Where is Lightroom CC storing my images?

[apf102]

Hi,

Just a bit puzzled about how the storage is working for Lightroom CC.

I recently had a go at editing some Fuji raw files on my iPad as I was away from home. I was super impressed - it is way faster than Classic and could well be my favourite way to edit if I can work out how to calibrate the iPad Air 4 screen! Any tips here appreciated too...

Anyway... to import, I uploaded my raw files to OneDrive in my usual raw folder. Next I used "open with" in OneDrive on the iPad to open the file in Lightroom CC. The image comes in and I edit and export to camera roll. All great, but here are the questions:

1) When the files are opened in Lr CC, where are they stored? They don't seem to be local so I am guessing creative cloud, but the whole process seems too fast for it to be working on a 26mb compressed Raw file

2) As I still want my files on my PC for storage purposes and I cannot just use creative cloud storage as I only get 20GB free. I assume when I get back I will be able to copy settings from the iPad Raw edits and paste them onto the original OneDrive raw files on my PC via Lightroom classic?

3)  I guess I am OK to delete the iPad files once I have sorted this?

4) I presume if I do it the other way around: import from PC and then edit on CC on iPad that the raw files will reside on the PC and I will edit a copy on Lightroom CC instead. In this instance, how does the extra bit depth work? 

Thanks for any help.

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom initially copies the raw file to a storage inside the Lightroom application package, that is how iPad apps work. That is also the reason why everything is fast. Lightroom does store the images eventually in the cloud however, and you cannot copy/paste edits from Lightroom onto OneDrive raw files. To get them (with their edits) into Lightroom Classic you would need to sync the Lightroom Classic catalog to the cloud, so Lightroom Classic will download them from the cloud. That does indeed quicky fill the 20 GB cloud space, so this is only an option for a handful of images (or you will have to pay for more cloud space).

[apf102]

Thanks. This is helpful. If I sync the files could I then copy and paste the edits onto a Lightroom Classic copy and delete the cloud version? Don't want to get trapped paying for creative cloud space 

[Jao vdL]

Just turn on Sync in Lightroom Classic and put the files you want to edit in a synced collection. This wil upload a smart preview into the cloud. That might be enough to edit the file on your iPad and smart previews do not count towards storage space in the cloud. If you however want the full resolution file to edit on the iPad, the trick is to then import the full resolution raw to Lightroom Cloudy on your iPad (just use the onedrive route you described). When you add a file to Lightroom Cloudy that is already synced to it as a smart preview, it will recognize that the image is already there and link the full resolution file to it. Now your edits will simply sync back to your Classic installation. When you're done with the image simply unsync it in Classic and it will disappear from the cloud but remain in Classic.

Be aware that keywords do not sync between Classic and Cloudy. Any develop edits however will as will star ratings, titles and captions.

[apf102]

Ah ok, that's really interesting. Power of this route is that I can start with the iPad but to be honest, I might switch to doing most editing on the iPad anyway. So that route sounds good.

Was getting to pondering if I should buy an external drive which I can use on either iPad or the PC. 

[Jao vdL]

Esternal drives don't help on the iPad. You can't use those for storage in the iOS Lightroom app. The app is built around cloud storage as the main repository of images. It will cache images locally for quicker access but will only use the internal storage on your device for this.