Another Thing They Fixed In Lightroom 3
OK, this isn’t the biggest fix in Lightroom 3, nor the most important fix, or even a fix that most folks would even notice at first, but it’s one of those little things that has annoyed me since Lightroom 1, and now instead of grimacing each time I see it, now I smile.
They changed it so the “Backup Catalog” dialog box, which used to appear when you launch Lightroom—-now only appears when you Quit, which to me just makes so much sense. I always felt having it show up when you first launched Lightroom was kind of like asking you to Save a blank document right when you first open it (even though I know what we’re doing isn’t technically ’saving;’ we’re backing up the catalog, but I’d rather back-up the catalog after I’ve been working on it for hours—-not before I even start).
Anyway, I’m not sure how many of you noticed (or even cared), but I’d just like to throw out a “Yeah Baby!” to whomever made the call at Adobe to move this feature so it only appears when you Quit Lightroom. (Code: IAARRWTNWIW).
Scott, spot on… it was annoying as! One of my pet hates! Glad they are looking into it…
Although, now all we have to wait for is the pricing. And how the rest of the world(non )US will be treated to a jacked-up price for buying the upgrade! Adobe does it with perfection and consistency!
I think they should just let this backup run in the background, and not even ask the user about it.
And it should run more often – not just on open or exit.
HI Scott,
Yep totally agree with you that this needed moving. I have it set so that the dialogue box would appear every time I launch Lightroom cos of a bit of a problem with a corrupt HD a while back; long story but I hadn’t got a recent backup so this was a hard lesson learned.
Anyways, I too never saw the logic in backing up first and then working on images; surely as is now the case, working on your images and then backing up at the ‘close of business’ is the way to go.
Good on Adobe for making the move,
All the best to you and yours,
Glyn
Now if LR would display the date of the last backup and an auto delete option that would remove the 3rd oldest backup. Then I could find happiness
David
Great!
This thing bugged me too much , and it an amazing fix
Well . i have a question here , why should i do this backup if i already backed my stuff b4 lunching lightroom? coz what i see is that it creates a backup on top of the backup i did b4 which is the same thing but a different folder. I’ts taking more space of my HD
* isn’t the backing i do b4 lunching lightroom would save any changes i do to pictures? then why another backup on top of it?
I would always skip it, thus, rendering the back up option irrelevant. On closing is the obvious place to put the dialogue. Nice.
Makes no sense to me at all. Why didn’t they just go the whole 9 yards and give the user the option to make the backup automatic. THEN decide whether is should be done first or last. I want my catalog backed up every time I access it. Yes, at the end is better, but why the dumb pop up window. Just do it and be done, then auto close the app.
I also am more likely to do it when it is on close then on open. When I am opening I am wanting to get in there and do something so I usually click “no” which is not good because I really do need to back it up.
On close means I can say yes and move on to whatever I am doing next. Good call by the Adobe guys!
I noticed that you can now add Flash State as a rule for Smart Collections, I was very happy to see that as in lightroom2 it is not possible. Now I can easily sort all the photos where the flash fired and where the flash did not fire.
Hiya scott
The word is spelled grimacing.
Hi Gene:
Thanks for catching that. Just fixed it.
-Scott
I always feel like adobe included it at startup to give you an alternative to working. Kind of like “we know you’re ready to work on your photos but how about a fifteen minute break before you start”. I skip the backup 90% of the time (only when I’m feeling guilty of neglecting it do I use it). Now if they could do the same with version updates!
Scott,
Totally agree with you, when I first started to use Lightroom 1 I didn’t have anything in there so why should I create a back up. Then as I started to use it I would create the back up at the end.
The backup request at start up always made me crazy. Often I’d skip.
Having it when closing out is so much better.
For my 2 cents as a “printer” the new customizable print layouts are amazing. I spent over and hour yesterday making templates, and seeing if I could crash LR3. Lots of new templates, no crashes or bugs that have jumped out yet. No problems communicating with the Z3100 yet either.
Sweet. That annoys me too, primarily because I have mine set to backup once a day, so each time I start Lightroom I have to wait for it to back up the database. It’s not the fastest thing in the world – and I’m usually waiting to import some photos I just shot.
And as you say, it just makes more sense to back up at close.
Too bad they didn’t add the option not to prompt me and just do the backup. I told you to backup once a week why do you have to ask me every week.
Hi Scott – I think this is much better!
As an aside — I took your class in Boston the other day and wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it.
Did you make your flight ok? I’m sure your family was glad to see you after being away so long!
Sheila
Not to mention it will most likely improve the chances of photographers actually performing the backup. When I’m ready to start editing, the last thing I want to deal with is the drudgery of backing up my catalog and waiting to start work. I’m ready to run, and when I’m done, I’m more ready to do the dirty work of catalog backup.
–Mike
Scott…I couldn’t agree more!!! I love that it is after the fact now! Good blog update.
Agreed.
You had me at “now only appears when you Quit..” : )
That is SO cool and has been so annoying.
I didn’t like the dialog coming up when I would open up Lightroom just to take a quick gander and the library and such, but I do have a compelling reason for it to maybe be there at the start up rather than the shut down of the app.
Backing up your library/catalog before you start working on it might be better in the sense that if the app crashes or there is some sort of failure of your computer etc… that could damage the catalog, wouldn’t it be nice to have a backup copy that was just done rather than a copy that wasn’t just done?
Think of it as making a copy of a layer before you work on it rather than making a copy after you make some edits.
Brilliant! It’s seems like such a small thing, a really annoying small thing. This change is huge!
What’s up with the “(Code: IAARRWTNWIW)” thing at the end of the post?
Oh your’re right, Scoot. It did annoy me either. To save something after editing makes much more sense.
Nice fix!
Keep in mind, the back up is just backing up the database, no images, no presets, no previews etc. While backing up the database IS important, I frankly never do this using LR but instead clone my entire drive that’s dedicated to just LR files and the associated images. Now that’s a backup. Its fast and easy using an application that only updates changes in data from the last back up.
Hopefully someday, LR will do this all itself.
I personally follow Matt Kloskowski’s approach to Lightroom backups which is to let my daily (and hourly) system backups take care of things. I use SuperDuper daily and Time Machine hourly to take care of my system backups, which means my Lightroom catalog is getting backed up regularly too. No need to use Lightroom’s backup.
That is great I cant say how many times I skip back up when I am in a rush to get my images out.
Thanks for this Scott. Do you know, I’ve always came out and reopened lightroom to back up my catalogue after a major shoot – this makes so much more sense. I will wait until the next beta comes out before testing.
I have noticed that too Scott many a times have I opened my catalog skipped the back up then re-open it to back up my recent changes. So this is an awesome new change!
unrelated BUT.
Just got Win 7 x64.
NEF thumbnails can’t be displayed in the explorer! Nikon has a code but only for 32bit operating systems.
What’s up with that?
Scott, maybe you can talk ‘to a guy’ at Nikon who would obviously listen to you and request a code for x64 win systems?
Having paid thousands of dollars for superior camera equipment, I hate that something as small as this ruins the experience.
Yes, I agree 100%! I’m more likely to backup … possibly after every session … because they changed this feature. Thanks Adobe!
Should it also Opitmize before backup? I know I like to defrag (to Opitmize) my Hard Drive before I do I complete backup. Anycase I LOVE that it backups at the end now. Good Job Adobe!!!!