Participant

Answered

Storage on iPad Pro

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 1, 2023
2 replies
5685 views

So I've seen some threads elsewhere online talking about this. Here's the problem. When you import photos from an sd card straight onto iPad in Lightroom it seems to store the photos locally (they do not show up in the apple photos app). If you have an internet connection it also uploads to the cloud but still stores locally. After a while your iPad storage fills up and there's no option to remove locally stored files while keeping them on the cloud. The only work around is to delete the app and start again.

iPadOS

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer alastair28206379nbfj

Thanks for your reply Emira, so I use the clear cache button but it only appears to clear a small portion of the locally stored data. I should mention I'm shooting in SE Asia at the moment and am having trouble finding a connection with enough bandwidth to upload files at the moment.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

When you import photos from an sd card straight onto iPad in Lightroom it seems to store the photos locally (they do not show up in the apple photos app).
By @alastair28206379nbfj

Right, Apple Photos and Lightroom both maintain their own separate and private image storage areas locally on the iPad. Photos stored by either app are not visible in the Files app.

If you have an internet connection it also uploads to the cloud but still stores locally. After a while your iPad storage fills up and there's no option to remove locally stored files while keeping them on the cloud. The only work around is to delete the app and start again.
By @alastair28206379nbfj

The way it’s supposed to work is that as originals imported into Lightroom become fully uploaded, the local copies are supposed to become purgeable so that if that space is needed by something else, those files are automatically deleted from the local cache (with the originals still available in the cloud).

When that local cache isn’t emptied fast enough for whatever reason, that’s when you run out of space on the iPad. The Clear Cache option suggested by Elmira is supposed to be a way for you to force the cache to empty without having to delete the app.

(By the way, if you enable iCloud Photos for Apple Photos, I think that makes it work like Lightroom: The cloud becomes the place where originals are stored, and all your devices become local caches for it as you view and edit what’s on the cloud.)

A

alastair28206379nbfjAuthor

Participant

Thanks For your input Conrad. I've replied to Elmira above with regards to clear cache. I think one bit of feedback I would give adobe is that I'm using exposure stacking so will have multiple exposures to choose from. It would go some way to solving my problem if you could preview a larger size image before importing so that I could decide which exposure I wanted to import for an edit. Another good option would be if you could choose to store Lightroom files on an external hard drive. All this would be in the context of an iPad Pro, I made the switch for this trip so that I could cut down on bulk and weight.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

I think one bit of feedback I would give adobe is that I'm using exposure stacking so will have multiple exposures to choose from. It would go some way to solving my problem if you could preview a larger size image before importing so that I could decide which exposure I wanted to import for an edit.
By @alastair28206379nbfj

I just tried this out on my iPad and realized there may be a solution.

When you import, it looks like Lightroom uses the standard iOS file picker. That means the preview size is not controlled by Lightroom but by iOS, which (as far as I can tell) doesn’t allow changing the icon size like it does on macOS.

But…what this also means is that the standard iOS QuickLook feature does work when importing in Lightroom. Just like in the iOS Files app, you can long-press a file to open a context menu, and on that menu you can tap QuickLook. This opens a full screen preview of the image that you can zoom. The QuickLook view has the usual iOS navigation tools: You can see other files in the folder by tapping the menu in the top left corner, or swiping sideways when not zoomed. This is the same QuickLook feature I mentioned in another reply above, which you hopefully have also read.

E

Elmira Pendleton

Community Manager

Hello @alastair28206379nbfj,

To help to free up some storage on your iPad after uploading originals to the cloud, you could use the option in the App settings > Local Storage > Clear Cache. This would remove locally stored originals and keep just smart previews of your photos (reduced resolution proxies).

Best regards,

Elmira

A

alastair28206379nbfjAuthorCorrect answer

Participant

Thanks for your reply Emira, so I use the clear cache button but it only appears to clear a small portion of the locally stored data. I should mention I'm shooting in SE Asia at the moment and am having trouble finding a connection with enough bandwidth to upload files at the moment.

Conrad_C

Community Expert

I should mention I'm shooting in SE Asia at the moment and am having trouble finding a connection with enough bandwidth to upload files at the moment.
By @alastair28206379nbfj

This is probably the root of the problem. If Lightroom cannot upload enough of the photos already imported, there is an upload backlog that is locking up space in the iPad. Clearing the cache cannot free up enough space, because what may be taking up space are originals that are in the upload backlog. Lightroom cannot clear those because that would mean originals would be deleted before reaching the cloud. To preserve your imported originals until they can be uploaded, Lightroom must keep them all.

It’s true that Lightroom works best when there is enough upload bandwidth to get all imported originals off the device faster than new originals are imported. When there is neither enough upload bandwidth nor enough internal iPad storage, another solution is often better. On my last few trips domestically and internationally, there were rarely places with a fast enough upload speed for me to rely on Lightroom if hundreds of GB were being captured. (I used Lightroom Classic on my laptop instead, so I could transfer it all to local external storage in seconds.)

It is possible for you to use external storage for photos with your iPad while traveling, in a certain way. Go ahead and free up your camera cards by transferring existing originals directly onto external storage connected to the iPad, that part is no problem (although it’s more difficult if the iPad has a Lightning connector).

What if you want to review images? Don’t import originals into Lightroom right away. (And don’t import into Apple Photos, it has the same problem.) Instead, use the Files app in iPad OS, which can work as a photo browser. Open an external storage folder in Files, and tap an image to open it in a full screen QuickLook preview window. You can swipe sideways to go to previous/next images in that folder, and you can pinch to zoom. So if you just want to see large previews of your originals, you don’t have to open any photo apps, just use the built-in Files desktop app to browse your iPad external storage.

After you use the Files app to identify a few files you’d like to edit, you can import those into Lightroom, and then only those few originals would be waiting for upload.

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