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Participant
December 6, 2020
Question

Importing images from external drive

  • December 6, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 251 views

How do I import thousands of images from an external drive with out duplicating them? 

 

Thanks, 

Don M. 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 6, 2020

First, let us know which Version, and Number, of Lightroom that you are using.

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
Participant
December 17, 2020

Thanks for getting back to me. 

 

I am using Version 4.0

 

# 2020 1007-0818-b2c04b4 Build

Jim Wilde
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 17, 2020

You can't avoid them being (initially) duplicated. When importing images into Lightroom, from whatever source, the program initially copies the files into it's own designated location (default is the system drive, but this can be changed in Preferences to a different drive). From that point Lightroom has no interest or involvement with the original input files (so you are free to delete them yourself if needed). It's from that designated location that the images are then synced up to the cloud. Once synced, the local copy becomes eligible for removal, though that is done under some complex rules....which means it can take a long while before they are automatically deleted. They can, however, be deleted manually by the user....though of course it's vital to make sure they have safely been uploaded to the cloud before deleting them. 

 

Personally, I've got my designated location set to an external drive with lots of free space, so I'm quite happy leaving any locally stored originals there. It's also worth mentioning that Lightroom also downloads a copy of the original when you start to edit it, which helps with performance....another reason why I don't mess with the local contents of my designated folder .