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Michel33210852952q
Participant
March 13, 2026
Question

How to Temporarily Use a Separate Lightroom Classic Catalog While Traveling Without Affecting Main Sync

  • March 13, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 38 views

Bonjour à tous, je souhaite savoir si je neutralise la synchronisation de mon unique catalogue LrC principal qui est posée sur MacMini pour créer un nouveau catalogue LrC sur mon MacBook pour un voyage afin de déposer les photos dans ce nouveau catalogue temporaire le temps du voyage. Mettre en place pour ce catalogue voyage la synchronisation permettant de traiter le tri des photos du voyage. 
De retour à la maison fusion des catalogues par import du catalogue voyage dans le catalogue principal et remettre la synchronisation du catalogue principal en action.

Ceci est il possible et sans aucun problème pour l’actuelle synchronisation qui est composée de plus de 30000 photos.

Merci pour votre retour et aide.

    2 replies

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 13, 2026

    Do you require syncing to be enabled during travel? If not, then there is no problem. Syncing does not need to be enabled for you to cull and organize photos during travel, so I do not enable syncing for my travel catalog. 

     

    If you do require syncing to be enabled, what is the reason? For example, if your goal is to be able to edit and share photos directly as well as sync to Lightroom cloud photos, maybe it would be better to use cloud Lightroom (not Classic) on the MacBook travel computer. Importing photos would sync copies of those originals up to the cloud (if the Internet connection during the trip has enough upload speed), and when you return home the images will sync down to Lightroom Classic. You can also use Lightroom for simple rating, culling, and organizing.

     

    I have used Lightroom Classic on a travel MacBook Pro to back up camera cards, but one reason I do not enable syncing for the travel catalog is that Lightroom Classic syncing cannot be used to back up originals, because Lightroom Classic only uploads Smart Previews. 

     

    (If this question is really about Lightroom Classic only, it should be posted in the Lightroom Classic community. It was originally posted in the Lightroom community, so maybe a moderator can move it.)

      M
      Michel33210852952qAuthor
      Participant
      March 14, 2026

      je pense à une autre solution toujours à partir de l’iPad Pro charger les photos de la carte mémoire dans un répertoire sans distinguer les jours de prise de vue. Dans Lightroom mobile de l’iPad pro créer un dossier nom du voyage et ajouter des albums jour à jour en incorporant les photos stockées sur l’iPad, effectuer des tris et classement habituels, puis en arrivant à mon domicile sur l’ordinateur de bureau, ouvrir Lightroom mobile et sur le dossier voyage cliqué pour archiver localement. Stocker les photos avec la structure du Lightroom dans un support ou j’ai de stocker les photos des voyages. Ensuite ouvrir Lightroom classique pour importer les photos dans le catalogue à partir du répertoire archivé localement, je n’ai pas encore testé mais je vais envisager ceci. Vos avis?

      Conrad_C
      Community Expert
      Conrad_CCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 4, 2026

      Hello, sorry that it took so long for me to reply. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will work, because of the limitations of Lightroom for iPad. It does not work like Lightroom Classic. Specifically, Lightroom for iOS cannot manage photos in normal iOS folders/directories. It only manages images in cloud storage, and in its own local private/hidden caches of cloud storage. 

       

      Lightroom for iOS does let you create a “folder,” but that does not mean the same thing as in Lightroom Classic. In Lightroom for iPad/iPhone/web, a “folder” is simply a group or container to help organize “albums.” Albums are the same as Collections in Lightroom Classic, they are simply lists of images and not paths to the actual files on local storage. The files are not in local storage because whenever you load photos in Lightroom for iOS, they are uploaded to Lightroom photos in the cloud, not organized on the device. On iPad, Lightroom provides no working access to iOS folders (only for import to cloud or for export, not for direct editing).

       

      You can still accomplish what you are doing, but it will work through the cloud, not locally. You can import photos into Lightroom on an iPad and it will let you browse them by date, and you can sort and rank. If Lightroom on iPad was able to successfully upload all imported photos to the Lightroom cloud, when you get home Lightroom Classic should be able to automatically download all the images from the cloud to the catalog that has syncing enabled.

       

      In fact, Lightroom on iOS does not actually provide any easy way to transfer or sync images locally to Lightroom Classic. It is possible, but the process is complex and non-obvious because Adobe designed the workflow around Internet access and cloud storage.

       

      If you require full local control over travel images with the direct ability for local transfer when you get home, without depending on Internet access or the cloud, you must use other iPad photo management software, not Lightroom. It’s the same situation if you need to edit from images on external storage connected to the iPad.

        CMass
        CMass
        Legend
        March 13, 2026

        Hey ​@Michel33210852952q , this is possible, but would open you issues such as: Sync conflicts, Data loss, Duplicate photos. That being said there are people in the community that might be able to advise you.  

        ^CMass

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