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Participating Frequently
November 22, 2022
Answered

Is it possible to download (not export) original files from the cloud?

  • November 22, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 3336 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. 

Sean McCormack
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 24, 2022

My external hard drive broke. It had about 200GB of photos and videos. My laptop has 5GB of free space so can't and don't want to download everything. I just need to download the few selected videos that are crucial to keep working. Adobe does not allow me to do this.


You may not want to hear this but the actual solution is to replace your broken drive. And we're in the middle of the annual sales frenzy, so they're even heavily discounted right now. 

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.