How to remove photos from cloud storage without affecting local storage

Question

Hi there

I've changed plans and now only have 20GB instead of 1TB. I have 200GB of photos from Lightroom synced into the cloud. If I delete the photo from the cloud it also removes it from my local machine.

I've paused syncing but I can't seem to find a "disable sync".

How can I free up the cloud storage without removing the photos from my PC?

Thanks.

Jim Wilde · Accepted Answer

If by "local storage" you mean the copy of cloud originals stored in accordance with the preferences>Local Storage tab, be aware that they are copies of the cloud originals which are managed exclusively by the local Lightroom desktop app. Delete an image from the cloud, and the local copy is also deleted.

If you have changed plans, one assumes that you now are using Lightroom Classic. In which case, the simplest means of retaining the cloud images would be to enable sync in the LrC catalog. That will result in all the images in the cloud being downloaded into the LrC catalog (full copies of the original files), and once in the LrC catalog they are no longer managed by Lightroom.....which means you can the safely delete the images from the cloud, and the LrC copies are untouched.

Before enabling sync in the LrC catalog, however, visit the LrC Preferences>Lightroom Sync tab and set the download location for the synced images to one of your preference (the default would be an obscure folder in the user Appdata>Local library). Also, you have the option to have the downloaded images automatically stored in a date-based folder scheme (based on the image capture times).

luis_claudio_7503 · Answer

One approach to this problem is duplicating every synced collection in Lightroom Classic, making sure the duplicate collections (the copies of the original ones) are not synced to the cloud. Afterwards go to Lightroom (the cloud version) and delete the photos of every album (select all photos of the álbum and exclude them; it's not removing from the album, but excludind them from the library). This will remove the photos from the cloud and from the synced collections in Lightroom Classic, but not from the copies of the collections, because they are not synced. That way the photos will be deleted from the cloud but remain in your catalog in Lightroom Classic and your local storage. Please make some tests with irrelevant photos before performing the procedure with your important files, so that you make sure you understand how it works and avoid loosing your photos.

Of course if you have lots of collections it will be hard work.

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