Can I use both Lightroom CC and Classic?

[KylieRae]

Will I have any issues running Lightroom Classic on my desktop, and Lightroom CC on both my laptop and mobile?

I understand the libraries will be separate with Classic stored locally, and CC in the cloud, and I would have to move images manually to get them from one application  to the other, but I don't need all of my images in the cloud, and I am worried about space constraints.  At the same time, most of what I do is for social media, and the ability to edit wherever I am is often the best option.

[99jon]

This would appear to create a real mess of duplication. Adobe recommends that you use one app or the other unless you completely understand what is happening under the hood.

This is good advice.

You are not stuck, but be careful.

[andrman]

If you have a backup copy of your (Classic) library before migration to Lightroom CC, all you should need to do is go back to using that. That's what I did, just picked back up where I was before moving to CC. Luckily, I did not import anything new yet. So  all my original local photos are still in the same file structure as they were before the migration.

I then disabled mobile sync in my Classic library, deleted all of the photos out of Lightroom CC, and re-started syncing with just some collections of my choosing. 

[adilinden]

I just moved from Lightroom 5 to Lightroom Classic CC 2018. Nothing much special, except I turned on syncing. As expected, when I open up Lightroom CC there is nothing there. My LR Classic CC catalog and images live on an external drive, which is synced to a Mac server using "unison" (which syncs to a OneDrive Library and backs up to Time Machine, plus occassional (6-12 months apart) burn to Blueray). This is by all means my master library.

I then installed Lightroom Mobile on my iPhone 6 and took 3 photos. Opening LR Classic CC on my desktop, I see these images in the "All Synced Photographs" catalog. Opening a photo in finder, I see that the synced photos from Lightroom mobile live in "~/Pictures/Lightroom/Mobile Downloads.lrdata".

I then proceeded to install Lightroom CC on the same desktop. It created its own catalog (which is good) in "~/Pictures/Lightroom Library.lrlibrary".

Here now is my question. How can import images added via Lightroom Mobile or Lightroom CC to my master catalog in Lightroom Classic CC without creating duplication?

Thanks,

Adi

[andrman]

I would say they are ALREADY in your master catalog. They showed up in your All Synced Photographs collection. From there, I would just organize them into whatever other collections you use in your master library, as desired. You can also move the originals on disk if you want; you can see their source listed as Lightroom Mobile (or perhaps your iPhone's name). You should be able to just drag them to your external drive folders and it will move the originals on disk.

I wrote this all from memory, so apologize if some details are skipped.

[NunoMCastro]

I’m sorry for hijacking this thread, but is there anyway to have Lightroom classic to only download Smart Previews and not the originals? I have the new Lightroom sorting the originals and backing them up to Creative Cloud, but I also would like to use the Classic. But without having duplicated raw files.

Thank you.

[99jon]

No. Not smart previews. If sync is enabled in Lr Classic, originals will be downloaded into folders.

[gregoryw17089413]

This thread has been really helpful.  I migrated to CC around two months ago and have two regrets (in addition to the CC limited feature set): 1) I didn't prepare beforehand and lost my entire folder structure and am finding it painful to recreate in CC and 2) I don't like how CC stores the images locally because CC just stored them in folders by date wheres I liked to store by folders and subfolders by topic, so if I ever moved off CC, my pictures wouldn't be organized in a helpful way.

So now I'm considering switching back to using Classic as my main tool and then choosing collections/albums to sync to CC.  A few questions:

1) I only have around 500 pictures that I've imported into CC since I migrated.  I can see all of those in Classic.  Can I add those to my preferred folder structure in Classic so my Classic now has a complete collection of pictures on my hard drive in my preferred folder structure, and then delete all of my photos in CC?  So I start with a complete Classic and a blank CC and then decide which albums/collections to sync to CC?

2) Has something fundamentally changed in my Classic catalog since it's already been "migrated"?  Or is it really just a regular catalog and can I treat it as such? 

3) If I choose to sync files from Classic to CC, is there a way to sync the full image file and not just the smaller preview?

Thanks!

[km68275805]

Adobe has really created a mess with CC and Classic. Why not have a single app with the option to select which images are stored locally and which ones get uploaded to the cloud? Poor product management.