If someone walked into your home right now and took your computer, would you still have access to every image you have ever made?
Would your Lightroom catalog survive? Your RAW files? The processed images you delivered to clients last week?
Every hard drive will fail eventually. Every computer will die. Files can become corrupt without warning. The question is not if it will happen – it is whether you will be ready when it does.
I have been photographing seriously for over a decade, and my backup strategy has evolved a lot over that time. What follows is how I think about it today – and a framework you can adapt to your own situation.
Start with a simple question
Before you buy anything or change anything, sit down and ask yourself:
- Where are my Lightroom catalogs stored right now?
- Where are my original RAW files?
- Where are my processed, exported images?
- When was the last time any of these were backed up?
- If my computer failed tonight, what would I lose?
Be honest with yourself. Most photographers I talk to have some backup in place – but when you actually trace where things live, there are usually gaps. The goal is to have at least three copies of anything important, stored in at least two different locations, with at least one of those being offsite or in the cloud. This is sometimes called the 3-2-1 rule, and it is a solid foundation.
What you actually need to back up
Your operating system and applications
If you are on a Mac, Time Machine is still the easiest option. Plug in an external drive, point Time Machine at it, and it runs quietly in the background. It has saved me more than once – not from catastrophic failure, but from the small things. The accidental delete. The file that got overwritten. The preference file that went corrupt.
On Windows, options like Macrium Reflect or the built-in Windows Backup do the job well. The specific tool matters less than the habit – just make sure it is actually running.
Your original RAW files
These are irreplaceable. The moment you import photos into Lightroom, make a second copy. Lightroom’s import dialogue has a built-in option to write a backup copy to a second location – use it. That second copy must be on a physically separate drive, not just a different folder or partition on the same drive. If the drive fails, both copies go with it.
Your Lightroom catalog and working files
Your Lightroom catalog is the brain of your entire library. All your edits, ratings, collections, metadata – it all lives in that one file. Losing it does not mean losing your RAW files, but it means losing every edit you have ever made. Back this up religiously.
Lightroom has a built-in catalog backup scheduler. Set it to run at least once a week, and make sure the backup destination is on a different drive from where your catalog lives.
My current setup: UGreen NAS and Google Drive
My local storage backbone is a UGreen NAS (Network Attached Storage). It sits on my home network and holds the bulk of my photo library across multiple drives in a RAID array.
RAID is worth understanding. RAID 1 mirrors your data across two drives – if one fails, the other keeps everything intact. RAID 5 spreads data and parity across three or more drives, giving you performance and fault tolerance together. If a drive fails, you replace it, the array rebuilds, and you carry on. Neither RAID level is a substitute for a proper backup though. They protect against drive failure, not against accidental deletion, fire, theft, or ransomware. They are a critical first layer, not the whole answer.
The UGreen NAS units are easy to set up, solid to run, and reasonably priced for what you get. If you have a serious photo library and are not already on a NAS, it is worth looking into.
For offsite backup and for syncing finished files, I use Google Drive. High-resolution processed images that are ready for delivery or print live there. The practical upside is real – I can share a link with a client straight from my phone, from anywhere in the world. And it means my finished work survives any scenario a NAS cannot protect against: fire, flood, the whole lot being stolen.
A note for Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers
If you are already paying for Adobe Creative Cloud, you have a cloud storage option built right into your subscription that is worth using. Lightroom Classic has a built-in sync feature that pushes your edited, processed photos up to Adobe’s cloud – making them accessible from any device, ready to share with clients or on social media, without any extra effort on your part. It is not a replacement for a full backup strategy, but for your finished work it is a genuinely convenient extra layer. Just go to File in Lightroom Classic and start syncing your collections.
What a reasonable setup looks like
You do not need to build my exact setup. Here is a practical starting point depending on where you are right now.
Starting out
Buy two external hard drives. Keep one connected for Time Machine or Windows Backup. Copy your RAW files and Lightroom catalog to the second drive regularly. Store that second drive somewhere other than next to your computer – even a different room is better than nothing.
Getting serious
Add a cloud layer. Google Drive, iCloud, Adobe Creative Cloud, or Backblaze are all worth a look. Your most important files – the catalog, recent RAWs, delivered images – should exist somewhere that survives a house fire. Backblaze is particularly worth considering for photographers: unlimited backup storage for a flat monthly fee.
Running a proper library
Invest in a NAS. UGreen, Synology, and QNAP all make reliable units aimed at home and small studio use. Pair it with cloud backup for offsite protection, and you have a setup that can genuinely survive almost anything short of a very determined catastrophe.
The uncomfortable truth
A backup strategy only works if it actually runs. The best system in the world is useless if you turned it off six months ago, forgot to plug in the drive, or let your cloud subscription lapse.
Pick a system you will actually maintain. Automate as much of it as you can. Then check it once in a while – not just that the backup is running, but that you can actually restore from it. A backup you have never tested is a backup you cannot trust.
It does not have to be perfect. Anything is better than nothing. If you do not have a second copy of your files right now, stop reading and go make one.
Interested in learning more about how I manage my photo workflow? Come along to one of my photography workshops – or leave a comment below and let me know what your backup setup looks like.
SUSAN!!!!