How do you back up a Lightroom Classic catalog, not just the photos?
Quick Answer
Lightroom's built-in "back up catalog" prompt only zips the .lrcat file to one local folder you picked once - it skips previews, smart previews, and never leaves your computer. Treat the catalog like a database, not a photo: apply the same 3-2-1 rule you already use for photos, with at least one copy stored offsite.
Ask ten photographers how they back up Lightroom Classic and nine will describe a photo backup: two drives, maybe a cloud copy of the RAW files, done. None of that protects the thing most likely to actually fail first.
I build Lightroom Classic publish plugins for a living, which means I spend a lot of time inside the catalog file structure that most backup tutorials never open. Here's what a Lightroom Classic catalog actually contains, why the built-in backup prompt only covers part of it, and how to apply 3-2-1 to the whole thing instead of just your photos.
What's actually inside a Lightroom Classic catalog?
A Lightroom Classic catalog isn't one file. It's three pieces that only work together, and backing up just the .lrcat is backing up roughly a third of it.
- The .lrcat file. A SQLite database holding every develop adjustment, keyword, star rating, color label, collection and Smart Collection, virtual copy, GPS tag, and face region you've ever added. None of this lives in the photo file itself unless you've also turned on automatic XMP writing (worth doing alongside this - I cover it in my post on XMP sidecar files).
- Standard previews. A "CatalogName Previews.lrdata" folder sitting next to the .lrcat, holding the rendered previews Library and Loupe use so Lightroom isn't decoding RAW files on every click.
- Smart Previews. A separate "CatalogName Smart Previews.lrdata" folder: compressed DNG stand-ins that let you keep editing in Develop when your originals are on a disconnected drive.
- Publish service state. Every Publish Service you run - Google Photos, Google Drive, a lab, a client gallery - stores its sync history inside the catalog: which local photo maps to which remote asset, and what's already been pushed. Lose the catalog and recreate the service, and Lightroom can't tell what it already published. It treats every photo as new.
That last point is the one I see skipped most. If you've spent months building out Publish Service connections, that bookkeeping is catalog-only. There's no export or sidecar that preserves it.
Why Lightroom's built-in "back up catalog" prompt isn't enough on its own
Catalog Settings > General has a "Back up catalog" option you can set to run every time you quit, once a day, once a week, or never. When it fires, Lightroom copies the .lrcat file (and optionally runs an integrity check) into a dated subfolder at a location you chose once, probably months ago, and likely forgot about.
What it skips: the Previews.lrdata and Smart Previews.lrdata folders, and your actual photos - neither was ever its job. Both preview types are regenerable from your originals, but regenerating Smart Previews for a 40,000-photo library can tie up your machine for the better part of a day.
The bigger risk is where that backup folder usually points. Most photographers leave it on the same internal drive the working catalog already lives on, so a single drive failure takes out the original and the "backup" together. And because the prompt only fires on quit, clicking "Skip this time" a few sessions in a row means the backup you're trusting is older than you think.
Applying the 3-2-1 rule to a catalog instead of just your photos
You already know 3-2-1 for photos: three copies, on two different kinds of media, with one stored offsite. Apply the identical structure to the catalog:
- Copy 1 - the live catalog on your working drive, the one Lightroom has open right now.
- Copy 2 - a second copy on different media. Either Lightroom's own backup prompt pointed at a second internal or external drive, or a general backup tool (Time Machine, File History, a NAS snapshot) that already covers your catalog folder on its normal schedule.
- Copy 3 - offsite, meaning physically or geographically separate from copies 1 and 2, so one event (drive failure, theft, fire, ransomware) can't take out more than one copy at a time.
Where the offsite copy should live, and what breaks if you skip it
Two options do the job: an external drive you physically rotate to another location, or a cloud drive you push a zipped copy to on a schedule. Cloud wins on convenience, but it only counts if it's automated - a manual "I'll upload it later" step is exactly the kind that gets skipped during a busy shoot week.
