backup - How to properly archive Lightroom

We've got 4 catalogs running on our production computer (Families, Weddings, Fashion, Personal). All of these catalogs contain images that we want to retain long term.

When our hard drive filled up, I moved all the original "raw" images over to our NAS (network attached storage) in order to free up space.

When we went back into the catalogs, we saw a "ghosted" folder of those pictures, since the raws were missing. Later, we needed to recover on of those images, and since it was on the NAS, all of the LR edits were lost.

I need a way to archive the images to the NAS, delete them from the primary computer, and still retain all of the Lightroom edits in case we need to recover the images.

What is the right way to achieve this?

Answer

The easy way: Use LR to move them.

1. Add the NAS folder to the folder list


2. Open the local folder in the library view


3. drag the images from the local folder to the NAS folder.

Note that this will lose the undo stack!

The better way: move them in the OS, then tell LR where you moved them to.

1. Quit LR


2. Do the move as you did, best to move the entire folder


3. Restart LR


4. in the Folder view you'll see the folder is greyed out with a question mark, right click on that folder and choose "find missing folder"


5. Navigate to the NAS and select the same root folder


6. wait.

Note that this is the way I highly encourage you to do it. And you will not loose your edits this way, or your undo stack. (At least I haven't, and I do that all the time.)