The big danger here is that you may lose a few images, or many images — or, perish the thought, the whole catalog. Obviously you would still have the image files, but what you are losing are all the edits.
The XMP sidecars are those same edits but in individual files linked to the individual images. If you do lose the catalog — you won’t just theorizing — you won’t have lost years of edits on thousands of files. All you have to do to start over in Lightroom is to reimport all the images — and the edits come in, too!
The storage space cost to you of turning on XMP sidecar files is minimal — the files are very small and the extra file writing time minimal. XMP files also facilitate communication of the processed image file with other Adobe applications.
Regarding your other questions: I’d don’t know. I’m hoping that scanning the Library, especially the newest additions thereto, might turn up an image that won’t downplay or that displays wildly wrong (the edit info is screwed up and it shows on the preview). Then you might be able to delete the bas image or images from the catalog, and then maybe the catalog will back up.
Jon Kandel A New York City Nikonian and Team Member Please visit my website and critique the images!
The XMP sidecars are those same edits but in individual files linked to the individual images. If you do lose the catalog — you won’t just theorizing — you won’t have lost years of edits on thousands of files. All you have to do to start over in Lightroom is to reimport all the images — and the edits come in, too!
The storage space cost to you of turning on XMP sidecar files is minimal — the files are very small and the extra file writing time minimal. XMP files also facilitate communication of the processed image file with other Adobe applications.
Regarding your other questions: I’d don’t know. I’m hoping that scanning the Library, especially the newest additions thereto, might turn up an image that won’t downplay or that displays wildly wrong (the edit info is screwed up and it shows on the preview). Then you might be able to delete the bas image or images from the catalog, and then maybe the catalog will back up.
Jon Kandel
A New York City Nikonian and Team Member
Please visit my website and critique the images!