Migrating back to Classic from CC—and folder organization

[Badly Drawn Boy]

My apologies if this is a double-post. I wrote a post like this an hour ago but now I don't see it anywhere. 

I used Lightroom Classic as my primary DAM and editor for many years. About a year ago, I switched over to Lightroom (CC). I want to switch back to using Classic as the primary app for two reasons: the print module, and the ability to use plugins like Nik Sharpener Pro.

I've read that if I turn on Sync in Classic, it will download my photos in Lightroom CC to the folder that I set in preferences. And any new photos that are added to Lightroom CC, whether via the Lightroom CC camera app on my iPhone for uploaded from the Photos.app on my iPhone, will also sync to this folder.

I do have a few questions, though:

1. Will I be able to see all photos that I upload from an SD card to Lightroom Classic on my iMac in Lightroom CC? Or do I have to create specific collections that I want to be uploaded to the cloud that I can then view in Lightroom CC?
2. Is there a recommended folder storage structure on the computer that has the photo archive on it when I am intending to use both Lightroom Classic and CC? Right now, my photos on my iMac are organized like this: "Main folder > ###:year:month". It seems like when I use Sync in Classic, a new folder structure will get created for syncing photos from CC to Classic. This will be separate from the existing folder structure on my iMac. I can't see an issue with this, as long as it's all getting backed up. But just wanted to see what the best practice is here. 

Thanks. 

[Badly Drawn Boy]

I thought a bit more about this, and I'd like to clarify my question.

I used Lightroom Classic as my primary DAM and editor for many years. Then I took a hiatus from photography. When I returned to it about 1.5 years ago, I started using Lightroom CC.

Now, I'd like to return to using Classic as my primary. I need the print module and I'd like to be able to use plugins like Topaz Gigapixel AI. But, I also want to continue using CC so I can view/edit my library on my iPhone, iPad Pro, and Macbook Pro, and so I have an easy way of getting photos from my iPhone 13 into Lightroom.

I've done some reading about this, and I'm trying to figure out the best workflow. It seems there are two options for how to do this:

[list=1]
[*]Import photos into CC and allow them to sync to Classic
[*]Import photos into Classic and allow them to sync to CC
[/list]

In option #1, all photos that I upload to CC will automatically be synced to Classic.

In option #2, I would import photos into Classic, but then I would need to put them into a new or existing collection that is synced, or add them to the "all synced photographs" collection, in order for them to sync.

It seems like option #1 is best if I want to have most or all of my photos synced between CC and Classic? But the downside is that, after a new shoot, I'd have to wait for the photos to upload to the cloud and then download to Classic before I could start editing them in Classic, right? That seems like a pain.

If I choose option #2, what's the best way of setting things up so that all photos that I upload are synced? Maybe I just make a collection for each month/year, sync those collections, and then when I upload photos I just add all of them to those collections?

Thanks for your help,
Chris

[Jim Wilde]

Either option will work provided you maintain discipline, which is especially important if you want to mainly use Classic for importing. As you rightly point out, you'll need to find a method of working in Classic that allows you to sync the images to the cloud (assuming you want every image added to the cloud),

One thing you haven't mentioned is the difference between importing into Lightroom (it's no longer called CC), and importing and then syncing from Lightroom Classic. Simply put, if you import into any of the Lightroom apps, a copy of the imported full res original is uploaded to the cloud, whereas if you import into Classic and sync the images to the cloud from there only smart previews are uploaded to the cloud. Smart Previews are 2560px on the long edge, which is generally OK for viewing and light editing of your mobile devices. The upside of Smart Previews is that they do not get counted against your cloud storage allowance (so you could sync your entire Classic catalog to the cloud and you'd not incur any storage charge for that), the downside of smart previews is that if you ever wanted to export in full resolution you could only do that from Classic, i.e. you couldn't do that when mobile.

[Badly Drawn Boy]

Thanks, this helps a lot, and I think it answers my question, because I'd like to have full resolution images stored in the Cloud so I can work with them on my Macbook Pro. 

I guess this means that after a new shoot, I'll need to wait until my photos upload to the cloud (after importing to Lightroom) and then download/sync to Classic before I can edit them there? 

[Jim Wilde]

I guess this means that after a new shoot, I'll need to wait until my photos upload to the cloud (after importing to Lightroom) and then download/sync to Classic before I can edit them there? 

Yes, I would say so. There are other ways of doing it but they just add more complexity, so start simple then you can start exploring faster workflows when you have more experience of working the two together.

[Badly Drawn Boy]

I've been going around in circles on this for the past couple of days. I think I'm clear now that I do, in fact, want to use LrC as my primary DAM and editor, following the workflow you suggested, @Jim Wilde. 

However, something I forgot to mention in the original post is that I was using Lr for about 1-1.5 years without having migrated my LrC catalog to it. So, now I'm in a situation where I have images that are in Lr that aren't in LrC, and images that are in LrC but not in Lr. 

My goal is to resolve that. If I understand correctly, I'd do that by:

1.  Turning on sync in LrC
2.  Migrating my LrC catalog to Lr (as described here)

I have two questions about this process: 

1.  Does it matter which one of the above steps I do first?
2.  Since I will be using LrC as my primary DAM, and storing photos on my local drive, I assume that I should keep the "local storage" option in Lr turned off? 

[Jim Wilde]

You don't need to do anything with LrC, all you need to do is migrate the LrC catalog using Lr's Catalog Migration option (LrC is not open when you do that, nor does it matter if it was set to sync or not). So migrate the catalog, and if that goes OK you can archive the original LrC catalog, ready for deletion when you are ceratin that you won't want to revert back to LrC.