How many photos can Lightroom catalog hold?

5 years 2 months ago #629705 by Paris Gal
Out curiosity, is there a limit to where Lightroom starts to slow down because of number of images in the catalog?  There must be some limit, or am I off in my assumption?  

5D mark II gripped | Canon 100L | Canon 85 1.8 | Sigma 50 1.4 | Tamron 28-75 2.8 | 580ex II | 430ex II x 2 |
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5 years 2 months ago #629713 by garyrhook
There is no limit, as I understand it.

As for slowdown, that's a system configuration problem.


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The following user(s) said Thank You: Paris Gal
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5 years 2 months ago #629718 by Paris Gal
That is good to know.  I can see system resources having a hand in this.  However I thought most software has limitations on what it can handle. 

I'm not in front of Lightroom right now, and curious how many photos I have in it.  Does lightroom show number of photos?

5D mark II gripped | Canon 100L | Canon 85 1.8 | Sigma 50 1.4 | Tamron 28-75 2.8 | 580ex II | 430ex II x 2 |
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5 years 2 months ago #629725 by shelland

Paris Gal wrote: I'm not in front of Lightroom right now, and curious how many photos I have in it.  Does lightroom show number of photos?

Upper-left in grid or loupe mode shows the number in your catalog. I'm at 316,000+. 

Scott

- Twin Cities, MN

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5 years 2 months ago #629727 by Shadowfixer1
You have to remember that the catalog doesn't hold the images. It only holds information about the images.
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5 years 2 months ago #629769 by Justin
If you are moving photos to external drives, that won't reflect those numbers though.

Very nice to meet you!
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5 years 2 months ago #629834 by garyrhook

Justin wrote: If you are moving photos to external drives, that won't reflect those numbers though.


Reflect what numbers? Total images in the catalog?

It sure will. As was stated above, LR doesn't care where the images are, and you can have them spread out across multiple drives, connected or not. It reports the number of images it knows about and is managing.


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5 years 2 months ago #629836 by neal1977
Interesting fact, I would have guessed it keeps tabs on images actively in its catalog where it can touch and have access too with out any intervention.   


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