Overview
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ThePhotoGeek's LR Backup Lightroom Plugin.

The LR Backup plugin simplifies backing up your Lightroom environment. It does
this by adding the ability to backup Lightroom's configuration files, and
compress Lightroom's catalog backups, from within Lightroom itself. These tasks
can occur automatically as the program starts or manually as required.

Lightroom's configuration is stored in numerous files scattered around your hard
drive. The configuration backup collates the various preference, preset,
template, camera profile, lens profile, Camera Raw and other setting files used
by Lightroom into a single compressed backup file. This can help you quickly
find and restore your preferred Lightroom configuration when your system
crashes, Lightroom preferences become corrupted, or you wish to move Lightroom
to a different system.

While Lightroom already includes the capability to backup your catalog the
resulting files can be quite large and quickly consume your available disk
space. Fortunately these backups compress well, frequently reducing to 10% of
their former size when zipped. The catalog backup compression feature helps you
automate this process and conserve space for your image files or more frequent
backups to further reduce the risk of lost work.

Automatic backup tasks are performed in the background as Lightroom starts.
Regularity can be independently managed for each backup task so it is a simple
matter to compress each catalog backup immediately at startup yet only backup
your configuration once a week.

The plugin is compatible with Lightroom 2 and above.

Payment and Updates

The trial version does not execute automatic backup tasks at Lightroom startup
and instead displays a notice to indicate when an automatic backup would have
occurred. Donating to the plugin will give you a registration code that will
remove this notice. All future updates are free.

Copyright 2009-2011 Matt Dawson

More information available at either:
http://thephotogeek.com/lightroom/lr-backup/ or
http://photographers-toolbox.com/products/mdawson/tpglrbackup/

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Installation
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   1. Download the plugin's zip file.
   2. Copy the zip file where you want the plugin to permanently reside, then
      unzip the file.  This should create a sub-directory called
      <plugin name>.lrplugin.
   3. Open Lightroom, then select the File\Plugin Manager menu option.
   4. Press the Add button, select the <plugin name>.lrplugin directory created
      in step 2, then press OK.
   5. The plugin is now installed and enabled.  Press Done.

After installation Lightroom will prompt you to update the catalog. Click the
"Update Catalog" button to enable the plugin.

Usage
-----

Run Manual Backup

The Backup Lightroom's Configuration Files section causes a zip file to be
created containing the Lightroom configuration files identified above. The
date/time stamped zip file will be created in the nominated directory.

The Compress Lightroom's Catalog Backups option causes all of the Lightroom
created backups in the nominated directory to be compressed. Use Lightroom's
Edit -> Catalog Settings menu item to specify how often you will be prompted to
backup your catalog. These backups can be quite large and often compress to
about 10% of their original size. The date/time stamped zip files will be
created in the directory nominated as the Compressed Directory.

Recent Backup Activity displays a log of the most recent automatic or manual
backups performed by the plugin.

The Run in background checkbox controls whether the backup progress is displayed
in the foreground, or whether you can continue to work in Lightroom while the
backup is performed in the background. Progress of any activity performed in the
background is displayed in Lightroom's top panel, next to the Identity Plate.

Use the OK and Cancel buttons to initiate or abort the backup and/or compression
tasks.


Configure Automatic Backups

The Automatically Backup Lightroom's Configuration Files section controls
whether a zip file will be created containing the Lightroom configuration files
identified above. The date/time stamped zip file will be created in the
nominated directory, at the requested timeframe, as Lightroom starts.

The Automatically Compress Lightroom's Catalog Backups option causes all of the
Lightroom created backups in the From directory to be compressed. Use
Lightroom's Edit -> Catalog Settings menu item to specify how often you will be
prompted to backup your catalog. These backups can be quite large and often
compress to about 10% of their original size. The date/time stamped zip files
will be created in the To directory, at the requested timeframe, as Lightroom
starts.

Recent Backup Activity displays a log of the most recent automatic or manual
backups performed by the plugin. Progress of the backup as it occurs is
displayed in Lightroom's top panel, next to the Identity Plate.

Use the OK and Cancel buttons to save or cancel the changes to the Automatic
Backup configuration.

Automatic backups and backup compression are performed as Lightroom starts. The
regularity of these are controlled using the settings mentioned previously.
Please note that the very first time Automatic Backups are enabled the backups
and/or backup compression will be performed the next time Lightroom is started,
regardless of the configured regularity. This is to confirm the settings have
been correctly enabled and the regularity configuration settings will be
honoured for all future runs.

More information available at either:
http://thephotogeek.com/lightroom/lr-backup/ or
http://photographers-toolbox.com/products/mdawson/tpglrbackup/
