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Rules
What is a rule
A rule says where a file has to be before it's safe to erase from the card. It names
your libraries by their keys, the short names shown next to each library, such as
catalog or backup.
Every file on the card is checked against the rule. The card is only safe to format when every file passes.
By default, the rule requires every library. When you add another library, the rule is updated to include it, but only if you haven't edited the rule yourself. Once you edit it, it is never changed for you.
Writing a rule
Open Rules… from the Libraries panel.
| Rule | A file is safe when it's… |
|---|---|
catalog | in your Lightroom catalog |
catalog and backup | in your catalog and on your backup drive |
catalog or pictures | in your catalog or your Pictures folder |
(catalog or pictures) and backup | in your catalog or your Pictures folder, and on your backup drive |
You can use and, or, not and parentheses.
and is evaluated before or.
When a file fails the rule, the report names only the part that's missing, such as
backup, not the whole rule.
Video and audio
Video usually lives somewhere other than a photo library, so video and audio each have their own setting under Rules…:
- Same as photos uses the main rule. This is the default.
- Ignore means video or audio never stops a card from being safe. Use this if you handle footage some other way.
-
Own rule checks against different libraries, such as
footage. Only the libraries in that rule are searched, so a clip is never looked for among your photos.
Cameras' own working folders are skipped, such as Sony's M4ROOT/THMBNL
and SUB, and AVCHD's CLIPINF. They contain proxies and
thumbnails, not footage. These names are only skipped inside a camera's folder
structure, so a library folder named Backup is still indexed.
Example: one backup drive for everything
Photos go into Lightroom, video into a footage folder, and audio into
a recordings folder. One backup drive holds a copy of all of it. Each
kind gets its own rule, and they all share backup:
| Kind | Setting | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Photos | The main rule | (catalog or pictures) and backup |
| Video | Own rule | footage and backup |
| Audio | Own rule | recordings and backup |
A clip is safe once it's in footage and on the backup drive. It's never
looked for in your catalog, and a photo is never looked for in
footage. The backup drive is searched for all three.
Example: video handled somewhere else
If your video is backed up by another tool, set Video to Ignore. Clips on the card never stop it from being safe, and photos are still checked with the main rule.