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secondmac
Participant
Jul 13, 2026 3:00 AM UTC
Answered

Lightroom IPad locally stored photos

I am trying to find where my locally stored folders/images are located on my iPad, I can’t locate them.

    Claire H.
    Claire H.Correct answer
    Community Manager
    Jul 13, 2026 4:41 PM UTC

    Hi @secondmac, Welcome to the Lightroom Community Forum! The Lightroom on iPad is designed to import and retain original images in its app cache. You can’t actually access the photos on the hard drive unless you’re in Lightroom. All you’ll see is that the Lightroom application is taking up additional space on the internal storage without actually seeing any of the individual files. If you want to free up space on your iPad, go to Lightroom's “Local Storage” settings and clear the cache. I hope this helps! ^CH

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    secondmacAuthor
    Participant
    Jul 13, 2026 5:06 PM UTC

    Thanks for the great and informative response. I believe I was mistakenly thinking that the images stored locally would be in a separate “local” album. I discovered that they are still in the original album but are stored locally and not in the cloud.

    Thanks for the assist! 

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      Jim Wilde
      Community Expert
      Jim WildeCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Jul 14, 2026 10:06 AM UTC

      Just to be clear, when you sync an image to the cloud that cloud image becomes the “master”. Depending upon which app it was synced from, and what the local settings are for that app, the original local image may well be automatically replaced with a locally-stored preview (stored within the app’s local cache). However, there’s always the option in the various apps to locally store an individual original image or a complete album of originals…..but that would be in addition to the “master” image(s) in the cloud. The “masters” will always remain in the cloud regardless of the local app settings unless/until the image is manually deleted from the cloud (which can be done from any app).

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      Claire H.
      Community Manager
      Claire H.Community ManagerCorrect answer
      Community Manager
      Jul 13, 2026 4:41 PM UTC

      Hi @secondmac, Welcome to the Lightroom Community Forum! The Lightroom on iPad is designed to import and retain original images in its app cache. You can’t actually access the photos on the hard drive unless you’re in Lightroom. All you’ll see is that the Lightroom application is taking up additional space on the internal storage without actually seeing any of the individual files. If you want to free up space on your iPad, go to Lightroom's “Local Storage” settings and clear the cache. I hope this helps! ^CH

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