Maintain folder hierarchy

[luvbndad]

I just want to make sure I understand something. If I migrate from Lightroom desktop to cloud it does not keep my folder hierarchy intact?? Does it just lump everything together in the cloud? And do I have to migrate everything at once or can I pick what to migrate so I can create a corresponding album and migrate a desktop folder to that?

[Rob_Cullen]

You can only "Migrate" from a Lightroom-CLASSIC catalog. (Not Lightroom-Desktop, the mobile version on a PC or Mac)

And, No, you do not have Folders and Folder hierarchy.

Note:

Collections of your photos in Lightroom Classic automatically become albums in Lightroom. The following data in your Lightroom Classic catalog won’t be available in Lightroom after migration:

• Snapshots
• Custom metadata
• Creations: books, slideshows, and print/web creations
• Shares on Lightroom for the web
• Map-saved locations
• Folders and folder hierarchy
• Smart collections
• Develop history
• Color labels (migrated as keywords in Lightroom

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/using/migrate-to-lightroom-cc.html

[Jao vdL]

I think you mean migrate from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom Desktop. Lightroom Desktop is the name for the cloud-based version (yes very confusing indeed!). It indeed does not maintain your folders. All your images will be stored in the cloud. There is no folder structure there. You can put images in albums which are similar to collections. So the trick is to drag your folder structure over to the collections part in Lightroom Classic before you do a migration (described here: https://feedback-readonly.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-desktop-cloudbased/lightroom-desktop...). You will then end up with a album structure in the cloud version (i.e. Lightroom Desktop) that reflects your old folder structure.

You cannot partially migrate. It is all or nothing.

It is important to realize that the cloud version is basically a port of the mobile version of Lightroom back to the dekstop operating systems (hence the name desktop!). It misses many essential features that Lightroom Classic has. You can't print at all for example, you can't have virtual copies, you can't have hierarchical keywords, you can't do publishing services, sharing to social/other platforms is much harder than it needs to be, you can't selectively sync to the cloud (everything always has to be there) and many other limitations. It has one nice feature which is that your Library will look the same regardless of which computer or mobile platform you look at aand the cloud storage relieves pressure on your local hard disk(s). So really know what you are getting into before migrating. It is not the right solution for most people that come from the Classic world, that do a lot of social media, or that are high volume shooters.

[luvbndad]

You are correct sir! I was confused by the names. Do we know if the plan is to make the cloud version as powerful as LRC?

[Rob_Cullen]

Nobody knows what Adobe plans (other than Adobe). Even if we did there would be an NDA.

I do not forsee IMO that Lightroom-mobile versions will ever be the equal of Lightroom-Classic.

[JohanElzenga]

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@luvbndad wrote:

You are correct sir! I was confused by the names. Do we know if the plan is to make the cloud version as powerful as LRC?

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Define 'as powerful as'. Lightroom desktop and Lightroom Classic are two different beasts. If they weren't, then Adobe would not have made (and kept) two versions of Lightroom. That means they will (and already do) share certain features, but some other features will remain exclusive to one of the two versions.