Skip to main content
Koshington
Koshington
Known Participant
May 29, 2019
Answered

How do I move the images I have imported with iPad to my backup drive from sync’d classic?

  • May 29, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 377 views

Hi, my monthly work flow is the following and I could do with some help on how to continue doing this going forward since ive introduced a new step using a new iPad Pro;

1) i shoot mainly property, monthly

2) I import images from camera card into MacBook Pro on Lightroom Classic into the current month catalogue. I create a new catalogue each month.

3) each shoot is culled & processed on Mac Lightroom classic.

4) at the end of each month I move the entire catalogue to an external back up drive and start a new one. (All images etc)

i have now started using the iPad Pro in the field using lightroom CC.

So now some images are imported into lightroom cc on iPad using card reader through camera roll, then deleted from camera roll.

The images now exist in Lightroom cc’s library and are synced to the creative Cloud (20gb) and synced to my current months catalogue on my Mac.

Culled & processed on iPad then required ones dropped to dropbox and delivered to client via my website.

Now i want to a) claim my space back off my iPad, Dropbox, creative cloud and ultimately my MacBook Pro’s HD

But now transferring the catalogue off my Mac HD to my backup drive to start a new month, doesn’t contain the synced files that were originally imported with Lightroom CC on my iPad.

My HD drive on my MacBook Pro is getting fuller as the synced files from CCloud are being kept in a separate area instead of the original Catalogue.

How can I transfer EVERYTHING neatly as before I introduced the iPad into my workflow.

Or is there a simpler way I could be doing the whole thing??

obviously my goals are to back up everything to MY onsite HD and start each month with an empty iPad, Dropbox, creative cloud and Mac HD.

thanks for any help that is offered.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Conrad_C

You might want to go into Preferences, Lightroom Sync, Location, and set the sync folder location to be exactly the same location and date format/structure that's you've set in the Import dialog box for importing directly from camera or card reader.

When your Sync folder setup matches your Import folder setup, all images that sync down from the iPad go into the same date folders that your local imports go into, so that they become part of the same single set of photos. Then you won't need a separate backup routine for iPad synced photos, because they'll already get backed up with all of the others.

Also, I agree that creating monthly catalogs is unnecessary. There is a long list of reasons why doing that will eventually become a major file management headache for you. Hopefully you are not creating monthly catalogs for performance reasons, since it is well established that catalog size generally does not hurt performance. I'm using the same catalog I have since Lightroom 1.0 in 2007, and it has over 100,000 images in it. I can instantly locate any photo taken during those years (and thousands of scans imported from previous years), and quickly curate and recombine them into any collections I want in a matter of minutes. Because they're all in one catalog.

If each of your catalogs only contain one month worth of images, it means every month of images is walled off from every other month, since Lightroom can't search across catalogs or open more than one catalog at a time. And if you ever upgrade to a new version of Lightroom Classic that requires upgrading the catalog file format, you're going to endure many, many catalog upgrades. Instead of upgrading just one catalog.

If the reason you do a catalog each month is to be able to organize/locate photos by month, that's not necessary. The Import dialog box and Sync preference lets you auto-organize imported images into folders by month if you want, but even if the folders aren't organized by date, there are still multiple ways to display photos by month (metadata filter, Smart Collections…).

2 replies

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 30, 2019

You might want to go into Preferences, Lightroom Sync, Location, and set the sync folder location to be exactly the same location and date format/structure that's you've set in the Import dialog box for importing directly from camera or card reader.

When your Sync folder setup matches your Import folder setup, all images that sync down from the iPad go into the same date folders that your local imports go into, so that they become part of the same single set of photos. Then you won't need a separate backup routine for iPad synced photos, because they'll already get backed up with all of the others.

Also, I agree that creating monthly catalogs is unnecessary. There is a long list of reasons why doing that will eventually become a major file management headache for you. Hopefully you are not creating monthly catalogs for performance reasons, since it is well established that catalog size generally does not hurt performance. I'm using the same catalog I have since Lightroom 1.0 in 2007, and it has over 100,000 images in it. I can instantly locate any photo taken during those years (and thousands of scans imported from previous years), and quickly curate and recombine them into any collections I want in a matter of minutes. Because they're all in one catalog.

If each of your catalogs only contain one month worth of images, it means every month of images is walled off from every other month, since Lightroom can't search across catalogs or open more than one catalog at a time. And if you ever upgrade to a new version of Lightroom Classic that requires upgrading the catalog file format, you're going to endure many, many catalog upgrades. Instead of upgrading just one catalog.

If the reason you do a catalog each month is to be able to organize/locate photos by month, that's not necessary. The Import dialog box and Sync preference lets you auto-organize imported images into folders by month if you want, but even if the folders aren't organized by date, there are still multiple ways to display photos by month (metadata filter, Smart Collections…).

Koshington
KoshingtonAuthor
Known Participant
May 31, 2019

Thanks for the advice, certainly food for thought, and i’ll try a larger catalogue again.

Great that i can keep the synced ipad images on my external SSD with the Lightroom catalogue.

Just a quick one, i‘d like to keep my creative cloud/ iPad clear in between jobs (I want to use Lightroom cc on ipad only for the jobs on working on at that time & not old images, not taking up space with the ones that ive finished with) so if i delete them from my iPad after syncing lightroom - will they still be on my Mac’s lightroom catalogue?

Thanks again for you time.

Tony_See
Tony_See
Inspiring
May 30, 2019

I'm not sure why you are creating a new catalog monthly?

I believe thats building in difficulty to your workflow and maybe uneccessarily complicating your sync to Lightroom CC.

Koshington
KoshingtonAuthor
Known Participant
May 30, 2019

Thanks for your response..

I shoot thousands of images per month, so to keep things running quickly/smoothly and there’s rarely a need for them after processing.

i have definitely found keeping smaller catalogues improves culling time dramatically.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices