Getting photos from LR mobile to LR classic or cc with full cloud storage

Report · Jul 19, 2019

Is it possible to get the LR mobile catalogue off my iPad (or other iOS device using LR mobile) without using Adobe Cloud sync?

I import my files to LR mobile from my camera - but the space I have isn't enough. I have a master LR classic catalogue which cannot be synced to the cloud. It's huge.

I don't need to sync all the files back to LR desktop but I DO want to use LR mobile to edit and cull my images before I get back to the office.

I can pause the sync of course but I just want to use LR mobile as an app for edits/organisation for a large multi-day shoot or event. Once I've done the edits I want to pull the files off as a catalogue and them import into my LR classic.

Can I then get the images from the iPad to the Mac without the adobe cloud?

I know I can get back, allow the files to sync, then move them from sync to local folders, delete them from sync and free up space, then let the next batch sync etc etc. This is rather tedious.

Is there a way around this?

TIA

Rick

Report · Jul 19, 2019

Hi Rick,

First of all, importing to your LR Mobile on your device should allow the originals to sync to the cloud Automatically (if you’re signed in). Then you can clear cache on your local devices and only smart previews will remain - this is quite a space savings. You can always “Get original” if you need a full res in the future.

Unless you sync with LR Classic.

If you tell your LR Classic desktop to sync with LR Mobile, the result will be that everything that is currently stored in Adobe’s cloud will move on to your desktop. Nothing will be pushed back from your existing catalog (unless you tell it to). This is a key point, as it doesn’t matter how big your catalog is on the desktop. Nothing is synced back up to the cloud unless you tell it to (in the Collections panel).

Before you sync, go into preferences in LR Classic and understand/change the location of your LR Mobile download folder, and choose the organization method for the downloaded files.

Once the link is established, original files in the cloud will download to your desktop. LR Classic on the desktop will generate Smart Previews for all the downloaded images, and the smart previews will be pushed back to the cloud. At that point, original raw files are no longer available for syncing to your devices in the future, they will work from Smart Previews.

Once this is done, you can go to your mobile devices and clear cache. Any new originals you import will be on your device until cloud sync is complete, and new originals in the cloud will download to LR Classic the next time you start LR Classic on your desktop.

This is all a little complicated, feel free to ask more questions and I‘ll do my best to answer.

Mike

Report · Jul 19, 2019

Thanks Mike- but perhaps I’ve not made the question obvious enough.

I dont have sufficient cloud storage to sync all the files from a shoot/ trip on one session. So..

I import my shots to LR mobile. Then it cant sync past the storage limit I have. Say 20Gb. Once I hit the 20gb it tells me that it can’t sync any more.

This is fine. I don’t want to sync them. I just want to work on my images on my iPad as if it was my desktop.

So I have no sync space left. I edit down my photos sand now need to get them from the iPad to my desktop. I use LR classic.

Is there no way to access the LR catalogue on my iPad - say via iTunes file sharing- and just take my edited catalogue off LR mobile and import as a catalogue to LR classic?

if not- then how do I get the images and edits from LR mobile to LR classic?

Report · Jul 20, 2019

Hi Rick,

I still believe if you follow the workflow I mentioned above, you’ll be able to sync all the way back to your desktop.

Let’s say you go on a shoot away from home/office, and import 30Gb of photos to LR Mobile. You’re over the limit, only 20Gb (max) will be able to sync, then syncing will pause. You can continue adding photos to LR Mobile as desired.

When you get back to the home/office location where you have LR Classic, start it up and allow it so sync. The 20Gb in the cloud will download to the desktop, will be replaced in the cloud with Smart Previews, and the 20Gb of space used in the cloud will be reduced - probably to less than 2Gb.

Since you now have more space available in the cloud, you can then let your LR Mobile resume its sync process - the remaining photos should be able to sync to the cloud at that time. Allow them to sync through and download to the desktop, and you’re good to go with lots of space for the next shoot.

If the Smart Previews (which are typically 5-10% of the size of a raw file) start taking up too much room, you can delete photos from LR Mobile in the “All Photos” album. This will delete from the cloud, and all synced devices... but NOT from your desktop, You MUST make sure that the photos have synced all the way through and the original is on your desktop machine before you do this... to avoid losing photos.

I hope that explains a little more clearly. If you routinely shoot more than 20Gb in a single outing, before being able to sync to the desktop, I’d consider stepping up to the 100Gb tier; this should allow you much more freedom when you’re working remotely.

For the record, this is exactly what I do; but I make heavy use of my Adobe Cloud (130Gb on the average these days) so I have the 1Tb plan that gives me a lot of breathing space.

I hope that helps explain things further. Let me know!

Mike