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phototocanvaspdx
phototocanvaspdx
Known Participant
June 30, 2021
Answered

New computer, moving Lightroom CC local storage

  • June 30, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 2793 views

I am doing my main editing on a different computer. I previously stored my local copies on an external drive. I will be using the same drive. I opened LR on the new computer, went into preferences and set the location of the external drive connected to the new computer. When I reopend Lightroom CC I was prompted with "moving files from Macintosh HD to XXXX", with XXXX being the new location. I just wanted to make sure this is the right process before I let Lightroom "move" any files. 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Jim Wilde

Yes and no. I tried it with a few files and a few doubled and a few did not. I decided it wasnt reliable and dont want to redownload everything, so I am no longer using local storage. Instead I have everything syncing to Lightroom Classic and that creates a hard backup which in turn clones to another drive for security. 


For me, that's the best approach, and it's the way I do it. I have all originals in the cloud, and they are all replicated in Lr Classic. So in Lightroom I keep the local copy option disabled, and the copy in Lr Classic is what I backup to other destinations. 

2 replies

Jim Wilde
Jim Wilde
Community Expert
July 1, 2021

Yes, it should be OK to accept that "Move", provided you are of course using the same Adobe ID on both computers.

 

Basically, when you first start Lightroom (BTW, it's not called Lightroom CC any longer, the CC was dropped several years ago) the default location for locally stored originals is in the Lightroom library in the user>Pictures folder. Obviously, at the time of first launch, there won't be any locally stored originals....however, when you import images the imported files are first copied into the currently-set location before being uploaded to the cloud. Additionally, if you start to edit an image (or even just try to view it at 1:1), Lightroom will automatically download a copy of the original from the cloud (if it's not already held locally), and store it in the set location.

So, it's entirely possible that you already have some locally stored originals in the default location, in which case when you change the location via the preferences Lightroom will move the previously stored originals to the new location (but I didn't think the user got a choice, I thought the move happened automatically?).

phototocanvaspdx
phototocanvaspdxAuthor
Known Participant
July 1, 2021

Thanks. 

I know the technical name for Lightroom Cloud is now Lightroom Desktop (according to the guy who runs the LR division at Adobe). But a lot of people are very confused so they tend to use CC and Classic as the names so people know what to use.

 

I don't have any photos in the original location. My fear is that it will re download the files and I'll end up with doubles of everything.

Jim Wilde
Jim Wilde
Community Expert
July 1, 2021

I know a lot of people still use LR CC when they mean Lightroom desktop....but look around some of the threads on these forum boards and you'll find examples of people using LR CC when they actually mean Lightroom Classic. Remember that the subscription version of Lightroom 6 was called Lightroom CC 2015.x, or LR CC for short, before it was renamed to Lightroom Classic. So LR CC to me, and many of the others helping out on these boards, could mean either.....which is why we are persistently asking other users to abandon LR CC and use the correct names.

 

No, it will only download your files if you have the "Store a copy of all originals...." checkbox enabled in Preferences. 

phototocanvaspdx
phototocanvaspdxAuthor
Known Participant
June 30, 2021

Just to add, the local files will not actually move. They will stay in place on the same external drive. 

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