Exclude photos exported from LR when importing

[Biscut]

After I export photos edited in LRC and move them to my iPhone, they appear as new on import. This creates a circular mess of sorting through photos to make sure they aren't imported again, and a large accumulation grows over the years.

Isn't there a way to just check a photo when in the import dialog and tell LRC to never import it?

[johnrellis]

How are you moving the photos to the phone?  Through a USB cable or a cloud service (which one)? Similarly, how are you importing photos from your phone?

[Biscut]

I usually AirDrop the photos onto the phone.

I always import from the phone to LRC by USB cable.

[johnrellis]

The photos edited and exported from LR and airdropped to the phone are JPEGs.  Unless you've changed the default camera settings on the phone, the photos imported from the phone into LR will be HEICs.

So when you import via cable from the phone, set the option Sort: File Type at the bottom center of the LR Import window. All the HEICs will be grouped together, and all the JPEGs grouped together. Select just the HEICs before starting the import.

* * 

Alternatively, install the LR Mobile app on the phone and configure it to automatically import new photos from the phone's camera roll. These will then automatically sync into LR Cloud and then down into LR Classic. In LR Classic, you can then add photos you want to see on the phone into the All Synced Photos, and they'll get automatically synced to the cloud and onto the phone in the LR Mobile app.

It will take you a bit to learn how to configure the sync settings on the phone and LR Classic, but once done, it will all happen automatically and be much faster than manually airdropping and importing.

[Biscut]

Thank you. It might take a bit to make sense of how that works. I hadn't thought of sorting the import into jpg and HEICs.

I have dabbled a bit with the LR app on my phone for certain specific uses, but it didn't seem to be the best option for me.

Right now I'm thinking it's preferable to use the native Photos app to organize everything on my phone. There are 100s of gigs of photos and videos on the phone already, though far more in my LRC catalog. I know you can select which photos from LRC you want on your LR phone app; still Photos works better for me I think.

So, think I'm just hoping to be able to (permanently) exclude certain photos on import, so I don't have to scroll down through the thousands of alternative versions of photos already in the LRC catalog every time.

In my system, I shoot with my iPhone and other cameras, edit photos in LRC, video in Premiere, and put select photos and videos onto the iPhone, and organize and view them in the Photos app.

[johnrellis]

LR Cloud may not be right for you, as you explain, but it's Adobe's solution for how to manage photos across multiple devices, and it avoids the particular problem of reimportation. So I think it's unlikely that submitting a feature request would have much influence.

[Biscut]

I see, thank you.

[Pacoinmass]

I have a similar question.  I shoot some pictures/videos with my iPhone and shoot pictures with a Canon DSLR.  Importing pictures from the Canon into LRC is easy and I can delete them from the memory stick once I've backed up the catalog after importing the picture.  (I import by using the memory stick, not a cable.)

My problem is importing from the iPhone.  I don't do any editing on the iPhone and simply want to import photos into LRC while at the same time, keeping some pictures on the phone and deleteing the rest.  I don't use Apple's iCould features nor Photos on the Mac so woudl like to keep a few pics on the phone.

I import from the iPhone using a USB-C cable into the Mac.  This creates a problem because LRC doesn't mark the older ones on the iPhone as "already imported".  So I have to manually uncheck the old photos to avoid multiple duplicate imports.

Any help to make the workflow easier woudl be appreciated.  Thx.

[johnrellis]

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@Pacoinmass: "I import from the iPhone using a USB-C cable into the Mac.  This creates a problem because LRC doesn't mark the older ones on the iPhone as "already imported".  So I have to manually uncheck the old photos to avoid multiple duplicate imports."

Your issue is different than the original post in this thread.

Do you have the Import option Don't Import Suspected Duplicates checked? That normally prevents LR from re-importing already imported photos. I just verified this works when importing via USB cable with my LR 14.2 / Mac OS 15.3.2 / Iphone IOS 16.3.1. 

If you have that option checked and it's still not working, please do LR's menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the output here. Also include the version of IOS on your phone (Settings > General > About).

[Pacoinmass]

@johnrellis,

Thank you for the reply.  Yes, I've had the Don't Import Suspected option checked.  Unchecking it woudl result in all the photos/videos being imported.  Checking it results in fewer items imported however it still imports many that had already been imported into LR Classic previously.

I'm using iPhone 16 running iOS 18.4.1

Appreciate your help.
Below is the System Information:

Lightroom Classic version: 14.3 [ 202504141032-10373aad ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Mac OS 15
Version: 15.4.1 [24E263]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 12
Processor speed: 2.6GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Power Source: Plugged In, 89%, Charging
Built-in memory: 16,384.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 1,839.2MB / 4,080.0MB (45%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 16,384.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1,358.0 MB (8.2%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 40,773.8 MB
Memory cache size: 63.1MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 17.3 [ 2222 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 110MB / 8191MB (1%)
Camera Raw real memory: 112MB / 16384MB (0%)

Cache1:
NT- RAM:0.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, Combined:0.0MB

Cache2:
m:63.1MB, n:0.0MB

U-main: 120.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 1440 pixels
Displays: 1) 2688x1680

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
Init State: GPU for Image Processing supported by default
User Preference: Auto
Enable HDR in Library: ON

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Users/*****/Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog-v13-3.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/*****/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr

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