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November 22, 2022
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Is it possible to download (not export) original files from the cloud?

  • November 22, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 3301 views

I blew up my hard drive and now I want to download all the important videos and photos from the cloud to a new hard drive. Is there a fast way to do it or do I have to Export all these files through Adobe Lightroom? That seems very counter intuitive and a slow way to get some video files back to my hard drive.

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Correct answer Jao vdL

It is definitely does not let you simply download the file when you export original. I wish it was that fast.


I just exported as original on a bunch of videos (about 2GB worth of videos that were not cached locally) from Lightroom Desktop and it clearly simply downloaded the images to the folder I specified. Files are identical and the only activity was networking and no CPU or GPU used. Download was not far from the limit of my connection. Export as original is a simple download or copy from cache if you have already downloaded them for use in Lightroom so this should accomplish exactly what you want. If you're not getting the full bandwidth of your internet connection this probably has more to do with Adobe's servers than anything else.

1 reply

Sean McCormack
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 22, 2022
Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
Participating Frequently
November 22, 2022

Thank you for the help.
This looked promising but doesn't help.

The problem is that I would have to have enough space on my hard drive for downloading all the photos and videos. So I still can't pick and chooce the photos and videos I need to download.


Currently I don't have the bandwith or the space to download everything. 

Jim Wilde
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 23, 2022

Yep. So it seems. Very dissapointed to this system. Extremely slow to export original videos. 


What's the reason for wanting to download selected photos and videos? If it's just for safety purposes (i.e. you don't trust Adobe to look after the files while in the cloud) you can choose to store specific albums locally (e.g. put the selected videos into a single album, then choose the store locally option for that album), which might good enough for you. But be aware that any files stored locally in that manner are placed into a capture date-based folder scheme, not in a per album folder. Not a problem if you don't specifically plan to use those files elsewhere, but if you do want to use them in a different app you're probably using the wrong version of Lightroom, i.e. Lightroom Classic stores all data on local drives, so is better placed should you want to make copies of selected files for external use.