Full-res sync from Lightroom Classic CC?

Question

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 Answer

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.

Rinusripsus23 · Answer

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.

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