Lightroom Classic and Cloud Storage with RAW files

[ThomasMcDonald]

Hi,

I'm an IT professional who is working with a client who's recently upgraded to the Adobe CC photography plan with 1TB of storage.

I just recently started to understand this program and could use a little advise.

Currently, the user has about 600GB of photos stored locally on his computer and actively uses Lightroom Classic.

Is it possible to put the raw image files into the Creative Cloud Folder/storage, and use that location with a Lightroom Classic Catalog?

I understand that this may not be a backup solution persay, however he has a few devices, and does not like the Lightroom CC version.

Thanks,

Thomas McDonald

[dj_paige]

Lightroom CC stores original photos in "the cloud" on the Adobe servers, and as such, they are automatically backed up. (You can optionally keep a copy locally)

Lightroom Classic stores originals on a local or network hard disk; the originals cannot be stored in "the cloud". The user is responsible for backing up these photos.

As far as I know, these behaviors of the two programs regarding where the originals are stored cannot be changed.

I'm not sure what has prompted this question, these days storing 600GB of photos locally or on network drives shouldn't be a problem.

[ThomasMcDonald]

From my understanding, Lightroom Classic takes the RAW image file and makes edits through a seperate .xmp file.

If the RAW images and .xmp filees and catalogs are saved in the "Creative Cloud Folder", will everything work on multiple devices?

Is it possible to move the RAW image locations without breaking everything?

[DdeGannes]

From my understanding, Lightroom Classic takes the RAW image file and makes edits through a seperate .xmp file.

Lightroom Classic default procedure is to store all the data and edits in the LR Catalog file. There is an option to also write changes to xmp files.

If the RAW images and .xmp filees and catalogs are saved in the "Creative Cloud Folder", will everything work on multiple devices?

Lightroom Classic does not use the Creative Cloud storage for the image files and the Catalog file. The Catalog files must be located on physical HDD internal or external connected to your computer, but not on a network drive or in the Cloud storage.

You can sync Collections from Lightroom Classic to the Cloud Storage but these files would be Smart Previews not original files.

Lightroom CC (cloud Centric App) will upload your original files and all the metadata to the Creative Cloud Storage.

Is it possible to move the RAW image locations without breaking everything?

When you are working with Lightroom Classic and have imported the image files you can move the location from within Lightroom, if you use your operating system or another application to move the files the Lightroom Catalog will not know where they are located and will show them as missing. You will then have to spend time reconnecting them to Lightroom Classic.

Lightroom Classic is a desktop / laptop based application

Lightroom CC is cloud centric and can be on your computer and mobile devices, it does not have all the functions that are available in Classic

[dj_paige]

From my understanding, Lightroom Classic takes the RAW image file and makes edits through a seperate .xmp file.

Lightroom Classic default procedure is to store all the data and edits in the LR Catalog file. There is an option to also write changes to xmp files.

Adding: Lightroom Classic always uses the edit information in its catalog to render the edited image. It never uses the edit information in the .xmp file to render the edited image. You can specifically ask LR to read the information in the .xmp file into the catalog (and this overwrites whatever edit information is in the catalog, and now the edited image is displayed with the information in the catalog, which is now identical the edit information in the .xmp file).

[john beardsworth]

DdeGannes  wrote

If the RAW images and .xmp filees and catalogs are saved in the "Creative Cloud Folder", will everything work on multiple devices?

Lightroom Classic does not use the Creative Cloud storage for the image files and the Catalog file....

This is incorrect because it overlooks that with the CC subscription, the client has 1Tb of Adobe cloud storage which is shared by:

• any originals uploaded from the cloud-dependent Lightroom app for Win/Mac or from the iOS and Android apps - this is cloud space, not local
• Dropbox-like space or "Creative Cloud storage" which is locally stored. You can put the Lightroom Classic catalogue and/or originals in these folders as described before.

The OP is effectively asking about a Dropbox-style use of the 1Tb that comes with the subscription.

[DdeGannes]

Thanks for this clarification.

[AndreGB]

This answers my question exactly! Which is the ability to leverage the "Dropbox-style" folder we have on CC to store our Lightroom Classic catalog files. This way we could effectively use Lightroom Classic a little like the Lightroom CC. I can edit my photos on my iMac when I am at home and then continue editing them on the go (airports, hotels, etc) on my laptop.

This is what Lightroom CC (cloud-only) is meant to do, I know. But it lacks 2 features from the Desktop version that I can't live without. Namely the Snapshots and the Export options.

[john beardsworth · Accepted solution]

Yes, it's quite possible to use the CC folders, and there are options for sharing folders. Your client could use his catalogue stored in that folder space too, or save xmp files which can work a little better.

What are you/he then trying to do? There are some precautions if you want to open that catalogue on your machine. One is allowing the catalogue to sync upwards on his side, then down to yours, before you open it - otherwise you get conflicts with edits being made in catalogues that aren't up-to-date, for instance.

One downsides would be that, unlike Dropbox, the CC folder app doesn't have any partial download options so it tries to download everything on each system where the same user is logged into CC.

[Austin5D4A]

i would like to know this very thing--"dropbox-syle" syncing, if possible. i never saw an actual solution in this thread. is there a way to designate a folder for syncing with my "Lightroom 5TB" subscription so I can sync my lightroom classic catalogs and photos? if not, my 5tb subscription is worthless. getting an answer from adobe tech support has proven entirely futile. i just spent 5 hours chatting with them online and am literally no further than i was when i started....

[photopoeth]

I have an additional question on this topic. As far as I can see, syncing the catalog is only half of the equation.

You most probably have presets, maybe plugins & custom camera profiles (and probably a bunch of other assets I forgot to mention) that make up your local Lr Classic installation. So if you sync the catalog to use it on your laptop when you're on the road, most likely all the other stuff is missing in your notebook's installation.

So how can you make sure that the  two Lr Classic installations (desktop and notebook) are in-sync? What do you have to copy besides the catalog and where do you find thise assets in the file system?

[Austin5D4A]

here's the solution i came up with. i ignore the lightroom classic built-in "sync" option--it's worthless unless you sync to lightroom cc which i never use. just use the creative cloud desktop app, which creates a monitored sync directory. any files you drop into there will automatically sync with your creative cloud storage space on the cloud. after syncing is complete, whatever you delete is also removed from the cloud. so the way i was able to do this is to configure creative cloud so the sync dir is located on a high speed external ssd. then i drop my lightroom classic catalog files and all photos and directories into that sync dir. i work directly on the external drive from now on, etc.