Bulk delete full resolution cloud files

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
June 11, 2025
1 reply
250 views

I'm sure I received notice of this change, but I did not realize Adobe kept my full resolution photos under "All Photos on Lightroom (cloud version) and was eating up my storage. My workflow while traveling was to let it upload the full resolution photos, move them out of the "Syned Photos" folder in LR Classic (and that used to remove the full resolution version from the cloud). I now have over 22,000 photos in the All Photos folder in LR (cloud). I've stopped all syncing trying to figure out what was eating up my storage. Two questions. 1) What setting do I need to turn off to change this behavior. It creates another step in the workflow & makes no sense unless the purpose is to sell more cloud storage to people who can't figure out what is going on. 2nd question. How do I bulk delete 22,000 photos so I can resync the smart previews only, which is how it worked before this latest change. Thank you.

Correct answer Sameer K

Hey, @bgwg. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll help you figure this out.

Images imported from Lightroom mobile (iOS/Android) & Desktop sync as full-size raw files to the cloud at Lightroom Web (https://adobe.ly/3RYYXR6).

You are using Lightroom Classic, which downloads the full-size raw image to the system, as, by design, Lightroom Classic needs access to the full-size image at all times. As a test, once an image is synced to Lightroom Classic, you can try deleting the photo from Lightroom Web (https://adobe.ly/3RYYXR6) & the locally downloaded copy should still be available in Lightroom Classic.

You can learn more about the sync ecosystem here: https://adobe.ly/3RT1FY0

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

Sameer K

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hey, @bgwg. Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll help you figure this out.

Images imported from Lightroom mobile (iOS/Android) & Desktop sync as full-size raw files to the cloud at Lightroom Web (https://adobe.ly/3RYYXR6).

You are using Lightroom Classic, which downloads the full-size raw image to the system, as, by design, Lightroom Classic needs access to the full-size image at all times. As a test, once an image is synced to Lightroom Classic, you can try deleting the photo from Lightroom Web (https://adobe.ly/3RYYXR6) & the locally downloaded copy should still be available in Lightroom Classic.

You can learn more about the sync ecosystem here: https://adobe.ly/3RT1FY0

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

B

bgwgAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you for responding! I use Lightroom mobile/web just as you describe. While traveling, I "upload" my photos from my camera to Lightroom Mobile or Web, so the full-resolution photos are in the cloud. When I open Classic on my computer at home, all the uploaded photos are in a folder "Synced Photos" by date. Previously, when I moved the photos OUT of the Synced Photos folders and into the permanent file structure, the full-resolution version was no longer available on the cloud. To view the photo on LR Mobile/Web, I would need to include it in a "collection" and sync that collection so the smaller preview version is viewable via LR Mobile/Web. For some reason, it appears that moving photos OUT of the Synced Photos folders no longer removes the full-resolution version from the cloud. I am unable to identify which of my photos visible on the Mobile/Web version are full resolution and which are not. I need a way to identify and delete the full-resolution versions so my cloud storage does not get full. Please advise.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

You remember this incorrectly. Moving synced photos out of their initial storage folder to another folder doesn't do anything to their online copies, and never did. You must remove them from 'All Synced Photographs' in Lightroom Classic! If you want to keep them in the cloud as smart previews, then add them to a synced collection again after they have been removed from the cloud.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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