How Catalog and Session backups work in Capture One

Backing up your work in Capture One is essential to protect your photo libraries, edits, and metadata. Whether you're using Catalogs or Sessions, this guide explains how backups work, how to configure them, and how to restore them when needed.

Table of Contents

• Catalog Backups
  • Automatic backup reminders
  • Manual Catalog Backups
  • What's Included in the Backup
  • Default backup locations
• Session Backups
  • Manual backup options
  • What to back up in a session
• How to Restore a Backup
  • Restoring a catalog
  • Restoring a Session
• Revert to a previous version after upgrading to a new version
  • Catalog upgrade backups (macOS)
  • Session upgrade backups
• FAQ

Catalog Backups

Automatic backup reminders

Capture One can automatically prompt you to back up your Catalog at configurable intervals:

1. Open Preferences:
   • macOS: Capture One > Settings (might be called Preferences in earlier versions of macOS)
   • Windows: Edit > Preferences
2. Go to the General tab.
3. Under Catalog Backup, set the reminder frequency:
   • Always (i.e. every time Capture One is closed)
   • Once a day
   • Once a week
   • Once a month
   • Never (not recommended unless you have another backup system)

Manual catalog backups

You can create a backup at any time:

File > Backup Catalog...

This creates a snapshot of the catalog database and adjustment data. Note: original image files are not included unless stored inside the catalog bundle.

What's included in the backup

A catalog backup includes:

• The .cocatalogdb database file
• An Adjustments folder containing:
  • ICC – Custom ICC profiles
  • LAM – Local Adjustment Masks
  • LCC – Lens Cast Correction profiles

Note: Capture One organizes Catalogs a bit differently on Mac and Windows. On a Mac, everything — the Catalog and preview files — is neatly packed into one file, .cocatalog package. On Windows, these files are stored separately. If you’re on a Mac and want to look inside the Catalog, just right-click it in Finder and choose Show Package Contents. That will let you see all the individual files inside.

Default backup locations

By default, backups are saved to:

• macOS:
  Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Capture One/Backups
  Tip: In Finder, go to the Go menu and press the Option key to access the Library folder.
• Windows:
  Users\%username%\Pictures\Capture One\Backups

Backup folders are automatically named with the date and time of creation.

Session Backups

Manual backup options

Unlike Catalogs, Sessions do not have a built-in backup mechanism. You should back up your session folders using:

• Cloud sync tools (e.g., Dropbox, OneDrive)
• Local or external drive backups
• macOS Time Machine or third-party backup utilities

What to back up in a session

To ensure your session can be fully restored, back up the entire session folder, which includes:

• The .cosessiondb file.
• Capture, Selects, Output folders.
• The Settings165 subfolder in each image folder (it contains all the image adjustments are kept).

You may leave out Trash folder and Cache folder if it appears inside any of the session folders.

Keep the folder structure intact to maintain session integrity.

How to Restore a Backup

Restoring a catalog

1. Locate your backup folder from the saved location.
2. Copy the .cocatalogdb file (and the Adjustments folder if present) to a new or existing catalog folder.
3. Open the catalog via File > Open Catalog.

Restoring a session

1. Restore the entire session folder from your backup source.
2. Double-click the .cosessiondb file or open it from within Capture One.

Best practices

• Enable regular catalog backups via Preferences.
• Use cloud or local backup solutions for session workflows.
• Back up RAW files separately to ensure complete recovery.
• Test backups periodically to confirm they open and contain the expected data.

Revert to a previous version after upgrading to a new version

When you upgrade a Catalog or Session to a newer version of Capture One, the software automatically creates a backup of the database before applying the upgrade. This ensures you can revert to the previous version if needed — however, the location and format of these backups may not be immediately obvious.

Catalog upgrade backups (macOS)

After upgrading a Catalog, you won’t be able to open it in an older version of Capture One. But don’t worry — a backup of the original catalog database is created automatically.

To locate this backup on a Mac:

1. Open Finder and navigate to your Catalog file.
2. Right-click (or Control-click) the Catalog and select Show Package Contents.
   
3. Look for a file named Catalog.cocatalogdb.backup.

This file is your pre-upgrade catalog database. To make it usable again:

1. Rename the file by removing the .backup extension.
2. macOS may display a warning when changing the file extension. Confirm the change to .cocatalogdb.
3. You can now open this version of the Catalog in an older version of Capture One.

Note: Since both the current and backup databases cannot have the same file name in the same folder, make sure to rename & replace it if prompted accordingly.

Session upgrade backups

Capture One also creates a backup of the Session database when upgrading to a newer version. The process to revert is similar:

1. Locate the .cosessiondb.backup file within your Session folder.
2. Rename the file by removing the .backup extension.
3. Open the restored file in the older version of Capture One.

This approach allows you to safely roll back to previous versions of your Session or Catalog if necessary.

FAQ

Does Capture One back up my RAW image files?

No. The backup includes the catalog database and adjustments only. RAW files must be backed up separately—unless they are stored inside the catalog, which is not the default.

Can I change the backup location?

Yes. In Preferences > General > Catalog Backup, you can select a custom backup directory for your catalog.

Are sessions backed up automatically?

No. You must manually back up session folders using third-party tools or OS-level backup utilities.

What happens if I disable backup reminders?

Disabling reminders is not recommended unless you have a reliable alternative backup system in place. Capture One will not prompt you to back up the catalog, increasing the risk of data loss.

How many backups do I need to keep? 

Normally, it makes the most sense to keep at least 2-3 recent backups. The rest might no longer be relevant, so it can be easily deleted. This can also be a great step to free up some storage if the same catalog/session has been used for a long time.