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davidg72397760
Participant
April 25, 2019
Question

Lightroom mobile on ipad and raw files in the cloud

  • April 25, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1312 views

Perhaps this info is already somewhere in this forum, but for the life of me I can't figure this out.

Here's the scenario -- I use lightroom mobile on my ipad and lightroom classic on my desktop.

Sometimes (e.g. when I'm traveling) I import raw files from my SD card directly to lightroom on the ipad.  Then when I get home I sync those raw files to my desktop.  To free up local storage on the ipad I clear the cache for the album and only download smart previews.  Other times I import raw files from my SD card to the desktop, create smart previews, and create an album to sync to lightroom mobile so they show up on my ipad.

So far so good.

Now that the raw files are successfully synced to my desktop from my ipad (or to my ipad from my desktop) I want to remove the raw files from the cloud so that I'm not eating up my 20 GB with raw files and instead only have smartpreviews/metadata in the cloud.  This way I can edit smart previews on my ipad -- those edits are synced to my desktop, but if I want to export something bigger than a smart preview I have to do it my desktop.

Is there a way to do this? 

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Abambo
Community Expert
AbamboCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 25, 2019

You are mixing up 2 different products: Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC. The easy solution would be to upgrade the storage to 1Tb, but that would come at  cost of 10$/month.

I do not know Lightroom CC enough, but I could imagine this workflow:

  • Lightroom CC on the desktop synchronizes the pictures. You export the files as DNG from Lr CC desktop to a place where Lr Classic CC would import them. The important thing here is to "break" the connection to the original files, because as soon as you delete the files in the cloud, the Lr CC-synched files will be deleted too.
  • Lr Classic CC imaports the files (hopefully keeping the edits), you can synchronize previews to the cloud.

This is a workflow that I have not looked at until now and it is unchecked. There may or there may not be more easy ways to do this.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
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davidg72397760Author
Participant
April 25, 2019

Correct -- I'm using two different products -- lightroom cc on my ipad and lightroom classic on my desktop.  I don't think the proposed workflow works well or really accomplishes what I'm after.

I found that the solution in this thread works (with the addition that after the raws are on the desktop I need to manually create the smart previews), but it's pretty cumbersome.  I'm sort of surprised there's not a better solution.

Switching from Raw to Smart Preview in Creative Cloud

Abambo
Community Expert
AbamboCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 25, 2019

I feel the proposed workflow dangerous. But you may use that. Don’t put the blame on anyone when pictures get lost, however.

davidg72397760  wrote

  I'm sort of surprised there's not a better solution.

I’m not surprised at all. Lr CC and Lr Classic CC share a name and a functionality, but Lr CC is basically a new different product. They are not designed to collaborate. The Lightroom sync functionality has been build in to be used from your pc to the mobile device.

The Lr CC (desktop) is a Adobe-cares-about-your-pictures-package. The basic target is the beginner who has problems with the concept of catalog and pictures and backup and all that stuff. But you pay with expensive cloud space.

You should use one or the other, but not try to mix to much.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
Bani Verma
Community Manager
Bani VermaCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 25, 2019

Moving this query to File Hosting, Syncing, and Collaboration​ community.

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