Using Lightroom Classic with Adobe Cloud on the move

[Helen_Creative]

I suspect I'm raising a well trodden question here, but am looking for latest advice given the evolution of the CC apps...

I'm a long-term LrC user, as a portrait photographer and graphic designer, primarily using Ps and Ai.  I work on a MacBook Pro with local and 3rd party cloud backup, but frequently travel with an old low-spec laptop (and maybe iPad in the future).  I would like to be able to perform (basic) editing when on the move/away, making general edits to my images, as well as to quickly prepare custom images that sell in my online shop.

I have LrC installed on the Macbook in a usual setup with single local catalog etc, and have Adobe's 'All apps with 1Tb' package, so also have Lr but don't use it (although have switched on LrC sync to Lr to experiment).  I had naively assumed LrC and Lr were fully 'compatible', but have now read much online about their fundamentally different approaches to file storage/sync/mgt etc.  Some I realise inevitable given their different principles, and some seemingly down to lousy product architecture design by Adobe 😞   Relevant to my needs, I see that Lr syncs originals to the cloud, whereas LrC chooses to only sync Smart Previews.

I see one option to take the plunge and switch to only using Lr instead of LrC, but need to convince myself that I'll not lose any features or workflow that I've become dependant on, before migrating.  However, if I did, I assume it would be a simple/clean solution to my problem.

However, before considering that, I wanted to check whether there was a (simple and efficient) way of using LrC with Adobe Cloud when on the move.  I say simple because I don't want to rely on an error-prone workflow where I have to remember things like syncing or uploading manually from one app to another, and I say efficient because I don't want to have duplicate versions of images or catalogs etc on my MacBook hard drive.

Any advice or suggestion would be greatly appreciated :- )

[Rob_Cullen]

I will have a stab at an answer-

"whether there was a (simple and efficient) way of using LrC with Adobe Cloud when on the move."-

Simply- No.

One reason being that you can only sync ONE LrC catalog to the Cloud. You can swap the catalog that you want to sync but that gets complicated when LrC wants to automatically download ALL files that exist in the Cloud.

"switch to only using Lr instead of LrC, but need to convince myself that I'll not lose any features"

Simply- You will.

There are useful Modules in LrC that do not exist in Lr ('Print' being most often asked about.) And, as you are aware, files synced UP from LrC are limited in size (2560px long edge).

Lightroom Queen (Victoria Bampton) explains a lot in these blogs-

LIGHTROOM-CLASSIC USING ON MULTIPLE COMPUTERS 

COMPARE LIGHTROOM & LIGHTROOM-CLASSIC FEATURES