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robkendrew
robkendrew
Participating Frequently
May 15, 2025
Answered

Swapping synched originals for Smart Previews in LR Cloud?

  • May 15, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 224 views

Just been on a month long trip to Spain. While there I added my selected images into LR Mobile for editing and they synched up to the cloud, presumably as original RAW files.

 

Now home I’ve synched them with LRClassic and original RAWs are now also stored in the folder I designated on my hard drive along with the edits I did while travelling.

 

My question now is - can I swap out the original RAWs stored in the cloud for Smart Previews of those files created in LRClassic in order to save space in the cloud?

 

If so, how do I do this? I still want them to be synched but with Smart P reviews residing in the cloud and the originals on my hard drive along with the edits. Or are S Smart Previews only synched and generated if the originals are imported into Classic from the start?

Correct answer Jim Wilde
quote

 

My question now is - can I swap out the original RAWs stored in the cloud for Smart Previews of those files created in LRClassic in order to save space in the cloud?

 

If so, how do I do this? 


By @robkendrew

 

Yes you can do that, and it's quite easy. Basically you have to unsync the images in LrClassic, which will cause the originals in the cloud to be deleted. Once deleted, you the resync them from LrC which will upload the Smart Previews to the cloud.

 

To do that you would need to select all the target images in LrC, then go to the All Synced Photographs special collection while retaining the select status, then right-click on any one of the selected images and click on "Remove from All Synced Photographs". Once that removal has synced to the cloud, you can then either add them back to the All Synced Photographs collection, or (to make them easier to find in the cloud) add them to a new collection (or an existing synced collection) and then enable that collection to sync.

1 reply

Jim Wilde
Community Expert
Jim WildeCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 15, 2025
quote

 

My question now is - can I swap out the original RAWs stored in the cloud for Smart Previews of those files created in LRClassic in order to save space in the cloud?

 

If so, how do I do this? 


By @robkendrew

 

Yes you can do that, and it's quite easy. Basically you have to unsync the images in LrClassic, which will cause the originals in the cloud to be deleted. Once deleted, you the resync them from LrC which will upload the Smart Previews to the cloud.

 

To do that you would need to select all the target images in LrC, then go to the All Synced Photographs special collection while retaining the select status, then right-click on any one of the selected images and click on "Remove from All Synced Photographs". Once that removal has synced to the cloud, you can then either add them back to the All Synced Photographs collection, or (to make them easier to find in the cloud) add them to a new collection (or an existing synced collection) and then enable that collection to sync.

robkendrew
robkendrewAuthor
Participating Frequently
June 9, 2025

Hi Jim

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

 

I have been using this method to swap out Originals in the Cloud with Smart Previews uploaded from Classic. However, I'm finding that after I've removed images from All Synched Photos and then re-added them to the Synched Collection in Classic, they won't re-upload but get stuck.

 

I have found however that if I make a copy of the Original file in a different folder and synch that it uploads easily and quickly. Trouble is, the copy loses any previously made edit settings after copying so these settings have to be laborious copied and pasted  from the first original image-by-image as I can't find a way to batch copy individual edit settings.

 

Any tips as to how I can do this? Is it possible to transfer a lot of individual edit settings from one set of image files to duplicated elsewhere or else make a copy of a photo in LR (actual not virtual) which also copies any pre-existing edit settings? 

 

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