Full-res sync from Lightroom Classic CC?

[sethg49324077]

I migrated my library from Lightroom Classic CC to Lightroom CC and purchased the 1TB plan with the intention of backing my full-resolution photos up in Adobe's cloud (as well as a local external drive). However, I *far* prefer the interface of Lightroom Classic CC, and also really like having the full-res original photos stored in a known location on my system. I've enabled sync between the two apps, but am a little confused about the right way to import photos.

I imported a set of photos in Lightroom Classic, and dragged them into a synced collection with the goal of having them uploaded to the cloud. However, I think only the smart previews were uploaded. In Lightroom CC, the photos are showing up but they are not full resolution (when I view a photo in Lightroom CC, it says "Local: Smart Preview" and "Cloud: Smart Preview Only").

How can I take advantage of that 1TB of space and have my photos backed up in full to the Adobe cloud, while continuing to have them stored locally in a sane manner, and continue to work with Lightroom Classic CC? Do I need to import the photos within Lightroom CC, and not Lightroom Classic CC? And if I do that, how can I make sure that the full-size originals are stored locally where I want them?

[Jim Wilde · Accepted solution]

There are a couple of options:

1. Carry on importing into Classic, enable sync on the images, wait for the smart previews to upload. When that's done, open LRCC on the same desktop and import the same images.....LRCC detects that it has SP versions of the images, and imports and uploads the originals to replace the SPs in the cloud. No impact on Classic, that change is transparent to the user. Note: if you work this way, do make sure that you have synced the images from Classic before you import them into LRCC. If you don't, LRCC uploads the original no problem, but because they haven't previously been synced from Classic, Classic treats them as duplicates....it will download them, but it only creates virtual copies of the originals. So in Classic you'd end up with a synced VC, and an un-synced original, whilst in LRCC you'd see an original which in fact syncs with the VC in Classic.

2. Import into LRCC instead (full originals are thus uploaded). When done, open the sync-enabled Classic catalog and those originals will download into your local Classic library. There are preference options in Classic (Lightroom Sync tab) which allows you to choose a different download location for those originals, and also allows you to choose one of the Lightroom data-based folder systems.

[DdeGannes]

Thanks for the helpful info Jim.

[sethg49324077]

Thanks for the clarifying response. One additional thing I forgot to mention is that I'm trying to do more with Lightroom's HDR and Panorama features, which I believe create wholly new images and insert them into the catalog.

I think that HDR is only available in Lightroom Classic, and not Lightroom CC. I've taken a lot of exposure-bracketed triples, and was planning on creating HDR images out of them. However, since the images will have originated in Lightroom Classic, I'm worried that they will not be backed up in full resolution, since it seems like only Lightroom CC can do that for some reason.

Is this accurate?

[Jim Wilde]

Yes, only Classic can do the HDR and Pano merges (though via LRCC you could use the Edit in Photoshop procedure and do the merges there). The derivative DNG file is just like the other files in Classic....if you sync from there, only an SP is uploaded. So it's the same options as earlier....if you want the original of the DNG in the cloud, you've got to import it into LRCC.

[gernotweber]

Hi,

Has the import behaviour changed recently? I'm trying to get option 1 working, but I'm ending up with duplicate photos in the library instead of the smart previews being replaced by/linked to the original image. Any hints much appreciated.

Cheers,

Gernot

[Jim Wilde]

gernotweber  wrote

Hi,

Has the import behaviour changed recently? I'm trying to get option 1 working, but I'm ending up with duplicate photos in the library instead of the smart previews being replaced by/linked to the original image. Any hints much appreciated.

Cheers,

Gernot

Not that I'm aware of, and I've just run a quick test and it worked as I expected. Have you made certain that, in your LR Classic catalog, the original files were synced to the cloud before you then imported them into LRCC? If there were NOT previously synced, then finding virtual copies of those images in the Classic catalog would be expected.

So, are those "duplicates" that you are seeing Virtual Copies (they'll have the "upturned corner" icon in the bottom left corner of the thumbnail in the Grid or Filmstrip views)? If yes, look at the VC and the original side by side in the Grid, the VC should have the "double arrow-head" sync badge, but does the original also have that badge?

[gernotweber]

Dear Jim,

Thanks a lot for getting back to me. Just observed a behaviour, which seems inconsistent at a first glance:

1. If I take a new photo, import it into Lightroom Classic into a new sync collection, wait until the sync is finished, go into Lightroom CC and import the RAW file again into the already synced album, the smart preview is substituted by the original file and uploaded to the cloud. So, all good any exactly like described in your initial post above.
2. However, if I import an existing/old library into Lightroom Classic, mark a collection to sync with CC, wait until the sync is finished and import then the original file into Lightroom CC from my NAS, a duplicate is created in Lightroom CC and I obtain two photos  with the same name in Lightroom CC (does the concept of VCs exist in Lightroom CC as well?). After a while the RAW file is downloaded to Lightroom Classic into the Mobile Downloads folder (physical folder on the hard drive) in addition to the file already available on my NAS.

Seems like I have to figure out the difference between a collection and photo, which were created after the migration to CC and a collection and photo, which have been taken some time ago (prior migration to CC).

[Jim Wilde]

I'm probably not fully understanding the workflow in your second point. But if you have imported and synced the images into Classic from one source then imported the same images into LRCC from a different source (why would you do that?), then possibly something is going wrong with the duplicates detection in LRCC. Trouble is we're getting a long way away from any sense of a "supported workflow", so even if that is a bug in LRCC it may not be addressed.

If you could clarify exactly what you mean when you say you first imported "an existing/old library into LR Classic", I might be able to figure out what's going on.

[gernotweber]

Hi Jim,

Thanks a lot for your answer and apologies for not getting back to you earlier. The workflow, I was trying to achieve was the following:

1. Start with a catalog, which is a small subset of my entire photo collection to pilot CC and familiarise with it.
2. Selectively add photos from other catalogs by importing them into Lightroom Classic CC (this is what I meant with importing an existing/old library into LR Classic, as described here: "How do I combine catalogs or move photos from one catalog to another?") and let them sync across to Lightroom CC.

The second step is, where the originals for the photos imported to the already synced catalog did not got uploaded and only Smart Previews were available. The workaround mentioned above did not seem to work in this scenario. However, I kind of "solved" my issue, by migrating the various Lightroom catalogs I had directly into Lightroom CC. I'm a bit afraid of starting Lightroom Classic now, as I assume it will download the originals again.

[Rinusripsus23]

Bad idea. Stay with Classis if you want control over your data. The cloud sync is a (typically) very poor Adobe approach to simple things. I assume they don't want you to  get the best of both worlds. A commercial decision.