Accessing local Lightroom Mobile iOS files after losing Adobe Cloud access

[lsrodrigues]

I lost corporate access to my Adobe Cloud account, but I can tell that my Lightroom Mobile app still locally stores my pictures, as it's taking 7GB of my iPhone's storage. If I log in with another account, these pictures are not shown in app, so I would like to know how to access them otherwise. Thanks

[Charlie.D]

If you cannot access your account any longer but you know the photos are still inside the app on your device, try using iTunes or Mac OS Finder to copy out the photos from your Lightroom app.  See this page: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/recover-lightroom-mobile-photos-itunes-file-sharing.htm... 

When you find the "Originals" folder on your device that has all your photos, copy those to your computer.

I hope this helps a bit

[lsrodrigues]

Thank you, Charles. I started transferring my files, but the process stops every time around 1/3 of the files. I have tried different cables and USB ports, restarting the computer and phone, OSX and windows, but nothing has worked so far. 

[Charlie.D]

Hello @lsrodrigues 

If Apple file sharing is broken, this is a problem outside of our control.  I recommend updating all iOS, Mac OS or iTunes software and trying again!

[zandwacht]

Several third party apps offer deeper access to iPhone files than Finder does. This doesn't always work: files can "be in use" or have the wrong permissions, so they can't be transferred. This might be a deliberate protective measure to keep you from getting the files when you're not paying for a plan. Purchasing a single month of the Adobe Photography plan can be less of a hassle, if you remember to cancel in time.

[Charlie.D]

"This might be a deliberate protective measure to keep you from getting the files when you're not paying for a plan."

FWIW, Lightroom iOS is not engineered to function this way.  Usually Finder or iTunes file sharing should work just fine to access photos inside Lightroom's local app cache.  I wonder if a fill device backup and restore might help with this file access problem.

Also, yes, there are other tools which can provide more enhanced access to your device.  I will not list them here as Adobe does not endorse any 3rd party app for this.

[zandwacht]

Lightroom iOS is doing a lot of things it's probably not "engineered to do". I recently discovered 8Gb of DNG's I deleted over the years, stored in local file storage. Found 6Gb on my girlfriends phone, ranging back to 2017. We both have HDR duplicates all the time, just as much as files that go missing while processing.

And as for transferring DNG's: I've found many DNG's that can't be transferred using apps in any way. I'm not saying you're flagging them as "in use" or locked on purpose, but if an engineer would have discovered that as a methode to keep fremium clients from getting raw files, you'd never admit to it publicly either 🙂

[selondon]

You could possibly try the Lightroom Downloader tool also, you may still be able to access your account that way and download your photos from there.

[Aurel_Arnold]

I had the same problem and solved it in a slightly different and I think more convenient way. 

When i logged in with the new account, lightroom created a new folder (one i can only see when the iPad is connected to the laptop). So what I did is connect my iPad to a Laptop, and changed the name from the folder with all my images to the name of the new created (empty) folder. 

Then after logging out with my new account and logging in again, all the photos where there in the app with all the edits and even my user presets. It looks like I was actually able to trick lightroom into thinking this was the folder assigned to the new account.

Great :)))