u/sfmike99

Not a pro or even dedicated amateur photographer, but I got into shooting with an SLR years ago and used LRC as my library and editor with files stored on my NAS. Flash forward and now I almost exclusively use my phone for photos and Google Photos to review, share and edit. I barely touch LRC anymore and when I do I find it challenging to remember how to use correctly. I want all my photos in Google photos. My goals were:

• Move my 100k+ assets out of LRC into a new flat folder structure on my NAS
• Preserve edits made to raw files but not jpgs (I want original quality for jpgs)
• Ensure I don't lose any assets along the way

After noodling on this and testing with Claude I came up with this workflow which has worked for me. I'm not including the scripts here but of course you too can have AI come up with them (just make sure to double check everything before deleting). I should note that I do nightly cloud backups of both old and new folders from my NAS.

1. Setup new folder structure for target:
   1. \photo2\year\
   2. \photo2\year\temp
   3. \photo2\year\raw
   4. \photo2\year\video
2. Use Lightroom prune unwanted image files:
   1. Filter for metadata to exclude videos
   2. Mark photos for deletion by pressing 'x'
   3. To permanently delete go to Photo-Delete Rejected photos
   4. Confirm delete from disk + catalog
3. Write metadata for RAW photos to file
   1. In LRC: filter File Type = RAW
   2. Select all RAW
   3. Metadata → Save Metadata to File
4. Export all raw photos from matching year to \photo2\year\
   1. Settings: JPG, Quality 100, resize off, SRGB, same filename
   2. Destination is new year folder (e.g. \beanie\photo2\2018)
   3. Note: don't do this for non-raw files since we want unedited version
5. Run scripts changing year as required (using \year\temp)
   1. Script1: copy all files from \photo\year (recursive search) to \photo2\year\temp
   2. Script2: Delete camera-original JPGs that have a matching CR2 (I've already exported edited versions)
   3. Script3: Move CR2 and XMP files to \year\raw
   4. Script3a: Move video files to \year\video
   5. Script4: Move remaining files to main \year folder (temp should now be empty and can be deleted)
6. Final check:
   1. In LRC count all non-video files for year
   2. Should match count of files in \photo2\year
7. Lastly (next day)
   1. Confirm remote backup of \photo2\year
   2. Remove year folder from LRC
   3. Delete old folder structure \photo\year

I'm about halfway through this process but it's going well, and I'm looking forward to getting out of LRC and having all my photos available in Google Photos. Also saving $120 per year with Adobe for a product I barely use anymore.

Can't find any L2 charging stations between those points, and Google Maps won't estimate the distance. Any experience/advice appreciated.