Lightroom Classic CC - Catalogue on Network Volume NEW THREAD

[Mimir]

Hi Everyone

 

The previous thread on this seems dead now and I've had no luck messaging those who were part of it, so I was hoping I could inject some new life into this with a new thread.

 

Basically I'm trying to get Lightroom to work on a network drive. There's a way to trick it into accepting a network drive by running the subst command, which has worked successfully, however I'm left with two other problems

 

1. Name of the drive. It is set as "Disconnected Network Drive" and I've followed the instructions on the old thread...to no avail. This is simply so that the students can click on a drive that doesn't have an out of place name.

 

2. Automatic pointing to drive. You have to manually point Lightroom to the location, which would be a logistical nightmare on our end. Would there be a reg file or similar that would point Lightroom to our desired location? I've played around with the preferences file but haven't found anything worth while that I could use.

 

Any of you had success in these areas?

[colly72]

We have the same issue. Photography department are pressurising us to make Lightroom available but there seems to be no sold way of getting it to work well in a networked, multi-user environment.

[Mimir]

I think it's held back by the need to make things as simple as possible. For example, our students can make it work now, but it would require them to click a few things here and a few things there, and my boss doesn't think they'll be able to manage this - which I agree with.

[colly72]

It's also held back by the fact that Adobe don't allow catalogs to be stored on network locations for a very specific reason - corruption. Any solution becomes a workaround and you therefore end up accepting the inherent risks associated with that workaround. From what I read, although the SUBST option works, there is a real potential for corruption, should the connection drop. Another option, of having an external drive is prone again to corruption should the drive be removed but then there is the issue of backup too. My response to our SLT and photography team so far is that why should we introduce a workaround that might work today but fail tomorrow and cause more problems than it solves in future months? Our photography department keeps telling us that its the industry standard used in businesses and universities bu they don't listen to the valid reasons why we can't do it. Perhaps I should implement the workaround then when it goes wrong, I can just say "not my problem"!

[mowgli82]

No sure on the exact technicalities but could you mount the network drive as iSCSI in Windows 10?

[colly72]

No sure on the exact technicalities but could you mount the network drive as iSCSI in Windows 10?

 

This is one of the workarounds. A NAS drive capable of ISCSI could do this but apparently performance is poor, then we also have the issue of backups etc.

[Mimir]

@colly72 Yes I have read about the corruption, although couldn't see why you can't just create a new one, provided you've saved your work. To my knowledge you can continue to edit saved photos irregardless of the catalogue you've used it with

@mowgli82 I've read a little about that solution but went with this one. Also to note I'm running Windows 7 if that makes any difference

[colly72]

@colly72 Yes I have read about the corruption, although couldn't see why you can't just create a new one, provided you've saved your work. To my knowledge you can continue to edit saved photos irregardless of the catalogue you've used it with

@mowgli82 I've read a little about that solution but went with this one. Also to note I'm running Windows 7 if that makes any difference

 

If the catalog becomes corrupt, wouldn't you lose all the non-destructive changes made to any images?

[mowgli82]

If the catalog becomes corrupt, wouldn't you lose all the non-destructive changes made to any images?

If your catalog becomes corrupt yes you lose all non destructive changes, you will also have to re-import all the files again. You can build smart previews which allow to store your RAW files on disconnected storage then when the device is reconnected the changes are pushed back. I'll be honest I think performance might be an issue to keeping a catalog on a network drive, I'm not sure how many files your dealing with but the catalogs could contain 10's of thousands of files and performance would slow down as more files are added.

[Mimir]

Have you guys explored any other routes? I've read about giving people USB sticks to use, however its use cases seem to be for a small team, whereas we'd have 800+ students. I've given up trying to let Lightroom default to the network drive, as it seems hard wired to default to the C drive.

[mowgli82]

What about keeping them local but have a script that runs on logoff that copies the catalog to a network share? how big are your catalogs?

[Mimir]

One of the issues is that the students don't have access to C: by design. I've currently been trying to find a way that you can let Lightroom have access to the C drive but keep it hidden in Explorer, but no luck so far. The problem with this is that you'd have to create one for every PC you went to, which isn't so much of a problem, but I don't know what else this would effect in regards to images you're editing on other machines.