Skip to main content
A
akamin
Participant
July 15, 2023
Question

If I sync Lightroom Classic with missing photos, will that remove the backup photos on the cloud?

  • July 15, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 178 views

Recently, my hard drive with all the photos I've taken broke. Stupid me didn't have a back up of the original files. It's currenlty being diagnoised, but I'm not sure what the likelihoods of recovering the original files is. I use Lightroom Classic and synced photos to Lightroom, so I still can edit the images on my iPad and iPhone. 

 

I wanted to create a new empty catalog for Lighroom Classics, but I wasn't sure if syncing the new catalog would cause the photos in the Lightroom backup to be deleted. To ensure that I have some form of the photos, I used Lightroom Downloader to download the photos and I also downloaded photos from specific albums just in case.

 

Does Lightroom syncing sync the albums? What happens to the photos on the cloud when Lightroom tries to sync when all files cannot be found? Is it safe for me to create a new catalog without losing the photos on the cloud? 

 

Maybe these are trivial questions, but I haven't quite had the courage to mess around. Thank you to any help in advance. 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

cmgap
Community Expert
cmgapCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 19, 2023

Think positive! I've been able to recover data many times from external drives that have failed – it can be stressful. Also know that the photos that you have synced are smart previews and not full size images. As long as you don't need to print larger than 2550 pixels on the longest edge you can continue to edit as you wish. You could try to Enhance an image for perhaps a small gain but it won't provide enough data for extra large prints.

 

Until you know the status of the recovery process you may want to continue using Lightroom on the web in a browser or on your phone or tablet version of Lightroom. You can only have one catalog synced at a time and starting with another catalog will convolute the process if you are able to get your data back. If that is the case you'll be able to update the location to a new drive and be back on track.

A
akaminAuthor
Participant
July 22, 2023

Thank you for the encouragement and info! I don't think I'll have to make big prints so that's good 🙂 I will continue waiting for how the recovery goes. 

 

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