How can I efficiently move images in an album in the cloud on LR cc into a folder on a network storage device (NAS) without duplicating the image nor confusing the catalog as to the final location of the image (NAS)?

Hi Rob,

Thanks again for sticking with me and I think I’m really close to understanding and being able to accomplish my task with far fewer steps in ways that won’t disrupt my LRc Catalog or my LR Cloud stored images.

As you suggested, I might have designated the name and location when I first installed LRc (it sits on C: rather than NAS as it’s faster to work with)

The iPad LR files are “hidden” but something sits on my iPad (my initial IMPORT from my camera is to my iPad into LR and then then images go to the Adobe Cloud for all the image management…

Taking your reply step by step;

“~Moving photos (in the LrC Folder panel) “: understand this, but my problem is that my newly shot image, added to LR on my iPad, uploaded to the Adobe Cloud, stored hidden locally on my iPad, CAN ONLY BE SYNCHED TO MY PC LRc through a COLLECTION and NOT A FOLDER. My problem has always been that I can not move any images from a COLLECTION to a FOLDER in LRc. You taught me now to find that image in the flat file (organized by date) LRSYNCH FILE located on my PC. Right now, I’m afraid to move those images into a new FOLDER (like all the thousands of other ones that are stored on the NAS, KCK LR PHOTOS in the subfolder MYPICTURES with the sub sub folders being the thousands of folders from the past decade)….more questions as we move through your reply….

“~Deleting photos from the Cloud:”  Understood and counting on that!

“~In LrC photos do not need to be in a Collection to be synced with the Cloud.”  Okay, now you’ve got me confused...The only way that I move images, say from 5 years ago, sitting on my NAS in a FOLDER to the Cloud (and thus onto my LR application sitting on my iPad) is to CREATE a COLLECTION in LRc with those images and then check the box SYNCH with Cloud and watch them move into the ADOBE Cloud after which it synchs with my LR app on my iPAD where I can view/edit them….

This screen shot shows just 2 folders are synched to the cloud and all the other COLLECTIONS were made in the past from a FOLDER on LRc that resides on the NAS….my workflow is that I will then delete these now unsynchronized COLLECTIONS (as I no longer need to edit or view them) and they will reside ONLY in a FOLDER in LRc on the NAS. 

Following your example:

IMAGE on an iPhone: okay, I do this this everyday and LR automatically uploads ALL my iphone pictures (that are located on my iphone in the LIBRARY) into the flat file (organized by date) into the CLOUD. (LR/App Settings/IMPORT/AUTO ADD from DEVICE PHOTOS).

I can see them on LRc on my PC under ALL SYNCHED PHOTOGRAPHS when I filter by date...but they aren’t in my organized complex Image/folder/NAS system….THUS another problem I’m trying to understand and solve (Right now it’s a very manual process of moving all of my iPhone pics into a separate iPhone Folder (on the NAS), then organizing it somewhat realizing many pictures are just isolated images that can’t be grouped/organized).  (ROB I JUST READ YOUR 10/11/19 POST ON THE IPHONE IMPORT: BTW I HAVE DUPLICATES OF ALL MY IPHONE PICS in LR/LRc..I digress)…

Okay, what I see as slightly different in my work flow is that I’m importing, say 500 new images from my camera, into an ALBUM (to begin the organization/editing/storage) in LR on my iPAD, which then synchs to a COLLECTION on LRc rather than what you are doing which is having ALL your images go into the ONE LARGE SYNCH file (flat file organized by dates only) which is then organized into a numerous NEW FOLDERS in LRc on the PC...

I get it now, it will work, but it doesn’t utilize the initial organization during import into an LR ALBUM, but requires me to go back into the flat file and select the right date of the upload then move them manually into the new FOLDER on LRc…

And LR/LRc somehow knows that all the SYNCH PHOTOS are in the flat file on my PC (LRSYNCH) except for the ones that I just manually moved into a new FOLDER on my PC and it keeps track of that move w/o “resynching” that flat file to only include the images that weren’t moved into the new FOLDER….I think I got that new concept now...

next revelation, 

“Deleting from the Cloud:”

WOW, never saw that DELETE PHOTOS WARNING BOX! So deleting from the ALL SYNCH PHOTOGRAPHS FOLDER will remove images from the Adobe Cloud but leave them in the LRc CATALOG when one chooses images will be stored locally (both hidden iPad AND PC?) And I would assume that if one didn’t store locally, the images are GONE (except for the recovery from the Cloud)…

OK, I think I got it...Sticking with your example, there is a direct import of your Guitar pics x 3 into IMPORTS on your iphone (and likewise showing on All Photos) and this SYNCHED w/ LRc and since you stored locally they are on your PC in your D:\IMAGES\My Pictures IPHONE\2026\06  (LR added the date) FOLDER. You then deleted from the SPECIAL “CATALOG-ALL SYNCED PHOTOGRAPHS” (That’s new to me and I now see that the photo count is different (GREATER #)  from what’s in the flat file FOLDER on my PC)…

So what happened was the image initially was in the Adobe cloud synched across devices but stored locally on the PC in a catalog and you removed the image from the cloud directly removing the image from all LR/LRc apps/devices EXCEPT it remains on your PC in D:\IMAGES\My Pictures IPHONE\2026\06 and ONLY in the SPECIAL “CATALOG-ALL SYNCED PHOTOGRAPHS for eternity?. 

Is it no longer in the main LRc Catalog-ALL PHOTOGRAPHS?

I tried to REMOVE 3 of my pictures (analagous to your 3 guitar images) from everywhere never to be found again (including from the local HD) and both catalogs by going to the analagous LRc FOLDER D:\IMAGES\My Pictures IPHONE\2026\06

and in LIBRARY/ PHOTO/ REMOVE PHOTO I was suprised to see:

LRc said “DELETE VIRTUAL PHOTO” rather than what I’m used to when deleting images

LR seems to be treating this FOLDER different from all the thousands of other FOLDERS I have….

WOW, this has generated new knowledge but now some new questions. Your solution is BETTER than what I had been doing (going back to the first post) but still remains a manual process and I’m afraid now that for images I do want gone forever, they may linger somewhere…

Can I ask LR Engineers in a future release to allow someone (maybe not everyone) who still wants to work with both LR and LRc to simply allow an ALBUM created in LR and synched to a COLLECTION in LRc to be able to select that COLLECTION and “EXPORT AS A NEW FOLDER <C:/MY PICTURE/….>”

Thanks so much for all your time and assistance, I hope I can buy you a beverage of your choice as a small token of my deep appreciation for your skills!

Thank you

Keith

​@KocisMD1 

Keeith, I don’t know how you have a LYSYNCH “file” (are you on a Mac or PC?)- it must be a Folder that you set in Preferences as the location for photos downloaded from the Cloud. And I don’t know how you can have a LRSYNCH file in the iPad (Do you mean your photos shown in the iPad Lightroom App?). If you can post some screen-clips to show the “LRSYNCH file” that might explain.  (The first ever default folder for Cloud downloads is {Mobile Downloads.lrdata} which appears in the LrC folder panel as a separate drive. A preference setting changes this to any folder on your PC drives, that can include a NAS.)

Three concepts-

~Moving photos (in the LrC Folder panel) makes no difference to the syncing of those photos- it is just like moving photos in Windows Explorer: Folder A > Folder B.    (Number of files in each folder changes accordingly).  Move ALL files from A > B and you leave Folder A empty. If photos remain in the LrC catalog and are synced with Cloud they will remain synced.

~Deleting photos from the Cloud does not delete them from you local drive location (after ensuring they have downloaded). And there is an easy way to do this (see below).

~In LrC photos do not need to be in a Collection to be synced with the Cloud.

My Example Moving: Photo taken on iPhone:

Downloaded to Lightroom-CLASSIC at folder set in preferences- {D:\IMAGES\My Pictures IPHONE\2026\06}  (Original location)

In Lightroom-CLASSIC Folder panel I can move the file to another Folder- {D:\IMAGES\MY PICTURES SUNDRY}  (New location)

The image remains synced. Lightroom-CLASSIC does not care where you store the photo file.

Deleting from the Cloud:

The “All Synced Photographs” list in the Catalog panel of Lightroom-CLASSIC

is an easy way to remove photos from the cloud (ie. ALL Lightroom-mobile apps, iPhone iPad, Lr-Desktop)- Select and Delete a photo from this special collection   and you see this-

My Example: Note that one (central in clip) photo I removed from The “All Synced Photographs” list remains stored locally and referenced in the LrC catalog but is no longer synced- And note- none of these three photos are in a Collection!

Now here is the interesting part-  After deleting photos from the Lr Cloud you can then re-sync these images from a LrC collection and only smart previews are sent to the Cloud and do not occupy any of your Cloud space.

Master Rob,

THANK YOU so very much for your very cogent explanations and believe it or not, I have spent years learning and differentiating between the Files, Folders, Collections,  (are not the same things) and Albums where my photos are organized in both LR and LRc…

The LRSYNCH files were named and created by LR and LRc (found in the little cloud icon upper right when I synch between the apps) since I do store a copy of the full images locally on both my PC (with it’s 3 levels of redundancy) as well as my iPad (NOTE: THIS IS WHY I SAY I HAVE 3 COPIES OF THE IMAGE) while I edit and work on the images and only after the images are safely on the PC w/ 3 levels of redundancy do I delete the local iPad copy...At a later time, when I no longer need immediate access to the images for editing, sharing, showing, etc  I remove them from the Adobe cloud as well to free up space for the new incoming images.

