Warning Lightroom catalog backup zip file might not be included in your backup

[Roland Tibell]

I noticed that the new zipped LR catalog backup files where not included in my safety backups. It turns out the Adobe use "extended attributes" for the file, more specifically they set the "temp" extended attribute, which prevent the file from being included in many sync/backup services/products. Furthermore, these attributes can't even be displayed/viewed in a standard Windows install. I have reported the issue as a bug to Adobe.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Sounds like a bug to me as it is hard to imagine why a backup file should be excluded from backups

Meanwhile isn't it possible to explicitedly include that file in your backup schedule?

[Thomas G]

Roland,
It does show the same behaviour on my machine.

Backup is not affected.
Unfortunately DFS is. Files with 'temp' set are not replicated.

[Thomas G]

If one needs a quick workaround and feels save to use windows powershell one might consider using a little script to scan through the LR .zip files and taking off the 'T' attributes.
Just PM me if thats the case.

[Roland Tibell]

I actually have 3 backups. Two to my own servers at two different physical locations, both RAID 1, and they are not affected. The third is with a cloud service and this is the one that will not include the LR zip files. If anyone is concerned about their catalog backup not being safeguarded they should verify that the zip files are included in their backup the sync/backup/service/software most likely will not give a warning on exclusion.

Regarding removing the T attribute; it might introduce other issues as we do not know why Adobe implemented it this way. It might be needed for some reason beyond my imagination. You can of course always put it back, but tampering with files when we don't know exactly their format or how they are processed is risky.

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Thanks for the warning. It seems it works differently on OS X. I just checked my Time Machine backup, no issues in that regard here.

[pluton]

In the past, when I several times accidentally deleted my Lightroom catalog, the Apple Time Machine has proven to be a completely reliable/usable backup for the Lightroom catalog.  "Experts" warn to make the Time Machine copy only when Lightroom is not operating, which makes sense to me. 
Now, I have the Time Machine copy, the Lightroom-generated copy on a different drive, and the overall clone of the entire computer to choose from.
Fortunately, I haven't accidentally deleted my Lightroom catalog in several years.