Clear RAW files from Lightroom Mobile App

[hikingwithcamera]

I'm using Lightroom Mobile on my iPad and am using the cloud-based ecosystem and desktop app (so all my library including RAW files are synced online).

I am trying to clean up storage on my iPad to determine if I can live with a smaller storage amount when I upgrade. In the process, I'm trying to reduce the size of my Lightroom Library in the mobile app. It's over 70GB with over 33,000 photos synced for offline access. I think that number is high, and I've been able to identify at least some photos seem to be keeping the RAW file stored locally instead of stored in the cloud. There are photos that were last edited over a year ago that still have the RAW file stored locally.

My current troubleshooting efforts:

• Confirmed "Only download smart previews" is turned on
• Cache size limit is 10GB
• I have cleared the cache
• Tried offloading and reloading the app
• (I have not tried deleting the app, as I don't want to have to resort to that every time I need to clear out raw files.)

Despite all this, photos from over a year ago still retain the RAW version locally. I see on photos that do not have the original, the option to download it, but is there a way to reverse that? In particular, a way to reverse it en masse?

[Charlie.D]

Hello @hikingwithcamera 

You should not have to delete the app.  Let me share some other ideas.  First, I recommend a full device backup so you can later restore your device to it's current state with all files, if needed.

If original images are truly synced to LR's cloud storage, you should be able to use Clear Cache like you said and get the app cache down to a very low amount. 

One thing I can think of that might prevent that is if you use the album setting "Store Locally" which is easily accessed in the 3-dot button next to each album name in your albums down-down menu in the Lightroom tab.  Store Locally will prevent the album's images from being purged by Clear Cache.  And if you disable Settings > Cloud Storage & Sync > Only download Smart Previews, then Store Locally will retain those large original images specifically.

If Store Locally isn't something you use, then my other guess is that you might have more than one Lightroom account in use on that device.  To see exactly what Lightroom iOS is keeping in its app cache, I recommend you connect your device to iTunes on Windows, or Finder on newer versions of MacOS, and copy the app cache to your computer to inspect its contents.  See this help page for more info: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/kb/recover-lightroom-mobile-photos-itunes-file-sharing.html 

I am curious if you will see more than one account/folder listed under the Lightroom app when browsing the Files for your device.  If you find images you're not sure are imported/synced yet, my suggested is to try importing them into your paid account again.  Especially if they seem like originals images.  Lightroom Desktop or Mobile will filter out duplicate images if the bits match original images you already have. 

I hope something here helps!

[hikingwithcamera]

Thanks for your response, and sorry if some things were not clear. I am using Store Locally to store actually about 32,000 photos locally (I had that number wrong above). I do also have Download only Smart Previews turned on. Additionally, my cache seems to hang consistently around 55MB even with my clearing it consistently. I'm including a couple screenshots of my settings and storage data below:

I will inspect the cache file on my computer later today and report back on what I find.

[JohanElzenga]

As I said: 'Store locally' should store the smart previews locally if you enabled 'Only download smart previews', not the originals. If you think that some local photos are raw files, then uncheck the 'Store Locally' option, give the device time to offload these photos, and then check it again.

[hikingwithcamera]

But I want the Smart Previews stored locally. I just don't want the originals stored locally. I guess unchecking all the albums that I have marked to store locally is another option to try before deleting and re-installing the app. But likewise, remvoing all locally stored photos and re-loading them all the time is not a sustainable practice for me.

[hikingwithcamera]

EDIT: I do not want the originals stored locally indefinitely. Obviously I want them to be able to cache, but it seems that some are not being stored in the cache as the originals remain local even after clearing the cache many, many times.

[Charlie.D]

Hello @hikingwithcamera 

I understand what you are saying, but it's simply not part of the current app design to be able to purge original images from the app cache for Store Locally albums. 

To clear out originals that are in Store Locally albums, disable Store Locally.  Then clear the app cache, and then re-enable Store Locally, and make sure you have enabled 'Only download smart previews' in app Settings.  (Or remove images from the Store Locally album and then clear cache.  However, how would you know which images had the originals cached?  I think it's probably easier to toggle Store Locally off, and then back on after clearing the app cache)

After that, to avoid downloading originals, don't fetch them via the cloud icon.  Also, pinching to zoom in while editing will pull the original from LR Cloud storage into your app cache.  I recommend pausing sync while doing such edits, so original images don't download and remain in your Store Locally app cache.

Doing these things, you can probably get LR's app cache down to about ~25 GB while using Store Locally for ~33,000 images.  Looking at Smart Preview images in my own app cache, I see mine avergae ~700 KB.  

[hikingwithcamera]

Hahaha, so basically, try not to use your Lightroom mobile app. What I hear you saying is that if I store locally, originals will download (either because I imported them into my iPad in the first place or because I zoomed in while editing them), and the local storage will just continue to grow regardless of what I do?

That's a pretty glaring design flaw. It's unfortunate, because the ability to sync the Smart Previews to my iPad for offline viewing is one of the biggest reasons I've stuck with Lightroom instead of moving to something else.

Well thank you for clarifying that there is no way to clear the originals without also clearing the smart previews from local storage.

[hikingwithcamera]

Followup question, since apparently the only way to clear out locally stored originals is to turn of store locally, is there a way to easily fine all albums where I've turned that option on?

[Charlie.D]

If an album has store locally set, there is a small down-arrow badge on the album thumb in the albums list view.  It is gray while files are downloading, and blue when all assets are downloaded.

If you want to see a change in the app design, start a new post as an Idea that other users can vote on.  This helps product mgmt understand user wishes.  There are a million ideas the team would like to implement, but with limited time and resources, work has to be prioritized.

I recommend one post per topic, and use clear, succint wording for the subject and leading statement.

[hikingwithcamera]

Sorry this wasn't clear. I know how to identify an album is stored locally, what I need is to find all those albums in my extensive folder structure. Knowing what I know now, all stored locally albums will now have to reside inside the same folder, but that hasn't been my practice up to now.

[JohanElzenga]

The app does not keep the original raw photos, but smart previews as you set in the preferences. It will display 'Raw' if the original is raw, but that does not mean that the full raw photo is on your iPad. Do the math: you have 33,000 photos, all stored locally for offline editing (meaning you have a stored smart preview). You also have a normal preview for each photo, otherwise you could not see it. 70GB for 33,000 photos is about 2 MB per photo. That is as expected for a smart preview and normal previews. Your raw files will be at least 10 MB or more, depending on the camera. So if you had 33,000 raw files on the iPad, you would need at least 330 GB.

[hikingwithcamera]

The app shows what is stored locally. If a SmartPreview is stored locally, it will look like this:

If it is storing the original locally, it will look like this:

I suspect, based on past experience, that if I can get it to stop storing originals (for me most of those are RAW, but I do have JPEGS and HEIC in there), that my local storage will drop 10–20GB. If I cannot find a better solution here, the real test will be deleting and then re-installing the app. Of course, I could be wrong, maybe the stiched panoramas I've accumulated are taking up more space than my old library did. But I know that Lightroom is at least reporting that some originals are being stored locally even though I have not touched those photos (with edits) in over a year.

Obviously I do not think that ALL the RAW images are being stored locally, as I have over 800GB of photos in my cloud library, and am storing Smart Previews of probably 90% of those.