Best way to export entire Lightroom Classic CC catalog to low-res copy

[TheoreticalChemist]

I have my LR Classic CC catalog of high resolution raw images on my external drive. I want to look at my images when i'm not connected to my hard drive, and so I would like to have a copy of my high-res catalog, but with low-res images. Is there an simple or automatic way to achieve this? Perhaps I could

1. Copy the catalog
2. export images to same directory with same name, and overwrite the old ones
3. Repeat for all directories in my catalog

But I was hoping that there was a more automatic way of doing it.

(And I do not want the CC plan)

[JohanElzenga]

There is no reason to do that. Just copy the catalog folder to your internal drive and start Lightroom with that catalog file by double clicking it. Because the catalog folder contains previews, you will be able to look at your images even when the external drive is disconnected. BTW, when you look at your images in Lightroom, you are always looking at previews.

[TheoreticalChemist]

Thank you for your answer.

I have a follow-up question. Is it possible to only upload the previews to the CC so that I can watch my previous on my phone application?

[Jim Wilde]

Yes. If you sync your images from LR Classic to the cloud, only Smart Previews will be uploaded. They don't count against the cloud space allowance, and are plenty good enough quality for viewing on all your mobile devices and in any browser.

[TheoreticalChemist]

I cannot seem to get this to work.

My system is as follows. I have all my DNG files stored in a directory tree on my external drive. I also have my Lightroom Classic CC catalog files on the external drive, but in a separate folder called "Lightroom".

I copied the external "Lightroom" folder, which contains the catalog and preview files, to my internal hard drive. I could now open Lightroom and access the previews when the hard drive was not connected. However, I could not figure out how to easily sync the catalog to the CC.

Do I have to make a synched collection? Will then all thousands of images be in just one pool? I want the original directory structure to be the same when I look at the previews, so that I know how to find my photos.

And to keep the CC updated with my external catalog, I need to overwrite the internal catalog after every import and then sync again?

[JohanElzenga]

TheoreticalChemist  wrote

I cannot seem to get this to work.

My system is as follows. I have all my DNG files stored in a directory tree on my external drive. I also have my Lightroom Classic CC catalog files on the external drive, but in a separate folder called "Lightroom".

I copied the external "Lightroom" folder, which contains the catalog and preview files, to my internal hard drive. I could now open Lightroom and access the previews when the hard drive was not connected. However, I could not figure out how to easily sync the catalog to the CC.

Do I have to make a synched collection? Will then all thousands of images be in just one pool? I want the original directory structure to be the same when I look at the previews, so that I know how to find my photos.

And to keep the CC updated with my external catalog, I need to overwrite the internal catalog after every import and then sync again?

Yes, you have to make synced collections. That is how Lightroom Classic sync works. You can use the original directory structure to create these collections (drag and drop the top folder into the Collections panel). Your catalog will be in constant sync with the cloud. You don't have to overwrite anything, but you will have to keep working with the catalog on the internal disk from now on. You could keep a backup copy of your catalog on the external disk however.