Upgrading Lightroom can be a bit intimidating! You wouldn’t be alone to worry that all the time you’ve put into organizing your photos into catalogs, folders and collections might suddenly go POOF!
Or that maybe your whole computer might suddenly go POOF!
So it’s better to be prepared and feel secure that you can recover from any disaster that might occur.
Not that I think this is a risky thing to do or anything! But sometimes bad things happen and then you’ll really wish you had been prepared.
In this video, I take you through the process of upgrading Lightroom including all the steps I take before hand to make sure I can recover.
Click here to watch the video larger on YouTube.
Backup Process
Here are the steps I follow:
1. Make a backup of your Lightroom Catalog
2. Put a copy of that backup on an external hard drive
3. Make or update your boot disk
Making a boot disk is an essential component of a backup/recovery plan. It is an external hard drive that contains a copy of your operating system and all your software. If you were to turn on your computer one day and something really bad happens and your computer wont start up properly, you can use the boot disk to get your computer operational again. It can shorten recovery time from days to hours.
Every time I do anything significant to my computer, I update my boot disk so that I can recover if things go wrong.
Since I am using a Mac, I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make my boot disk.
4. Backup all your files and folders
Make a copy of all of your documents on your computer. I do this as a separate process from backing up my photos only because I do the photos much more frequently.
I use Time Machine for this purpose.
5. Backup all of your photos
Of course!! I do this after every photo shoot. I initially put all the photos on my main computer, and then I put a copy on an “archive” hard drive. After processing photos, I also make sure to copy the .tiff or .psd files over to the archive drive.
I again use Carbon Copy Cloner for this purpose. It makes it very easy to find any new or changed files and copy them over to the archive disk.
Lightroom Classic CC or Lightroom CC?
Now that you have everything backed up and you’re safe, you can go ahead and install Lightroom Classic CC or Lightroom CC. But which to choose?
For me, the answer was simple. I want Lightroom to behave the same way it did before with my files on my computer. Since I travel so much, I don’t like the idea of having my files stored in the cloud since I don’t always have decent internet access. The answer is Lightroom Classic CC. It works the same was as the stand alone version of Lightroom did.
On the other hand, Lightroom CC is a more streamlined version of Lightroom where everything is in the cloud. It also has fewer features than the Classic version of the software.
Installation Process
Once you purchase your “Photography Plan” from the Adobe website, the Adobe Desktop App will be installed on your computer if you don’t have it already. If you have it already, it will be updated to show the apps you are now able to install should you choose to do so.
With the Photography Plan, you’ll have access to Lightroom Classic CC, Lightroom CC , and Photoshop CC.
Click the “upgrade” button next to Lightroom Classic CC.
Once it finishes installing, click “open” next to Lightroom Classic CC.
Lightroom will automatically ask to upgrade your Catalog to a version that works with Classic. Don’t worry, it will also rename your catalog so it doesn’t overwrite your previous version.
After Installation
In the video, you’ll notice that I had a problem with missing develop presets after the upgrade. With a little research, I discovered that all I had to do was close Lightroom Classic and open it again and all my presets were there.
I hope this process goes as smoothly for you as it did for me!
That was great Anne, always a top notch explanation.
Thanks Dale, I’m glad you found it helpful.