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RipleyRader
Participant
June 16, 2026
Question

"Exporting from Smart Previews despite originals linked — no ! badge, Show in Finder works, still exports at 2000px"

  • June 16, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 6 views

Lightroom Classic 15.1 — exporting from Smart Previews despite originals being linked. No ! badge on thumbnails, Show in Finder finds the CR3 files correctly, folders appear linked, but all exports come out at ~2000px (Smart Preview size) instead of 6000px. Catalog has ~10,000 missing photos from previous folder moves. Tried: Update Folder Location, Discard Smart Previews, Optimize Catalog. Nothing works."

1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 16, 2026

That is to be expected if originals are missing. Nothing will change that, except having the originals linked correctly again. Smart previews are 2560 pixels at the longest side, so that is the maximum size you can get if you export from smart previews. As smart previews are used non-destructively like originals, that is the uncropped image, however. If your edits included some cropping, then the exported result will be smaller.

 

You need to ‘reconnect’ those originals before that is changed. Read this how to do that (if you have smart previews, then you won’t see the ‘missing’ icon on the images, but you will see if folders are missing): 

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

-- Johan W. Elzenga