New iPhone, tries to auto-import all iCloud Photos again

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
July 30, 2025
2 replies
255 views

Hi, I've Lightroom on my iPhone set to auto-import from my camera roll. This works well. I've purchased addidional Adobe Cloud storage so I have a copy of all my photos in iCloud Photos and also in Lightroom via Adobe Cloud. It's great to be able to access the same photo on Lightroom on my phone, iPad, and Mac, via the cloud. No problems with that and it's working very well.

Except... when I get a new iPhone (typically every year, because I like new toys) the Lightroom app on the iPhone decides to auto-import EVERY photo from iCloud Photos again. It doesn't actually import them to be clear; it tries to, which means it downloads it from iCloud, works out it's already in Lightroom, and moves on to the next one. But with 60,000 photos in iCloud (and growing!) this process takes a very long time. And requires the iPhone to be left plugged in, with the screen on, for a very long time.

I gave up with my iPhone 16 Pro last September, and this issue means I'm using Lightroom less than I'd like as every time I open it, the process resumes. I've still got 25,000 to go for this phone, and I'll probably be starting over in September again.

So, my question: is there a better way? Am I doing something wrong? Or is there something I can to do stop this from happening every single time I get a new iPhone?

Thanks!

iOS: iPhone

selondon

Community Expert

@MikeTJA

I cannot remember this happening to me (although I cannot remember if I had iCloud's Optimise Storage on or off at the time).

Are you using Apple's Quick Start or loading from an iCloud back up when getting a new phone?

MikeTJAAuthor

Participant

It varies. Sometimes I'm loading from a backup as I've done the in-store trade in thing. Other times I've bought a new phone and then sold my old phone afterwards, so would've used the Quick Start method. But yes, I have Optimise Storage set, so only a small number of my photos/videos are on the device, but it has happended every time I get a new phone.

I've left it on for a few nights now, with the screen dimmed as far as it will go as Lightroom has to be left running in the foreground and the phone unlocked for it to continue. I still have 17,000 to go...

MassC

Legend

Hey! @MikeTJA,

Welcome to the community, and thank you for sharing context around your question. Based on what you’ve described, it seems like Lightroom is working as intended by validating content during the import process. I get that this might not fit your ideal workflow, and unfortunately, there isn’t currently a more seamless way to handle this type of backup in Lightroom.

One option is to manually manage your imports when setting up a new phone. It’s not the most convenient approach, but it does give you more control over which images are imported.

Here is a link to an article about importing photos in Lightroom: https://adobe.ly/3He1Lbv

Let me know if that is helpful. Also, there may be others in the community who have a different perspective or approach. 🙂

^CM

MikeTJAAuthor

Participant

Thanks @CMass I appreciate the response. I was hoping there was a better way for Lightroom to "remember" what photos it has already imported from iCloud Photos, and not check each and every file when the phone changes, especially as I don't have the full iCloud Photo library on my device (it's too large). But thanks for confirming there's not a setting that I've missed that fixes this.

Manually importing is more annoying, as I'm sure I'll forget to do that and will likely be annoyed at myself when I try to access something in the Adobe Cloud that I haven't yet uploaded, but I'll give it a go. With over 60,000 photos, it literally takes multiple days, and nights, running 24x7, to sort itself out otherwise (and yes, I have a fast internet connection and fast WiFi, so that's not the issue, it just seems to take about 10 seconds, per photo, to process).

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