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ebjerke1960
Participant
November 14, 2022
Answered

Setting up new MacBook

  • November 14, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 367 views
Advice welcomed: I will get a new Macbook Pro in a couple of days and hope to organized and store things in a more organized manner that I had been previously on my current, aging iMac.
 
I have been using Lightroom Classic on my iMac, but am considering using Lightroom CC going forward with the new laptop. The laptop will have 1 TB and I have an external with 2 TB.
 
I hope to store the majority of my images on the external and try not to even come close to filling up the laptop's 1 TB.
 
The questions are, how would YOU set things up from the beginning? Do I switch to the cloud version for the laptop and continue using Classic on my iMac when I edit from there? What are some considerations I might not be thinking about? 
 
This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer JohanElzenga

Lightroom ('CC' was dropped from the name a few years ago) stores the original images in the cloud, not on your computer. Yes, it temporarily stores copies on your computer during import, and you can permanently store a copy locally if you want to, but the cloud is where the originals are. That means you'll need more cloud space if you want to keep working with Lightroom Classic on your other conputer. The 20GB cloud space in the Photography plan will quickly be too little.

 

You can sync your Lightroom Classic catalog to the cloud, so both computers will have access to the same images, but you need to understand how that works. Lightroom Classic does not sync original images to the cloud, only smart previews. And it uploads only those images that are in a synced collection. It does download every image from the cloud, however. That means you have to think about your workflow very carefully. If you import new images via Lightroom, then the originals are synced to the cloud (and downloaded into Lightroom Classic). If you import new images in Lightroom Classic, then only smart previews will be synced (if you place the images in a synced collection, otherwise nothing is synced). If that does not sound like a good idea, then it might be better to use Lightroom Classic on both computers and store the catalog and the images on an external drive that you use with both computers.

 

1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
November 14, 2022

Lightroom ('CC' was dropped from the name a few years ago) stores the original images in the cloud, not on your computer. Yes, it temporarily stores copies on your computer during import, and you can permanently store a copy locally if you want to, but the cloud is where the originals are. That means you'll need more cloud space if you want to keep working with Lightroom Classic on your other conputer. The 20GB cloud space in the Photography plan will quickly be too little.

 

You can sync your Lightroom Classic catalog to the cloud, so both computers will have access to the same images, but you need to understand how that works. Lightroom Classic does not sync original images to the cloud, only smart previews. And it uploads only those images that are in a synced collection. It does download every image from the cloud, however. That means you have to think about your workflow very carefully. If you import new images via Lightroom, then the originals are synced to the cloud (and downloaded into Lightroom Classic). If you import new images in Lightroom Classic, then only smart previews will be synced (if you place the images in a synced collection, otherwise nothing is synced). If that does not sound like a good idea, then it might be better to use Lightroom Classic on both computers and store the catalog and the images on an external drive that you use with both computers.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
E
ebjerke1960Author
Participant
November 21, 2022

Thank you so much. I think I will definitely go with the option of using Classic on both compters. 

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