Converting from Lr to LrC

[jones75g]

I am in the process of converting from LR Cloud to Lightroom Classic. I have about 1TB of files on the cloud. Whats the easiest way to download those files to my storage drive for LrC along with and edits/presets. Thanks

[Jim Wilde]

Simple....enable sync in the LrC catalog and all files already in the cloud will automatically download to your local hard drive and be added to the LrC catalog (and will contain all the edit info from the cloud). The issue is where and how they are organised in folders on the local system: to sort that out, BEFORE enabling sync in LrC, open the LrC Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab and you will find there the option to specify the location for the downloaded images (if you do not do that, LrC will use the default location which is an obscure folder in the user's AppData folder). There is also an option to have the downloaded files stored in one of LrC's standard capture-date based dated folder schemes. You would probably want to use both options to set things up as you would prefer, then you can enable sync.

[jones75g]

Thanks for the response. I am converting the cvloud storage to a local external SSD. Will the sync tab automatically move/copy files onto that SSD?

[Jim Wilde]

The syncing process will automatically download a copy of all images in the cloud and will store them directly into your designated location.

Simply create a parent folder using File Explorer on the external SSD, then use that "Choose" button on the Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab to select that parent folder that you just created. Then I would further suggest that you enable the second option ("Use subfolders formatted by capture date") and select your preferred naming scheme. After you have done that, you can enable cloud syncing in LrC (click on the cloud icon top right of the LrC window and choose Start Syncing), then wait for the downloading to start.

[jones75g]

once they are downloaded to the external drive can i now delete them from the cloud? is there anything i need to do to NOT delete them from the external drive?

[Jim Wilde]

Yes you can delete them from the cloud once they are downloaded into LrC AND you have started to back them up regularly. Many users would then re-sync them back to the cloud, because LrC only uploads smart previews of the originals, and those smart previews do not count against the cloud storage allowance. SPs can be viewed and edited on your mobile devices just like your original files, and the edits would sync back to the originals in your LrC catalog.

Deleting from the cloud will NOT delete them from LrC. 

[jones75g]

Thanks. I was wondering about deleting SPs from the cloud and if that would delete them from the classic catalog. How do you sync SPs for your Classic Catalog? 

[Jim Wilde]

The easiest way to sync SPs to the cloud is to add them to collections in LrC then enable those collections to sync. That will automatically upload SPs of all the images in those collections to the cloud.

[jones75g]

Thanks I figured it was this...the SPs dont upload for all your photos automatically correct

[Jim Wilde]

Correct. You either have to put images into a synced collection (which will appear as an album in the cloud apps), or you can add them to the "All Synced Photographs" special collection which will appear in the Catalog panel in LrC when syncing has been enabled. If they're not in a normal synced collection/album, they'll only be listed under All Photos in the cloud apps.