Inspiring

Answered

Lightroom Camera not saving images locally to phone

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
November 1, 2024
4 replies
2880 views

I have a brand new iPhone16 Pro Max, IOS 18.1.

Native Camera app working fine - images show in Apple Photos and are uploaded to iCloud (and are visible to Google Photos, also loaded on the phone), and visible when I plug phone into computer via USB cable.

Today I installed Lightroom Camera so I could better control the image taken. Installed 10.0.1.450863/171. Free version so I can see if it works for me. Signed in using my Adobe account.

When I take a photo with the LR App, the shutter 'clicks' (sound effect) and an image appears bottom left corner. However, the image never shows in the Apple Photos grid, no matter how I sort. Nor does it show in the 'Device' view of LR. The 'Device' view does show all the images taken using the native camera app. 'Filters' (funnel) is set with everything checked. After taking the picture, if I tap on the image just taken, lower-left, it appears 'full screen' but - as soon as I touch it (tap, long press, swipe, anything) it minimizes back down to lower left corner and screen returns to camera view.

Under 'app settings', Local Storage, I see 'locally stored copies' at 113.7MB; cached files 0kb; Free 471.57 GB. That 'Locally stored copies' increases by about 3 to 4 MB each time I take a picture - not enough space to suggest an actual image, but 'something' is happening there.

On the phone, the LR App permissions include 'Photos' (full access) and 'Camera'.

I restarted the phone for good measure, no change. What else can I look at?

I found two near-identical reports while searching this forum, neither of which were resolved:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-discussions/lightroom-android-camera-won-t-save-photos-to-storage/m-p/14493814/thread-id/89302

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-ecosystem-cloud-based-discussions/lightroom-camera-app-does-not-save-photos-to-phone/m-p/14513102/thread-id/89653

iOS: iPhone

Correct answer Charlie.D

Capturing images with the LR camera does not save images to the iOS camera roll. So they will not appear automatically in the Photos.app or Lightroom Mobile's Device view.

The current app design requires user to export specific images captured by the LR Camera (Save copy to device, or Export As..)

A

aneeza_4222

Participant

If Lightroom isn’t working out for you, you might want to try GCam . It’s known for its advanced features like HDR+ and Night Sight, which make a huge difference in photo quality. While it’s mainly for Android and iphones, there might be ported versions you can explore. Let me know if you want help with that!

S

Steerpike58Author

Inspiring

Aneeza - I have been using Android phones for 10+ years and I'm very familiar with GCAM. My Android phone was stolen last year and I decided to give iPhone another chance since I was forced to buy a new phone and I knew the camera was very good. However, I can tell you that CGAM is most definitely not available on the iPhone! I just double-checked several websites and they all confirm this. Even the one you linked to does not mention ios or iphone at all.

The requirement to 'export' every image taken in LR, coupled with the unavailabilty of any direct integration with iCloud (so no backup) renders LR useless to me. I guess it's a great free add-on for those already active in the 'Lightroom' ecosystem.

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aneeza_4222

Participant

@Steerpike58 Thanks for sharing...it’s helpful for others..

But Android or iPhone, both are best.But IPhone has battery issues, while Android batteries are better.

selondon

Community Expert

Photos taken with the Lr Camera have always saved to the Lr camera photos album.

Howevee, I do agree that since the drop-down was introduced a year or two ago, searching album is more confusing.

C

Charlie.DCorrect answer

Inspiring

Capturing images with the LR camera does not save images to the iOS camera roll. So they will not appear automatically in the Photos.app or Lightroom Mobile's Device view.

The current app design requires user to export specific images captured by the LR Camera (Save copy to device, or Export As..)

A

anubhav_r

Adobe Employee

Got it. So the images are synced to Lr photos. I can see them on lightroom.adobe.com

To see them in the Lr app, I have to select "all photos" in the top left drop down. I was in "My edits" so I did not see the photos I had taken.

Finally, to see them in the iOS photos app, you have to export these images out of Lightroom.

--Anubhav

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Steerpike58Author

Inspiring

Thanks - I finally found them also. The problem is - as you saw yourself - it's not at all clear where to look within the App to find your images! (and it's not ovious how to export them, either!).

For the benefit of other newbies ...

At the bottom of the screen, there are three 'tabs' - Device, Edits, Community.

'Device' shows items taken by the stock camera - I guess this is the 'camera roll'?; NOT items taken by the LR camera.

'Community' is not is not relevant to this discussion

'Edits' is where we need to look (which is counter-intuitive because I haven't done any editing).

But when you tap 'edits', you see 'you don't have any edits yet'. At the top, there is a dropdown' that says 'My Edits' (again, counter-inutitive) and selecting that reveals "lightroom albums". Now, FINALLY, I see 'My edits (0), Unedited (14), LR camera photos (14), Imports (14) (even though I haven't imported anything), and Deleted.

Choosing (eg) LR Camera photos finally reveals the 14 test shots I took today. Woo Hoo!

So I choose an image to view. There are lots of possible edits - very powerful stuff, great. Now I want to get the image over to the camera roll so I can view it in Apple Photos and get it sync'd up and so on. Across the top I see the standard IOS 'share' icon. Choosing it reveals a list of choices:

'Save copy to device' (this exports the image to the photo library/camera roll).

'Share' (this offers to share to the standard 'share' list on the phone (including 'save to files')

'Export as...' (this seems to duplicate the 'share' option above, but also allows DNG format.

(and more ...).

I presume the files are hidden / protected as long as they reside in the Lightroom App (pre-export/save)? Is there a way to see how big this 'lightroom' storage location is, and more to the point ... any way to back it up?

S

Steerpike58Author

Inspiring

Correction - IOS 18.0.1 (in case anyone cares!). (couldn't find a way to edit my post).