Copy to cloud saving local copies

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
June 17, 2025
2 replies
254 views

I have just started using Lightroom after switching over from Lightroom Classic which has become unusable on my PC. I am a bit confused which regards to copying to cloud.

If I copy images to the cloud it saves a local full res copy on my c drive or in my case I've go it to save to a second internal drive on my laptop.

Then I move them to a collection in cloud and that syncs with the cloud so I can view and edit on my iPad.

I am then able to delete the versions of the files that have been copied to the internal drive on my laptop.

It's weird as the files are already local on an external HDD so I don't understand why they have to be copied to my internal drive to then get copied to the cloud.

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Windows

selondon

Community Expert

When importing Lightroom will create its own copy within its (invisible) Catalog before uploading to the Cloud. If you are importing a large number of photos, this could fill up disc space.

After a while depending on the cache level, these would get deleted.

At least this is how it used to work.
Could this be the issue?

Reducing the cache level in Preferences (saying how much disc space you want Lightroom to use), and restarting Lightroom may help cleanse the files already imported.

Maybe post a screenshot of your Lightroom Preferences (scrubbing out any personal details)

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi @seaniom, thanks for sharing your experience, and welcome to the cloud-based Lightroom workflow!

Just to better understand your setup, when you say the files are already on an external HDD, are you importing them directly from there into Lightroom? If so, I’m curious: Do you notice Lightroom creating a copy onto your internal drive before syncing to the cloud? Have you had a chance to check your settings under Preferences > Cache, particularly whether “Store a copy of all originals" is turned on?

Also, after syncing, when you delete the local copy, do you find everything stays intact across your iPad and other devices?

Will be looking forward to your response.

Best,

Anshul Saini

S

seaniomAuthor

Inspiring

Yes I am importing directly from an external HDD. Yes it does create a copy of the full orginal image on the external drive of my computer. The "store a copy of all originals" tick box is not ticked.

Yes when the orginals are deleted everything stays across all devices in the cloud.

I can even export from the cloud tab in Lightroom on the PC at full res even though the orginals have been deleted.

Unless it is till using the ones on the external drive to make the full res image from.

I could just import into cloud and delete the originals when it is completed but not sure why it's doing it when I don't have the keep originals tick box ticked

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