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evikne71
evikne71
Known Participant
January 23, 2022
Question

LR originals on iCloud Drive

  • January 23, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 447 views

I've always dreamt of having all my pictures available everywhere. With the smart previews I can almost do this, but I still have to connect my USB drive when I need the original files for export etc.

 

With a 2TB iCloud membership I could have had all my LR originals available in my MacBook's iCloud Drive folder. They would be uploaded to the cloud and only downloaded when LR "asks" for them, or am I wrong? I understand it would take some extra seconds to download a 50MB file before I can use it, but it would still be very convenient compared to having to connect my USB drive.

 

The LR catalog and all other files would be stored elsewhere on my computer, not on the iCloud Drive. But would this work, and is it safe? I wouldn't look at the iCloud Drive as a backup, just as a "storage extension" for my MacBook. I would of course backup the computer, including the iCloud Drive folder regularly, as usual.

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1 reply

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 23, 2022

Lightroom Classic needs the images to be local, so as long as iCloud Drive makes it think they are local copies, this could work. Why don't you just try it with a few test images?

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
evikne71
evikne71Author
Known Participant
January 23, 2022

Thanks! I tried now with a few images, but it didn't work as well as I hoped. I forgot that when using smart previews, LR doesn't "ask" for the original file unless I force it to. I can click on the smart preview badge and locate the original file. Then it will be downloaded. But it didn't work as smoothly as I was hoping for, because LR doesn't get the files automatically when needed.

 

And I think the backup would be problematic too. Because the files on the iCloud Drive that are not downloaded will not be backed up.

 

So unfortunately this idea wasn't very good. I think I still have to resort to my USB disk for now.

JohanElzenga
Community Expert
JohanElzengaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 24, 2022

You should either try it without smart previews for the test images, or zoom in to 1:1 to force Lightroom to load the original.

 

-- Johan W. Elzenga
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