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Participant
May 26, 2025
Answered

Is there any way to delete photos to clear up space but leave it in a shared album?

  • May 26, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 241 views

I do some work for clients and I need to clear up space on my end.


TIA

Correct answer Jao vdL

No. The shared album feature relies on the images being stored in the cloud. You can archive images locally but they will disappear from any albums including shared ones you have. There is an undocumented hack using Lightroom classic to replace the online images with smart previews that do not take up any cloud space but this is very much a kludge. If you need the images to stay online after removing from your Adobe cloud account, you should use an independent service such as zenfolio, smugmug, flickr, etc.

2 replies

Jao vdLCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 26, 2025

No. The shared album feature relies on the images being stored in the cloud. You can archive images locally but they will disappear from any albums including shared ones you have. There is an undocumented hack using Lightroom classic to replace the online images with smart previews that do not take up any cloud space but this is very much a kludge. If you need the images to stay online after removing from your Adobe cloud account, you should use an independent service such as zenfolio, smugmug, flickr, etc.

Sameer K
Community Manager
Community Manager
May 26, 2025

Hey, @Avrohom37736984p027. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll help you figure this out. 

 

In Lightroom on your desktop, you can Archive collections & store them locally on your machine to free up cloud storage. Follow the steps here: https://adobe.ly/3OWEriC

 

However, this may be half the solution for your workflow, as the shared albums may not work. For the shared albums to work, you'll need images on the cloud. 

 

Thanks! 

Sameer K

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