Travelling with Lighroom Mobile.

[stevem38895022]

I have an overseas trip planned with limited to no internet coverage. My plan is to fit a high capacity microSD card in my Samsung tablet. My planned workflow is:-
1/. Create Lightroom catalog on microSD card
2/. Copy photos from SD card to microSD card daily
3/. Use Lightroom mobile to organise, sort and edit (lightly)
4/. On return home, extract microSD card or copy catalog (and files) to desktop and merge with the desktop Lightroom catalog, with all edits intact

Is this workable or do I need to sync through the cloud?
Potentially several thousand images.

Thanks in Advance

[Wurstkrapfen]

I think it would be easier to sync via cloud when back at home. I don't think you can extract the edits from the file system. There is no catalog or xmp files in the mobile file structute I know of.

[Timothy.Spear]

@stevem38895022 

You need to sync through the cloud, with a caveat. All meta-data will have to go through the cloud.

But I did think of a hack for the images for which I have not tried. If you have LrD setup to keep a local copy of originals, LrD might be smart enough to not copy down the image if you manage to store them in an identical structure. Unless you are on a metered connection, this is likely more hassle than it is worth doing. In any case, I would make sure to test all this at home first. You can disable the WiFi connection on the tablet to test all the offline capability and processes.

In addition, until you have completed the sync, your images could be lost. So ensure you have enough SD cards to NOT erase them until you have completed the sync. e.g. Do not depend on the single copy on your  tablet. 

Tim

[Wurstkrapfen]

Lightroom Classic will just download them all in one folder and create xmp files with the settings if it's setup to do so.

It will also sync the album structure (collections) if it was created with the mobile app, from there it's an easy selection of all images from an album/collection, create a folder "move selected images there" with LR Classic. Done, all photos in correct folders on the harddrive.

[Timothy.Spear]

Since when can Classic read the LrM catalog? The OP was asking how to avoid sync. 

Tim

[Wurstkrapfen]

He did not ask how to avoid it, he asked how to best utilze LR mobile and get the data back out of it later. And I answered what I think is the easiest solution.

[Wurstkrapfen]

One thing is, there could be a limitation of how much it will store in it's local data folder.

Usually you copy the files onto you Android device, share them with LrMobile (if it's one of those unsupported RAW formats like CR3), then during import the app will created copies of your images in the apps file structure. After import you should be good to delete them from your phones folder you initially copied them to, or you have them on there twice.

But there might be a limit how much LRmobile will store locally, of course a smart app would tell you about it and not deleted unsynced originals, but we all know LR is far from smart.

If it's just jpgs it's probably fine, but putting hundreds of gigabytes of RAW files in without cloud backup might have me worried. I probably would keep copies on another device and check the number of files when I'm back home if everything is there. Of course that means you can't delete stuff immediately or the number will be wrong anyway.

Yes I do travel with LR Mobile and it does a good job (and it's easy to sort out and put into folders with LR Classic later), but I would not trust it completely without the occasional drop of my originals into the cloud. Current version will probably crash often when working above 40MP RAW files, I hope the latest update fixed that.

One of the most annoying parts, if your connection is slow, you need to keep the devices screen on with Lr Mobile so the app keeps uploading those files.

Without a connecting to the internet I would want to keep a 2nd copy as a backup.

[stevem38895022]

Thank your for the information. I have never used Lightroom Mobile and with all of the comments, concerns and potential limitations, I will go with plan B and take a laptop with LR installed. It will put me in a familar workspace and cover all my requirements although in a larger physical package. I will be on a cruise so the original question was based more around reducing the amount of technology I will be carrying.