete this folder as long as its name matches the .lrcat file name. If you delete a Previews folder that's still needed by a catalog, Lightroom Classic will regenerate it when you work in that catalog, but it will run more slowly until the previews are rebuilt.

Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Lightroom Classic > Preferences (macOS).

In the General tab, choose one of the following from the When Starting Up Use This Catalog menu:

Opens the most recent catalog you've been working with.

Opens the Select Catalog dialog box at startup so you can choose.

Lightroom Classic lists all of the catalogs in \Pictures\Lightroom (Windows) or /Pictures/Lightroom (macOS) for you to choose.

Allows you to navigate to a specific catalog file (.lrcat) and select it as the default catalog to open at startup.

Choose Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings (macOS).

In the General tab, specify any of the following:

Provides information such as the location, filename, and creation date of the catalog. Click Show to view the catalog file in Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS).

Lets you specify the frequency with which the current catalog is backed up. See Back up a catalog.

In the Previews, specify any of the following:

Determines how Lightroom Classic renders three types of image previews. All previews are stored in the preview cache file in the folder where your catalog is located.

Specifies the maximum length, in pixels, of the long side of full-size rendered previews. Choose a size that is equal to or larger than your screen resolution. For example, if your screen resolution is 1920 x 1200 pixels, choose Standard Preview Size > 2048 Pixels. If your screen resolution exceeds 2048 pixels, Lightroom Classic generates a 1:1 preview instead.

Specifies the appearance of the thumbnail previews. Low, Medium, and High are similar to the quality scale for JPEG images.

This setting specifies when 1:1 previews are discarded based on the most recent access to the preview. 1:1 previews have the same pixel dimensions as the original photos, and show sharpening and noise reduction. They are rendered as needed and can make the catalog preview file large, so it's good to discard them periodically.

Limit preview cache management allows users to allocate a specific size for the preview cache. Once the allocated limit is reached, Lightroom Classic will automatically start purging older previews in the background to maintain the set limit, ensuring efficient disk space management and optimal application performance. Previews that are 30 days or newer are never deleted. Once the user sets the preview cache size, Lightroom will continue to delete older previews (with a warning/info first and an option to increase the size) to satisfy the desired limit. The reasonable size for the preview cache should be based on how much space you want to allocate for previews, which can vary from user to user. If you have enough space and don’t mind Lightroom consuming it, you can set a higher limit. Additionally, Lightroom will purge previews when the app is idle, and there is no fixed time frame for when this can occur.

Indicates how much disk space is being used by Smart Previews. For information on using Smart Previews, see Smart Previews.

Specifies starting sequence numbers for photos as you import into the catalog. Import Number is the first number in a series that identifies how many import operations are performed. Photos Imported is the first number in a series that identifies how many photos have been imported into the catalog. See The Filename Template Editor and Text Template Editor.

In the Metadata tab, select any of the following:

When you start typing a metadata entry that resembles a previous entry, one or more suggestions appear as you type. Deselect this option to turn it off. Click Clear All Suggestion Lists to clear previous entries.

Deselect this option to prevent Lightroom Classic from including Develop module settings in the XMP metadata of JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and PSD files.

Select this option to save metadata changes directly to the XMP sidecar files, making the changes visible in other applications. Deselect this option to save metadata settings only in the catalog. For information on saving XMP changes manually, see About metadata and XMP.

Allows Lightroom Classic to send your photo's GPS coordinates, if available, to Google so that Lightroom Classic can determine the city, state, and country of the photo and add that information into the IPTC Location metadata.

If selected, Lightroom Classic includes Google-suggested IPTC Location metadata in photos when you export them.

This option controls whether Lightroom Classic writes a new date and time to proprietary raw files when you use the Metadata > Edit Capture Time command to change a photo's capture time metadata. By default, this option is not selected.

Choose File > Optimize Catalog.