Deleting from Lightroom also deletes from Dropbox. Anyway to keep photos in Dropbox?

[rfader]

I'd like to clear the files from my Mac hard drive while keeping the images available on Dropbox.  Is that possible?

[dj_paige]

I assume you are using Lightroom Classic, even though you did not say that.

You need to learn how to store photos on DropBox in such a way that they don't take up space on your hard disk. Since I don't use DropBox, I can't help. I do suggest you post in a DropBox forum.

I'm pretty sure LrC will not work with files stored only in the cloud on DropBox and not on your local PC.

[Per Berntsen]

Yes, to work with images in LrC, they cannot be in the cloud.

So you cannot use the Save hard drive space automatically option in the Dropbox preferences.

And New files default  must be set to Available offline.

[Per Berntsen · Accepted solution]

I read the title of your post again, and think I might have misunderstood.

So I'll try to clarify.

You have an image in a Dropbox folder, imported in LrC. When you select the image and press the Delete key, you get two options – Remove from Lightroom and Delete from disk.

• The first option will only remove the image from the catalog. It will not be deleted from disk, and can still be found in the Dropbox folder (or any folder it might reside in)
• The second option will remove the image from the catalog, and also delete it from disk - from the Dropbox folder, or any other folder it might reside in.

[alanterra]

Hi Per,

I think you only answered one half of the original poster's question.

To delete the photo from Lightroom Classsic but not from your storage, follow your first option.

Then to have the photo reside only on Dropbox, and not locally, right-click (control-click on Mac) on the file and choose "Make Online Only". Then Dropbox will replace the file with a zero-length stub that it supposedly will download when you need it.

I don't know what will happen if you make a file online-only while keeping a reference to it in Lightroom, but it probably won't achieve the results the OP wanted.