dj_paige wrote:
I have seen a few people do this (in this forum), put previews, catalog file and photos in the same folder, often named "Lightroom";
and then guess what happens if you try to synchronize the folder named "Lightroom"? The synchronize command then imports all previews
(which are just JPG files) as well as un-imported photos. Not good.
hmm - to be clear, Lr will not import regular previews - they are NOT jpeg files - they are a "pyramid" of jpeg data blocks (with dressing) in .lrprev files - they are not importable.
Smart previews on the other hand are importable (they are plain-ol' lossy dng files), so I assume that is what you are talking about.
As I was saying in previous post, if you are going to keep photos in same folder as catalog, they should go into their own subfolder, e.g. "My Photos". I'm not recommending that organization, but I don't recommend against it either, since whether it makes sense or not depends on user's circumstances and druthers... - note: do not sync catalog folder, sync photo folder......
Keeping client photos in separate catalogs on separate disks and want to assure they've not been altered since money changed hands? - may be good to keep them all in a single package (folder).
Under normal circumstances, I agree with you - photos in common root source, and the fewer catalogs the better... but I don't assume normality .
Cheers,
Rob