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Inspiring
March 24, 2017
Question

LR Mobile File Location(s) - Galaxy S7 w/ Ext SD Card

  • March 24, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 7884 views

Hi, I'm trying out Lightroom Mobile on my Samsung Galaxy S7, mostly for the new HDR shooting mode. I have no real desire to sync with my desktop version (files too big, takes too long).

But I'm trying to understand where LR Mobile SHOULD be storing files, and what I'm experiencing.

My phone does have an external 64GB SD card, and that's where I would PREFER all photos kept. But even though I set the 'Use SD Card' setting in Lightroom, it appears that new photos are still being stored on the internal memory as well.

When I take a shot, here are the files I can find when digging around (again, the 'Use SD Card' setting is turned on):

- Internal Memory > DCIM > Lighroom Camera:

This appears to store a copy of the '...-hdr.dng' file (~40+MB)

- SD Card > Android > data > com.adobe.lrmobile > files > carouselDocuments > (really long random characters & numbers) > Originals > 2017 > (month) > (day):

This appears to hold the original '...-hdr.dng' file (~40+MB).

But it also holds a '...-hdr_proxy.dng' file for each image (~20+MB).

Then, if I save out a copy of the adjusted final file as a JPEG, it gets stored here:

- Internal Memory > Pictures > AdobeLightroom

---------

So for every shot I take, I end up with well over 100MB of files in various places, including on my Internal Memory that is nearly full!!! I really just need the one master on my SD card which has a lot of free space.

1) Does this sound correct for how LR Mobile 'SHOULD' be storing images on Android?

2) If not, how can I change things to get better organization? I would really like to get all photos on SD card, and in a more simplified folder structure if possible.

Thanks for any help! I love the new HDR features, but file management is going to kill me at this rate...

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1 reply

Inspiring
April 26, 2017

Does anybody use Adobe Lightroom Mobile for taking pics and have storage concerns?!?

Michael J. Hoffman
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 26, 2017

Hi jethrodesign,

I think we all must be concerned about storage on our mobile devices, since the space is limited. Especially on iOS, where we can't add an SD storage card.

Here's what I do:

  • I do sync my mobile photos to the desktop, and back. This has gotten faster with recent releases, even for large HDR images. I have a few portfolios in my desktop catalog that I like to keep synced with mobile so I can show my work, and I have LR Mobile set up to drop the new mobile images into my desktop photos in the same organization strategy I use for my DSLR images.
  • I have a single collection I use while I'm on the go with LR Mobile and taking photos (I call it "On The Go"). Whenever I'm taking photos with LR Mobile, I make sure I'm in this collection, so the photos get added there.
  • Back on the desktop, once my mobile photos have come in, I routinely remove them from the "On The Go" selection, and select the option to stop syncing these photos. This not only clears the "On The Go" collection, but also frees space on my mobile device, because the photos are automatically removed in the next sync.
  • By the way, I also have LR Mobile's "Auto-Add" feature enabled for my "On The Go" collection. This way, any photos I take with the native camera app or other apps are imported from my camera roll into LR Mobile as well.

You'll need to develop your own strategy, but I hope this gives you some ideas. My strategy has been to automate as much as possible, so I'm not plumbing the depths of my mobile device's files looking for neglected data.

Mike

Inspiring
April 26, 2017

Hi Michael. Thanks for the reply.

I'm guessing LR Mobile is probably a bit different from iOS to Android. But it's looking like you're implying that the only way to really 'remove' images from your mobile device may be through syncing and then doing things from Desktop LR, correct??

I hadn't really desired to clutter up my Desktop LR with the mobile images with syncing, as I use those for different purposes. I would never do any important editing on a phone, only stuff to share quickly on social media outlets. I'm really only using LR Mobile for the HDR camera feature (which is pretty amazing!).

I'll have to try syncing when I get home and see if this does actually allow physically deleting all the image files on the phone when I do it as you're explaining. Then, it's much easier to delete images in LR Desktop. Just seems like a hassle just to delete photos on the phone.

Out of curiosity, when you setup the 'Auto-Add' feature to import photos taken with your built-in camera, does that just import 'copies' of the images?? Wondering if when you stop syncing to clear out the mobile collection (which includes your auto-imported images), if this just deletes copies brought into LR Mobile, or the original image itself?!? It would guess only a copy...

- Any LR Mobile on Android users have a different workflow for managing the actual (large) image files???