Where to find "Smart Preview" option in Lightroom!? (LR not LRC)

[Ryan25575726vb6c]

Hi there!

I already have photos that I've started editing in LR but I want to continue edting them as a "smart preview." How do I change it so that my photos are smart previews?

I also have other photos imported already that I want to make/edit as smart previews, as well as edit all photos going forward that I upload as smart previews. However all of the tutorials on YouTube on how to do this are for LRC and not the the LR version that I have. For example I have no "library" option tab at the top. I've looked everywhere and can't find the "smart preview" option. I want to switch to smart previews so that the edited process is faster, smoother etc.

Thanks for any help!

[Theresa J]

It sounds like you want to be using Lightroom Classic instead of Lightroom. Classic manages master full res images on a local hard drive and uploads smart previews with sync. Lightroom uploads images to a cloud and manages them from there.

[Ryan25575726vb6c]

Thanks for the reply Theresa.

So are you saying that we are not able to edit photos that are "smart previews" on Lightroom? I need to get Lightroom Classic to do that?

Lightroom as been slowing down for me and not responding when I go to use certain tools and things like that. I've tried a number of things to try and make the editing process faster, smoother and not to lag so much. And so editing smart previews instead of the photo at full resolution is supposed to help quite a bit I've heard. That's why I really want to try that option out but can't seem to figure it out. 

Also do you know if I can transfer my subscription over to Lightroom Classic from Lightroom? Or do I need to pay for an extra seperate subscription to LRC and continue paying my LR subscription out?

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom works differently than Lightroom Classic. Because the images are in the cloud, downloading them from the cloud is what is most time consuming, especially if your internet speed is not that great. That means that a solution is not to try to edit smart previews (which Lightroom already does), but to minimize downloading. In Preference - Local Storage you can specify that Lightroom should save a smart preview locally. That will already speed up things, because it means that it can use that smart preview without having to download anything first. You can also specify that it should store a local copy of the original. That means that it has everything it ever needs locally.

[Theresa J]

What subscription do you have? Lightroom Classic may already be included. You don't want to create a new subscription but you may need to upgrade the one you have.