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Lightroom CC local storage

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
October 21, 2017
6 replies
20680 views

Hi

I have installed Lightroom CC and set local storage to 0% and accepted the default folder location.

I did not check the box to store files locally, in the advanced section.

I have uploaded 3 photos from 1 camera. Upload has completed, photos are available

on my iPhone 8 via Lightroom CC app. I even modified 1 photo and the changes were reflected

in Lightroom CC on my Mac.

I looked in the directory on my Mac under :

/Users/Remer/Pictures/Lightroom Library.lrlibrary/6e2ae66e3a384046b4da792d3b7999be/originals/2017/2017-10-21

and the three 5.7MB jpg files (10mpix camera) are still there, even though they are in the cloud in full resolution as per setup.

What is the purpose of subscribing to Lightroom CC with 1TB of storage, if my local storage is not cleared afterwards.

I do not want to store anything locally at the most just previews.

Please can someone explain how this is suppose to work.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Jao vdL

You can't get it to be completely zero. Lightroom CC will need at least the files you are currently working to be actually present locally. Otherwise it wouldn't be able to generate previews or do anything with them. They then persist for a minimum time before getting deleted from your local storage. You simply need some cache to be present locally. It doesn't do this immediately because otherwise it would be constantly downloading the same file over and over. I don't know how long this minimum time is.

F

FlyinScotsman

Participant

Sorry to jump in on this post but I stumbled across it whilst trying figure out how to get the 175GB of image files off of my 256GB Macbook pro, which is basically now full. It sounds like the only way to do it is some ridiculous workaround!

What the hell is going on?! Like someone said earlier - isn't the whole point of Cloud Storage so that you can get stuff OFF your local drive? (well, that and having a backup off-site, portability etc...but you get my meaning).

I can't believe I am finding it this hard (as a relative novice) to figure out the best workflow for dealing with huge numbers of files when, as must be the case for a lot of people, you have limited local storage space.

Does anyone have a tried and test process for this?

I have the usual Photography Plan on CC...so, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Lightroom classic.

Apologies in advance for the newbie-type questions.

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

>Does anyone have a tried and test process for this?

The tried and true method for limited storage is to get external storage. The most convenient way to do this is to get a USB (3 or c if your laptop supports it) SSD drive. They are tiny and not that expensive anymore. You can easily get 1TB versions that you can tape with double sided tape to the lid of your laptop for example. In this case, your best bet is therefore to simply stick with Classic. Cloud solutions are only workable if you know you will always have really robust internet access and even with robust access they are only workable if you are dealing with smallish numbers of images. If you deal with large amounts of data, local storage is it. So either make sure you don't skimp on internal storage or use external storage.

Lastly, make sure you have a viable backup solution. Lightroom CC's cloud storage is NOT a backup solution for many reasons.

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

So you're depriving yourself of a perfectly good tool because it might get obsoleted years into the future? That seems like a strange business decision. If there is a better tool out there sure go for it, but nothing is that sure in the tech world anymore and that tool might disappear in a few years too. Nobody is forcing anybody onto the cloud or to pay for cloud storage right now. You don't have to do Lightroom CC if it isn't for you. It is not for me either as my main catalog as my multi terabyte image library doesn't scale to the cloud. Also I rely on way too many features in Lightroom Classic (I hate that they named the cloud product Lightroom CC - endless confusion and angst). It does work great as a solution to edit my images I sync to the cloud from Lightroom Classic on my iPad and on my secondary laptop. This works just fine without paying for any extra cloud storage.

J

justdanyul

Known Participant

I hear what you are saying, but I have to interject, regardless if I agree with Mark or not, I'm not sure I agree that I would be nonsensical to disregard a product, based on concerns about the future of the product. Actually, in my experience, it's it's a fairly common factor in most vendor selection processes. The main reason is, usually, migrating off a system requires effort, and if you as a business know you will have to migrate from the platform in the future, I can see some sense in avoiding adding to the backlog of work, which you know you'd have to deal with during a migration process, by moving off the system as early as possible.

