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Possible new MacBook Pro

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rctneil

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Jul 1, 2012
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218
Location
Cheshire
Lightroom Experience
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Hey,

I'm considering purchasing a MacBook Pro as a total replacement for my 2011 iMac.

Currently, with my iMac, I have my library on the internal drive and store all my photos on an external drive.

If I buy the MacBook Pro then the scenario when I am away from my external drive can occur at times. Can LR deal with this? Basically when I don't have the external drive connected then I am happy if I can at least browse my library, view photos (not necessarily full res) and do stuff in the library module.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Neil
 
LR6 uses Smart Previews stored in the same folder as your other previews folder and your catalog. Smart previews are designed for this scenario where the laptop is not always connected to the EHD containing the images. Don't skimp on the size of the MBP SSD and you will be fine.
 
LR6 uses Smart Previews stored in the same folder as your other previews folder and your catalog. Smart previews are designed for this scenario where the laptop is not always connected to the EHD containing the images. Don't skimp on the size of the MBP SSD and you will be fine.

Perfect. I did wonder if Smart Previews could help here. I'm thinking about getting the 512gb SSD. Say I don;t have Smart Previews for all my photos. Will I still be able to see standard previews but without develop functions?

What happens if I start to move photos in the Folders panel whilst the external drive is disconnected. Will changes sync up next time the disk is connected or should that sort of change be left until everything is connected?
 
You could use standard previews, but you only know one isn't generated when you find you can't see a picture. But you can rely on the smart previews, and do more too - such as adjust, export.

Lightroom won't let you move photos around if the drive isn't connected.
 
Say I don;t have Smart Previews for all my photos. Will I still be able to see standard previews but without develop functions?
Yes.

What happens if I start to move photos in the Folders panel whilst the external drive is disconnected.
You can't.
 
I'm thinking about getting the 512gb SSD

Is that large enough?

My guess is that eventually it won't be (an easy guess, but of course I can't tell for you).

You might consider in addition to a new machine new, faster-throughput, external drives. (I don't think the 2011 iMac has USB-3.) An easy, but not inexpensive, solution might be to put your Catalog and imported files on an external SSD. They are fast, small, light, and have no moving parts. I've kept my database of personal photos on a 1 TB external SSD (Transcend) for years. Works great. (Is almost full.)
 
Here's my thinking:

I normally try to max specs of new devices out to future proof them. I'm looking at maxing out the memory and CPU but the cost addition to get the 1Tb SSD internally is just too much.

Currently with my iMac, I keep my library internally and store all photos externally on a USB 3Tb drive. (Yes I know the 2011 iMac does not support USB3. It just works slower).

I though I could just get the 512Gb SSD internally, use it as normal with my photos on the external drive and then possible get a USB portable drive to keep my photos on but be able to take it with me and use the desktop external drive as backup for the portable one each time i'm home.

Not sure about an SSD portable external drive though. I understand the benefits but i'd like the capacity of a standard drive.

That's my thinking anyway, but discussion about this stuff is great so all comments and ideas are much appreciated!
 
My guess is that eventually it won't be (an easy guess, but of course I can't tell for you).
I have a MBP that I run with a minimum catalog and local images as primarily a travel catalog. It is using ~350GB of 500GBSSD for all of my apps including LRCC & PSCC and MS Office and all of the other programs that are on My iMac. The LR travel catalog and Images currently take up ~40GB of that SSD. (Normally, I would empty that catalog and images after each trip I have not done that since my last trip in February) My iMac which mirrors the MBP in terms of apps and document storage is currently using 512GB of a 1TB fusion drive. The LR master catalog and locally stored images are using 2245GB of local storage for catalog Previews, Smart Previews and ~the last 3-4 months of master images. If the master images stored locally were moved to an EHD, this would free up ~40GB of disk storage on the local disk drive.
I think a 512GB SSD would be sufficient for MacOS and a typical set of apps and documents. Still providing ample room for a LR catalog, Previews and Smart Previews.
 
I think a 512GB SSD would be sufficient for MacOS and a typical set of apps and documents. Still providing ample room for a LR catalog, Previews and Smart Previews.

That's absolutely my experience. At the end of last year I switched my images from my MBP's 512GB SSD to a 1Tb EHD and started using Smart Previews. I only have 10k images but my disk space was getting squeezed and this turned out to be the perfect solution. With Smart Previews I can do pretty much everything I want edit-wise, though for noise and sharpening I prefer to work on the originals. Like my MBP my EHD is FileVault protected so there are minimal security issues.
 
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