No access to smart previews in Cloud after deleting them locally

Question

Hello there,I am syncing certain Albums in Lightroom Classic to the cloud and some of them have become too big and since I do not need all the smart previews stored locally all the time I deleted them to save space on my computer. But now these pictures are simply shown as not available when my server (where they are stored) is not connected even though these albums are in the cloud – so with Lightroom CC on my Mac, Lightroom on my iPad or even any browser I can still edit these pictures – obviously because they’re stored as smart previews within the Adobe Cloud. But only Lightroom Classic acts like it does not have access to it and needs the originals or at least needs locally stored smart previews to edit or even view these pictures without the original files… is that some kind of bug or am I not getting it?

JohanElzenga · Accepted Answer

Lightroom Classic always needs locally stored originals or smart previews to edit a picture, regardless of what’s in the cloud. Your screenshot shows you have neither. The original is missing and you deleted your smart previews. If you did not delete the originals as well, then you must ‘reconnect’ them:https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-photos-missing-fix/

JohanElzenga · Answer

You do not understand how Lightroom Classic works. Lightroom Classic cannot use smart previews that are in the cloud. It needs either originals locally, or smart previews. That means that if you delete the local smart previews and your NAS is not connected, then Lightroom Classic cannot work with these images. You may not like this, but that’s the way it works.

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