Lightroom with online storage - Setup question

[The_Traveler]

Then I would probably put the catalog file directly in the onedrive or Dropbox folder and sync it with my other devices to have all the editing synchronized.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I've considered doing that as well, just wasn't sure if there would be any file locking that LR places on the catalog file that would interfere with OneDrive, or vice versa. It would be interesting to try, maybe I'll give it a shot.

When LR has the catalog open it creates a .lok (or .lock) file which is deleted when LR closes the catalog file.
Presence of the .lok file has never interfered with backups using syncback.
(If you try to open LR and it says that catalog is in use, (this occurs when there is unexpected app termination) just navigate to folder and delete the .lok file. Hurts nothing)

 

[JoL]

Alright, so right now I have all my photos stored on an external hard drive. The catalog is local on the Surface Pro.
After thinking about it some more the ideal thing would probably be to have the catalog file located in a dropbox folder to have all the editing synced. At the same time I want to have all the previews and smart previews on the local drive to not waste too much space. But I think this is not possible, right? So I would have to keep everything local and mirror the local catalog file to Dropbox.
Does this sound feasible? If yes, do you know of a simple sync program that would do the job?
Thanks again for sharing your opinion!

 

[JClishe]

Alright, so right now I have all my photos stored on an external hard drive. The catalog is local on the Surface Pro.
After thinking about it some more the ideal thing would probably be to have the catalog file located in a dropbox folder to have all the editing synced. At the same time I want to have all the previews and smart previews on the local drive to not waste too much space. But I think this is not possible, right? So I would have to keep everything local and mirror the local catalog file to Dropbox.
Does this sound feasible? If yes, do you know of a simple sync program that would do the job?
Thanks again for sharing your opinion!

You are correct that you cannot separate the catalog file from the previews and smart previews; they all live in the same directory path.

Why would you need a sync app to sync your files to Dropbox? Doesn't the Dropbox app already do this?

 

[JoL]

If I want Dropbox to sync the catalog file I'd have to put it into a synced Dropbox folder, or am I mistaken?
That would cause all the previews to be created in the same folder too and thus be synced as well.
Or can I select individual files to be synced with Dropbox?

 

[JClishe]

Yes you're correct. Sorry, I misunderstood your previous comment, I see know that you're asking about a utility to sync only the catalog file to the Dropbox folder, not the entire catalog folder tree. Something like SyncToy might work but you'd have to either manually initiate the sync or schedule it.