Just my two cents.

M

Mark Rutherford

Participating Frequently

Forced cloud storage is a deal killer for every professional photographer I know. As a former board member of the APA, I know a lot of pro shooters. Back to PS+Bridge for us. RIP LR.

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Mark+Rutherford wrote
Forced cloud storage is a deal killer for every professional photographer I know. As a former board member of the APA, I know a lot of pro shooters. Back to PS+Bridge for us. RIP LR.

Why? Lightroom Classic is there and will remain there and be updated for years to come. You don't need to do Lightroom CC. The Lightroom that we know and love is still here.

M

Mark Rutherford

Participating Frequently

Yes but eventually the older versions must be updated so we professionals can't commit to an app that will be obsolete at some point in the relatively near future. I did say we will stay with PS+Bridge but there are other viable options too- like Capture One. This will turn out poorly for Adobe if they still care about the pro market. BTW- I have been an Adobe customer since PS v.2, taught PS & LR at a university and was on the original LR alpha team when it was called Shadowland. I have dear friends on the PS and LR team but I'm gobsmacked at Adobe's choice to extort more cloud storage.

A

Anonymous

RealMayer1111

I think I found out the way that Lightroom works with the files.

Step 1: I save the pictures from camera on my Desktop, let's say in the folder "P".

Step 2: When I add the pictures from the folder "P" to Lightroom, it will copy them into its folder, Settings -> Local Storage -> Your Lightroom CC Files, and this folder is like a temporary folder. From this folder it uploads the files to Adobe Cloud, your online storage, but it won't automatically delete them from this temporary folder even if you unchecked the option to "Store a copy of ALL originals locally".

Step 3: You can delete the files from the temporary folder (Settings -> Local Storage -> Your Lightroom CC Files) after Lightroom synced the files to your online storage. The files won't be deleted from your online storage, you can edit them and any modifications will be saved on the online storage.

Step 4: If you want to save only few pictures with your work on the local drive, choose a picture from Lightroom, right click on it and choose “Save To…” and there you’ll see more options to save your picture. In this way, you’ll choose which file to be saved and where without checking the option "Store a copy of ALL originals locally" and putting the Lightroom to download all your files from the online storage on your local drive.

The only bug that I see in all this situation, but I think soon Adobe will fix this, is that every time you add pictures from your local drive to Lightroom, it will copy them to that temporary folder and it will upload them to cloud without delete them from the temporary folder after the upload was finished.

I hope this helps

Best regards!

A

Anonymous

Hello Real Mayer!

I tried something and it seems to work. I did the same things like you, but, after the Lightroom finished to sync my pictures and uploaded all my pictures to the cloud, I accessed the location where it stores the pictures (on my Mac) and I deleted them from there. After that, Lightroom still showed me my pictures but the ones from cloud and I could edit them and all the modifications was saved on the cloud. No picture was downloaded on my Mac unless I went to settings and checked the option to Store a copy of All originals locally.

You could try this way, but I strongly suggest you to delete one picture for this test or make a back of your originals in another place until you'll be sure that in this way you won't loose any picture from your work.

Best regards!

J

Jao vdL

Correct answer

Community Expert

You can't get it to be completely zero. Lightroom CC will need at least the files you are currently working to be actually present locally. Otherwise it wouldn't be able to generate previews or do anything with them. They then persist for a minimum time before getting deleted from your local storage. You simply need some cache to be present locally. It doesn't do this immediately because otherwise it would be constantly downloading the same file over and over. I don't know how long this minimum time is.

R

RealMayer1111Author

Participant

I will monitor over a period of time to see if they disappear from the HD directory. I should not have to go and delete these one by one myself, even if this works also, that would not be practical for a user that knows nothing about HD and storage, and would go against the simplicity of the product (Lightroom CC) claimed by Adobe.

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