Renaming a Lightroom Catalog

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 8. September 2011 - 5:28

Rename a Lightroom catalog is easy, it's simply renaming 1 (one) file and that's it. The problems is where is the catalog located? Why hasn't Adobe provided a menu function for renaming the catalog?

  • The catalog is named (the catalog name).lrcat

So you have a few choices for finding the catalog:

  1. Do a straight search from the OS (Windows or Mac) and look for: (the catalog name).lrcat
  2. In Lightroom on a Mac: Catalog Settings / Edit → Catalog Settings → General Tab
  3. In Lightroom on Windows: Edit → Catalog Settings → General Tab
  4. In Lightroom on Windows: Right Click on the Title bar → Show Catalog Location

The location of the catalog is part of the general catalog settings

Click on button to open the Explorer or read the catalog location for the directory/folder of the catalog

  • You do not need to rename the other folders like the previews, they will be rebuilt as needed.
  • If you choose to rename the previews folder, there's space between the catalog name and the word Previews.lrdata as in: syv Previews.lrdata.
  • You must not change the name of the Lightroom Settings directory/folder.