Today's total newbie sub-amateur question - file locations in Lightroom CC

[Jonathan Perkins]

Hi all,

I am not a serious photographer, but like many of us in the 21st century I have a lot of photos. I signed up for the Photography CC suite to organize and tweak my photos.

To load Lightroom CC, I copied my files to a bunch of temporary folders on my desktop and loaded them from there. My question is about how the Lightroom files are stored. Can I delete those temporary folders? Or does Lightroom link/refer to those locations? Does Lightroom store copies of the photos in some kind of libary? Where is that libary--and can I choose another location?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[JP Hess]

Lightroom does NOT store the photos. The Lightroom catalog is a database that simply keeps track of where the images are stored, as well as a record of all the adjustments that you make to those images and a record of any collections that you create. The images are stored in folders on the computer, wherever you choose to put them. Those folders can be on any hard drive that is connected to that computer. It would be a good idea to position those folders where you want them in the first place, and then import them into Lightroom. Since you didn't do  that, you could copy the folders to a new location where you want them to reside permanently. Then, in the Lightroom library module, you should select each folder on the desktop and choose the option to update the folder location and point Lightroom to its new "permanent" location. After you have done that it would be possible for you to remove all of the folders on the desktop. That is one way to handle the moving of close folders.

Another way to move them would be to drag/drop them to a new location in the library module.  Be careful with this method because it's easy to lose track of where you drop the folders.

In any case, don't just try to move the folders using your operating system, and not use Lightroom. If you do that then Lightroom will lose track of where the folders are and you will be confused for a while.

[Theresa J]

The answer to your question depends on which Lightroom you are using. Jim gave you an answer for Lightroom Classic. If you are using Lightroom, your photos are uploaded to the cloud. There is no connection from Lightroom to the images on your computer once they finish uploading. 
Can you confirm which Lightroom you are using so that we can help you with the correct answer?

[Jonathan Perkins]

Hi, sorry, I'm so new at this that I'm confused.

I watched a YouTube video that shows a Lightroom CC user also accessing the photos, in the cloud, from Lightroom Classic. That's what I'm trying to achieve. 

I'm using CC (Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.2) and Classic (Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 9.2). 

My basic need is to add the ability to create "smart" albums on top of the Lightroom CC functionality I use to share my photos across devices, organize by "people", etc. 

[Jonathan Perkins]

FWIW, the answer to this issue was to go to Lightroom Classic and, even if Sync is already enabled in preferences, go to the upper left had corner of the screen and turn it on again from there.