Zip the .lrcat file together with the Smart Previews.lrdata folder (standard previews are the cheapest thing here to regenerate, so leaving them out of the zip is a fair space trade-off) and push that archive to your cloud location weekly at minimum, more often if you edit daily.
Worth being precise about tooling here: I also build the Google Drive plugin, which publishes your edited exports straight from Lightroom to a Drive folder as a Publish Service - a photo-storage job, built for rendered JPEGs and TIFFs, not a catalog-backup one. For the catalog zip, the plugin is the wrong tool: use Drive for desktop syncing a dedicated backup folder, or a scheduled drag-and-drop, so the zip reaches the cloud without going near Lightroom's publish pipeline.
What breaks if you skip the offsite copy: your working catalog and your local backup live in the same room, on the same power circuit. A fire, a theft, or a drive-wide ransomware encryption takes out both at once, and whatever's left in the cloud - if anything - is the only thing standing between you and starting your organization from zero.
The Google Drive plugin publishes your Lightroom Classic exports straight to a Drive folder - a separate job from backing up the catalog itself, but one more reason to already have Drive set up.
Catalog backup vs. photo-file backup: a practical comparison and a weekly checklist
These are two different backup jobs with different schedules and different recovery times. Side by side:
| Catalog backup | Photo-file backup |
|---|---|
| Protects: edits, keywords, ratings, collections, publish history | Protects: the original RAW and derivative pixels |
| Changes: every editing session | Changes: only on import |
| Should live: local backup + offsite/cloud zip | Should live: local backup + offsite/cloud copy |
| Recovery time: minutes, if the zip is current | Recovery time: as long as the transfer takes |
A simple weekly checklist covers both without much thought required:
- Confirm Lightroom's backup prompt actually ran this week - check the dated subfolder it created, don't just trust that the dialog appeared.
- Zip the current .lrcat file plus the Smart Previews.lrdata folder.
- Push that zip to your offsite or cloud location.
- Spot-check one Publish Service to confirm it still shows the sync status you expect.
- Confirm your photo-file backup (the separate job) also ran on its own schedule.
Frequently asked questions
If I lose my catalog but still have my photos, what do I actually lose?
Every develop adjustment, keyword, star rating, color label, collection, Smart Collection, virtual copy, GPS tag, and face region you've added, plus every publish service's sync history. The original RAW pixels are untouched, but none of your editing or organizing work survives unless it was also written to XMP sidecar files or a recent catalog backup.
How often should I back up my Lightroom Classic catalog?
Set Lightroom's own prompt (Catalog Settings > General > Back up catalog) to every time you quit, or at least daily during active editing. Push a zipped copy of the .lrcat file (and Smart Previews, if you rely on them) to an offsite or cloud location at least weekly - more often if you edit daily.
Does Lightroom back up Smart Previews automatically?
No. Lightroom's built-in backup prompt copies only the .lrcat database file. The Smart Previews.lrdata and Previews.lrdata folders that sit next to it are never included. Smart Previews are regenerable from your originals, but regenerating them for a large library can take hours of machine time, so a direct copy is worth the drive space if you depend on them for remote editing.
Can I store my Lightroom catalog backup directly in Google Drive?
Yes, but not through a Lightroom Publish Service, which is built for photo files, not a database file your catalog is actively using. Point Google Drive for desktop at a folder on your computer, drop your zipped catalog backup into that folder on a schedule, and let Drive sync it to the cloud. That keeps the catalog backup separate from any photo-publishing workflow.
How do I actually restore from a Lightroom Classic catalog backup?
Close Lightroom, move or rename the current (damaged) .lrcat file, copy your backup .lrcat into its place, and double-click it to open. If your backup predates recent edits, drag the matching Previews.lrdata and Smart Previews.lrdata folders alongside it too, so Lightroom does not need to rebuild them from scratch on the next launch.