To Clarify: you said “If that “LRSynch file” is a physical FOLDER on the NAS then it will still exist on the NAS even if you move files out of it (by moving them in the LrC Folder panel.) and remaining files will still be synced IF they remain referenced in a Synced Collection”

My reply: If that “LRSynch file” is a FILE  (a flat file organized by dates) on the NAS then it will still exist on the NAS even if you move IMAGES out of it (by moving them in the LrC Folder panel.) to a newly created FOLDER on the NAS (along w/ thousands of other folders that exist in my LRc catalog).  

My question still is what happens to the LRSYNCH FILE once the group of images have been moved to a FOLDER, which I am assuming remains REFERENCED in my LRc Catalog to the new FOLDER. I would assume the LRSYNCH file on the PC is reduced in size by the number of images that were moved to the FOLDER and that then the CLOUD FILE is similarly reduced in size, then finally, the iPad LRSYNCH file is reduced in size….I don’t know what happens to the LRc COLLECTION which was used to synch between LR/CLOUD Files and the PC.

To Continue: 

you said; “The image files will be located in the new folder you moved them  too.”

GOOD, That’s where I want them and I want my catalog to know that they are there in a FOLDER along w/ thousands of other folders!

To Continue: 

you said; “hey will remain in a synced Collection and will remain synced to Lr mobile.”

I’m confused as to how the LRc COLLECTION with those images remains Synched in the Cloud/then iPad when I moved those images out of the LRSYNCH FILE.

I am not deleting any images from the cloud til much later as I described above…

Thank you for sharing the screen shots and I follow that but have the following questions:

“D:\IMAGES\My Pictures IPHONE\2024\07

The FOLDER location of these images in my local system.”

I’m assuming the “local system” is your PC and that’s where the images originated from and you moved them using LRc into the Cloud via a COLLECTION that then landed on your LR ALBUM (on your iphone/ipad)…

My problem is going the OTHER DIRECTION, moving the raw images imported from my camera into a ALBUM on LR, synching w/ the cloud and landing on my PC as a COLLECTION…..I am struggling to easily MOVE (to avoid duplicates and keep my catalog intact a) those images to a FOLDER on LRc on my NAS to join the thousands of other folders I have as well as my 3 levels of file redundancy to prevent any possible file loss or inaccessibility (say, if I were to stop paying for my Adobe Cloud storage). You have described a way to do that, but my lingering concerns remain as described above….

If this works as you’ve described and as I’ve tried to explain my twist on it, then that should solve my problems and make the integration of the cloud based solutions into my long standing file naming,structure, and redundant storage possible!!

Thank you again for your kindness and wisdom.

Best

Keith

Okay, it’s taken me some time to think about all of this and I’m still uncertain as to whether or not this will work (let’s say, I’m afraid to do anything until I ask the follow up questions)…..

You suggest the simple task of “Move photos, if you must, to any location in the Folder panel of Lr-Classic”….

So I see in the folder section the flat file (by date) of LRSYNCH w/ the photos that are in my collections sitting there…

There’s another copy of that in the cloud and a 3rd copy of it on my iPad where the initial download and editing occurred in a remote location away from home. All three are currently synched. (I can tell that’s true by the photo count in the files)..

So after I select the photos from the shoot on one date and “Move” them (not copy, but “select” them and move them so as to not lose all the editing that was performed)

and I drop them in a new Folder that I just created with the same name as I had when it was a collection but now this is sitting on the NAS along w/ all the thousands of folders I have been creating over the past decades which seems to be what I want to do….

BUT…

what happens to the LRSynch file sitting on my NAS minus the files I moved to the new folder?? 

Will it resynch and add all those pictures back to the LRSYNCH folder?

What will it do to the Cloud copy of all the files (remove the pictures from them so as to “synch” w/ the NAS based copy of LRSYNCH?? 

What will it do to the iPad version of LRSYNCH which still contains all of the files? 

Ultimately, will the LR library be confused by all this movement and the SYNCHx# that is no longer, but remains SYNCH X 2?

I’m going to try w/ just one collection into one folder on the NAS and hope and pray there is no explosion!!

Lastly, later down the road when I delete those collections that are no longer current and rely only on the LRClassic folder based photos on the NAS, will all be okay? or will LR know that I moved the files from the LRSYNCH file to the LR Folder and attempt to delete that folder???

WOW, so much to fear…

Please advise.

Thank you

Keith

THANKS so much for all the knowledge! This will be my weekend project...Wish me well!

I don’t work with a NAS but I assume the NAS appears as a drive in the Lightroom-Classic (LrC) folder panel- If that is so then i would expect this workflow to work:

~Remote: Import camera files to Lightroom (Lr)   (Files are in the Adobe Cloud),

~Home: Turn on Sync in Lightroom-Classic-  Now ALL Lr files will automatically download to a chosen folder location in the Desktop LrC catalog (on C:drive?)

~Drag the images  from the Local drive to the NAS in the LrC folder panel.

Ideally you could, in LrC,  name the NAS  as the chosen download location in [Preferences > Lightroom Sync tab > Choose Location]  then ALL files would automatically download directly to the NAS-  nothing further is needed to be done.

Someone that uses a NAS may have a better answer.