Lightroom Classic to CC Migration vs Collection Sync

[rjdibella]

I have been syncing Collections from Lightroom Classic to CC as I start to dip my toes into Lightroom CC.   I've done this for about 33k RAW photos and I'm seeing them across my devices as I would expect.  However, when I look at my cloud storage usage, I see only 2GB used out of my 1TB total.  I know that these 33k RAW photos should be taking up much more space than 2GB.  Additionally, only a handful of my original photos are "backed up locally" via the Lightroom CC local save option.  Any idea what's going on here? 

Is it possible that my Lightroom Classic originals are not backed up fully on the cloud via the collection syncs I've set up? 

Would a catalog migration solve for this?  And if so, would it be smart enough to recognize that my photos are already "in" Lightroom CC or will it create duplicates of everything that has already been synced via a collection? 

Ultimately, I'd love if the following could work:

- Backup all my Lightroom Classic originals and edits on the cloud

- Continue to sync my edits between Lightroom Classic and CC so I can bounce back and forth

- Not have any duplicates for whatever solution this requires

[99jon]

Only the smaller smart previews are sync’d to the cloud from collections in LR Classic. Which explains the low storage use.

Originals imported into LRCC desktop, LRCC web app or LRCC Mobile are sent automatically to the cloud. That would start usage of the 1TB of cloud space.

The migration tool is really designed as a one-time solution for those who wish to stop using LR Classic. Sync is switched off in LR Classic automatically after migration.

Assuming you choose migration, going forward you should start importing everything from new photo shoots directly into LRCC and re-activate sync in LR Classic. Originals would download into folders in LR Classic. So you would have one original in the cloud and an original in your LR Classic folders. The default cache in LRCC would work the most efficiently and there would be no need to set up local storage apart from using it as the temporary space during the migration process e.g. an external hard drive with plenty of room plus a margin. I believe that the cloud eco system is smart enough to match up existing files in LR Classic but there is no guarantee there won’t be glitches with large catalogs. I normally recommend migration into an empty LRCC app so you may wish to uncheck sync’d collections in LR Classic before starting the migration.

Care is needed in using both apps together as keywords, captions, titles do not sync between the two and neither do presets or profiles. The LR Classic folder structure is not preserved. That said it is possible to use the two apps together with a little careful thought and some pre-migration preparation. I do use both apps together but personally keep one on laptop and one on desktop.

This help document has further information.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/how-to/feature-differences.html

[rjdibella]

Thank you Jon.  One thing that I'm noticing now is that my changes within Classic do sync to the photos within CC and vice versa.  Would I lose that capability if I migrate? 

re: "The migration tool is really designed as a one-time solution for those who wish to stop using LR Classic. Sync is switched off in LR Classic automatically after migration." 

So are you saying that if I migrate, it SHOULD identify duplicates and not put everything in CC twice?  My nightmare is that I go through this process and end up with 2 of everything. 

[99jon]

All edit settings would continue to sync in both directions.

The migration initially creates duplication but as soon as everything is syncd  to the cloud you can delete the temporary duplicates and switch preferences from local storage to the default cache. So you should end up with one original in the cloud and one in your LR Classic catalog which would be like a backup.

[rjdibella]

Thanks Jon - super helpful.  I've started the migration process.  One more thing.

So now it seems like I'll have my originals in 4 places...

1) the current location on Lightroom Classic

2) the location in Lightroom classic where it stores images from the lightroom CC ecosystem

3) the cloud (whew!)

4) the new location to store original files that I set in lightroom CC

What's the best way to have 1 location for local files? 

[99jon]

The best location for your local files will be LR Classic. When working in LRCC desktop or on a mobile device you can pull down an original on the fly as required.