MAC -LR : BACKUP OF IMAGE DEVELOP SETTINGS? SAVE LOCATION

Question

Where does LR store the setting information for each image that has been adjusted? (ON A MAC!)
i have read somewhere it stores in some kind of .xmp file, however i think that refers to windows.
I want to find the best way to ensure that my setting are never lost!
- note, i used to use Phase's Capture ONE, however have been very disappointed to see that their new version of the software *(beta) doesnt read my previously edited files and retain their previous adjustment settings.
Thank you.
James.

Answer 1

James
"can either use XMP. OR just the LR database, OR convert my RAW to DNG."
You need to think about data that stays constant, the image data, and data that is volatile, that is your adjustments and descriptive metadata which lie within the database. That's why I say your backup needs to pick up the image data once, and the continually-changing database on a routine schedule. If you stuck with raw and backed up xmp sidecars, you'd miss a chunk of your work and you'd have to reconstruct it after a crash, or reconcile yourself to its loss. If you switched to DNG and saved out the xmp all the time, then your backup would grow exponentially and you'd still be missing a chunk of your work.
Let's say that at some future time you wanted to migrate elsewhere, then we are in interchange territory and the xmp files may well be the way to move your work, probably the most likely way. So generate them at that point (for example, right now it is one way in which one can move from Aperture to Lightroom). But nowadays we're talking about SQL databases and it may be possible to write SQL to pass metadata and even adjustment settings between applications (I used to do it between big accounting systems so why not tiny imaging databases?).
As for image adjustments, different applications really don't use the same terms to describe things and you will probably lose data when you switch. It may not be easy to translate from one app to another, and some argue that it's not worth doing if you can't translate exactly, but some of us think that it would be worthwhile passing certain rough settings (eg white balance) across. It'll take guesswork, coding, time. Right now, you have to assume your adjustments are locked into the app.
You're asking the right sort of questions, and there are many answers. They often need to be prefaced with "it depends". One approach is to try a DNG workflow for a week or so and see if it works for you - long enough to make that decision but not so long that you're up the creek if you're unconvinced.
How many times will the cannon balls fly, before they're forever banned? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind....
John