Removing selected originals from local storage

Question

My workflow is as follows: I download the RAW files to a seperate folder on my PC and import these to Lightroom. I make a selection and edits in LR, export the JPEGs, back-up RAWs and JPEGs to a hard drive and remove the RAWs from the folder on my PC.

Now I found out that LR keeps all the RAWs in it's own folder, even though I haven't ticked any of the boxes under the 'local storage' settings (see included picture, settings are in Dutch. Even though it says it only takes up ~600 MB, the local storage files on the hard drive is ~90 GB). The pictures remain, even when they are removed from the LR library.

So my question is: How can I turn off this local storage (and thus keep my old work flow) and how can I remove all the RAWs I finished working on?

JohanElzenga · Answer

Just remove those raw files yourself. Lightroom needs to temporarily copy the orignals, in order to speed up the import process. If it did not do this, then your import process would be determined by the upload speed of the internet connection (and if there was no connection, you would not be able to import at all). It should automatically delete those raw files over time, but there seems to be a bug in that process.

By the way: removing the raw files from Lightroom after you have edited them and exported a JPEG copy means that you throw away all the work you have just done. You may not realise this, but the edits are stored in Lightroom, not in the raw file. So that raw file backup only contains unedited raw files, no edits! If you remove an image from Lightroom, you will delete the edits from Lightroom too.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded