Catalog Management Issue - Unsure on best way to handle Smart Previews & Original Files

[Christian31293144b1e3]

I feel like this topic has probably been discussed to death but I'm fairly new to proper photo catalog management (much to my present dismay). To set the scene:

• I used to shoot and import primarily onto Lightroom Classic on a desktop back home. The original photo files were all on the desktop hard drive. At this stage, I didn't have a giant number of photos and was shooting with a crop sensor so the file sizes weren't so bad.

• I've now been overseas for close to a year and have been travelling with a combo of a full frame + an iPad Pro. My uploading method was just to plug the camera in to the iPad, copy any new images into a Photos album, and then import from there into the Lightroom app.

• This meant that the original RAW images were being transferred directly onto the iPad; as you can imagine, the iPad memory is now practically full.

Fast forward to today:

I've picked up a Macbook Air for some work, and have also been looking at the best way to handle my photos moving forward.

I opened Lightroom Classic and began importing, only to realise it was taking fifty years (the net here is woeful), due to downloading original full-size images. I figured if I imported as Smart Previews, this would be the better option and toggled this on.

The issue I have now is:

• If I edit & export one of these Smart Previews, there's no linked Original Image, so it'll never be full detail.

• I can't link an Original Image source - these are just Smart Previews from the cloud, and the Original is 'missing' according to Lightroom.

SO.

I'm thinking my best options might be to:

a) Get a proper external SSD to offload original images onto, and import from that so the source is always readily available.

b) Re-download the entire catalog as Original Images (Smart Preview disabled).

c) Transfer the Original Images onto the SSD

d) Re-Import as Smart Previews to reclaim the disk space on the Macbook.

Is my thinking correct here, or am I missing something in regards to how Smart Previews / Original Images fundamentally work?

Any insight into this would be hugely appreciated!

[Sean McCormack]

In terms of the iPad, you can have the device files there as Smart Previews once they've uploaded to the cloud. This may save the space issue and let you use that. You can also use Lightroom (not Classic) to access the full files rather than Lightroom Classic, again these can just be Smart Previews until you specifically need the full-size file. 

If you want to use Classic, then at some point you're best to get all the original files. 

With your steps, above, you can move the original images onto the SSD and have the catalog/Previews files on the Macbook. You get the Smart Previews by generating, not by reimporting. When the SSD is disconnected, you can still edit via the Smart Previews. 

[Christian31293144b1e3]

Makes sense! Thanks for the insight, really appreciated.

I think I was confused as to how Classic actually sync's; I didn't realise that it downloads Originals and -only- gets the Smart Previews if there are no other versions / options (or am I wrong again here?).

Is there a best way to move the original images from the drive onto the SSD? I'm assuming that if I literally just move the Catalog file and image folders, something may break - and I can't see the Catalog Location as being editable in the Catalog Settings in LRC.

I also saw that there's the Lightroom Downloader tool - was unsure if this might be a better means of downloading it in one go as a separate catalog and placing it on the SSD, and starting it anew that way?

[Sean McCormack]

It'll download originals from the cloud, but looking at my library where I've recently moved the folder, not everything has moved. 

The downloader isn't fast and you need space on both your start drive and the SSD for it. People have reported issues where empty external drives still get an out of space message which we suspect is related to the start drive.