Catalogs
Keep separate lists of folders, such as family photos and client work, and switch between them from the header.
A catalog is a named list of folders: the folders in the Folders panel on the left. Keep one for family photos and another for client work, and switch between them. LightPhotos opens the catalog you used last, or one called default the first time.
The open catalog's name sits in the header, after the LightPhotos wordmark. Click it for the catalog menu.
- Make a catalog. Choose New Catalog…
from the catalog menu and give it a name. The desktop app asks where to
save it, starting in
~/Pictures/LightPhotos/. A new catalog has no folders; click Add Folder above the Folders list to fill it. The desktop app also has New Catalog… in the macOS File menu. - Switch catalogs. The catalog menu lists your recent catalogs, newest first. Click one to open it, and the Folders panel shows that catalog's folders.
- Open a catalog from disk. In the desktop app, choose
Open Catalog… and pick a
.lightphotosfolder. Use this for a catalog you copied from another computer or keep somewhere other than the usual place. - Add and remove folders. Adding or removing a folder changes only the open catalog. The same folder can be in several catalogs. Removing it from one never touches its photos or edits.
What a catalog holds
Three things: the list of folders, the list of
preset folders, and a copy of the star
ratings, flags and color labels of the photos in them. Develop edits and
thumbnails are not in the catalog. They stay in the
.lightphotos folder next to your photos, as before. Your
own presets, under My Presets, are shared by every catalog.
Your folders are still the real record. LightPhotos writes every rating and edit next to the photo first, and the catalog's copy follows. If you delete a catalog, you lose its list of folders, not your work. Add the folders to another catalog and everything is there.
What it is for: search
LightPhotos will use what the catalog stores to search and filter across every folder in it at once, for example every five-star photo or every pick, without opening each folder. Today the Grid still shows one folder at a time and nothing reads the copy yet; search comes in a later release.
Where catalogs are stored
| App | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Desktop | A folder named <name>.lightphotos, by default in ~/Pictures/LightPhotos/ |
| Web | Your browser's storage for this site. Each browser has its own catalogs. |
The web app has no Open Catalog…, because a browser cannot keep a catalog in a folder on disk. Its catalog menu lists every catalog made in that browser. If you clear the site's data, the browser forgets its catalogs and its access to your folders. Your photos and edits stay in the folders.
If the last catalog cannot be read at launch, LightPhotos opens default instead and says so. It tries the last one again at the next launch.