Something's Wrong When You Can't a Straight Answer

[Frank Brennan]

After years of using Lightroom 6.14 I decided it was time to see what LRcc was all about. For $10 a month it was worth exploring. $120 a year wasn't bad, even though I own my PS and my LR. So I sign up. And right away I make a mistake and essentially put all 27K of my images up in the cloud. Bang, I hit the 20GB almost immediately. My fault. So now how do I get them out of the cloud to start over. Can't find anything anywhere on the site. So after poking around for a day, I go to chat. Straightforward question I pose. Wrong. No one is reading my straightfoward question and giving me a straightforward response. It's awful. Other times in the past when I need straightforward Adobe help, same thing. So I figured, it's Abode. The customer always comes second. All I wanted was help. Finally, finally, he got me to the right spot. But the level of frustration was monumental, not only from him but from Adobe as a whole. Yes, they have great products but . . . . .  Perhaps a senior Adobe manager might see this and perhaps learn to train their people to read the question and answer the question!! Remember, I am the one looking for help. 

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[JP Hess]

I didn't take the time to read your support post. But if you subscribed to a plan that only included 20 GB of cloud space Then it would probably have been better for you to install Lightroom Classic rather than Lightroom. Lightroom Classic utilizes a local catalog and stores images locally on your hard drive, similarly to how Lightroom 6 functions. Lightroom Classic enables you to create collections and share those collections in the cloud, and those collections are smart previews and don't impact the 20 GB limit. Then you can use Lightroom (the cloud version) to edit those smart previews, and the adjustments made to the smart previews will have an effect on the master images in Lightroom Classic.

Lightroom Classic would be your primary version of Lightroom. Then you could use the cloud version on another computer or laptop and only download images to the cloud when it is absolutely necessary. When doing so, those images could then automatically be added to your catalog in Lightroom Classic.

[Rob_Cullen]

I will attempt to give you some suggestions or ideas-

1) The 'latest' version of your Lr 6.14 is Called LIGHTROOM-CLASSIC v11

2) Installing Lightroom-Classic would have 'simply' opened your v6.14 catalog and you continue on as before- NO Cloud involvment! (Except to install and activation). You image files REMAIN on your hard drive where they always were.

3) Have you actually paid for a subscription yet, or are you still on a Trial with the Photography Plan (20Gb)?

4) Lightroom is the CLOUD version. It is not a successor to your v6.14. It is entirely new and different software.

5) There is a Preference in the 'Cloudy' Lightroom to store a copy of the 'Original' files that you have 'Added / Imported' to the Lightroom catalog. But I fear these might be deleted also if you delete the files in the Cloud!  WAIT FOR MORE ADVICE BEFORE DELETING ANYTHING!

6) If you have Lightroom-Classic installed and with SYNC turned on (with the Cloud icon)- Lr-CLASSIC will download all files stored in the Cloud automatically-  bringing all files from the Cloud back down to your hard-drive. NOTE: There is a Preference in Lr-Classic 'Sync' Preferences tab where you define the FOLDER to download all the Cloud files (before you sync Lr-Classic!).

So if you decide to subscribe to the Photography Plan after the trial- you should have no fear that you will lose your images.

And if not, to restore files, there is a 'Downloader' program to rescue (download) all the files you have "put to the cloud".

Keep in touch with this thread for more answers from other gurus!