When will web version have virtual copies? This is the critical missing feature which stops me usin

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
May 26, 2021
2 replies
474 views

Hi, every 6 months or so I fire up lightroom web version and look for the virtual copy feature. Without it, lightroom web is usless, as I always create severl versions of key photos (e.g. a B&W version, a natural version, and highly processed version etc). Lightrooom non web version has the huge dissadvantage that noone can search through all your photos by tags etc unless they use your PC and this is very dangerous as they could accidentally delete or change tags.

Anway, why hasnt adobe iimplemented a vitual copy in web version? Do we know when this missing featur will be introduced? It sould seem to be a simple piece of development.

Feature request

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Jim Wilde

Community Expert

It would be a great help if you used the actual names of the apps that you're talking about, as "web version" and "non web version" are vague and ambiguous. I assume that you really mean Lightroom Classic as your "non web version", though your "web version" could be referring to several different apps which are all part of the Lightroom cloud-based system, one of which is actually called Lightroom Web. Is that the one you mean, or the Lightroom Desktop app, or one of the several Lightroom Mobile apps?

So, assuming that "web version" really means one of those Lightroom apps, you are correct that they do not have the Virtual Copy functionality. They do, however, have the "Versions" function (which is similar to the "Snapshots" feature in Lightroom Classic) which does allow the user to create and save many different "versions" of the same image, but without having to create multiple copies of the same images, virtual or real....and of course the versions do sync across all the Lightroom apps, but not to Lightroom Classic. You should check it out as it may do what you want.

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nutmix5Author

Inspiring

Thanks for the reply. Ill checkout snapshots. Regarding the versions, I have been using lightroom (desktop) for many years, since the first version in fact. Then Adobe Marketing created a web version which was different, and called it the same name: lightroom. I belive they then changed the name of the desktop version to CC, but I still dont understand this. There is a desktop version with virtual copies, there is a web only version withou them, and I belive there is also a mobile version for ios etc (app). I have no idea if the mobile version is the same as the web only version. I tried the mobile version on ios, and found it useless (for me), as I cant give it to my wife and kids to browse (the missing killer feature), as its not read only, so with a few wrong clicks they could wipe out months of work and I would not even notice till a year later.

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

A brief history lesson:

The original desktop Lightroom that went through from version 1 to version 6 was renamed when version 7 was released in 2017, and was called Lightroom Classic CC (and is currently at version 10.2).

During the Lightroom 5/6 cycle, cloud syncing was added to Lightroom5/6 along with a mobile app (called Lightroom Mobile, initially for iOS only, but Android was later added), and a limited version of the mobile app which ran in any browser and was called Lightroom Web.

At the time of the change from Lightroom 6 to Lightroom Classic CC, a new Desktop app was released and which confusingly was called Lightroom CC. Functionally, it was part of the cloud-based system, basically being the LrMobile app ported to MacOS and Windows desktop systems.

Since then, the only name change has been the removal of the CC suffix from almost all Adobe apps, so today there is Lightroom Classic and there is Lightroom (which is really a system of apps for different underlying system software, but sharing and syncing the same cloud assets). So there's a Desktop version, a browser-based version, an Android version, an iOs version, an iPadOS version and an Apple TV version. In functionality terms, they are broadly similar (but with some small differences), though none of them yet have the same range of functions that Lightroom Classic has.

In terms of your issue of the lack of a read-only version, I share the concern about handing a phone or a tablet to a family member, or letting them use Lightroom Classic on my desktop systems. Instead, I use the album-sharing functionality that's part of the cloud system, which allows family or friends to use a browser on their own devices and at their own convenience to view the shared albums. They can only view, they cannot change things, so no risk, simple to setup, and more convenient for them and me.

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nutmix5Author

Inspiring

Surprisingly, it seems you cant edit posts, so I cant fix the typos in the above post, sorry.

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