Would Lightroom Classic overwrite Lightroom CC originals with Smart Previews?

[D0nald]

Dear community,

I import my originals via cloud based Lightroom CC, these originals can also be synced down to Lightroom Classic.

When I now edit these with Lightroom Classic, will Lightroom Classic then overwrite my originals in the cloud with Smart Previews?

Is there a difference in behaviour between RAW and JPG?

[JP Hess · Accepted solution]

If originals are synchronized from Lightroom CC to Classic, and you make adjustments in Classic, those adjustments will synchronize with the originals in the cloud. There is no difference in behavior between raw and JPEG images.

Smart previews come into play when the originals are in Classic and you create collections in Classic and synchronize those collections with Lightroom CC.

[D0nald]

Hi Jim, thank you very much for your answer! I understand your answer this way, that only metadata would be synchronized from Lightroom Classic back to the cloud, and therefore originals in Lightroom CC would never be replaced through Smart Previews.

Would that also be the case if Lightroom Classic changes metadata in the file itself (for e.g. jpg), so the replicated original from the cloud would be altered through Lightroom Classic?

I just want to be absolutely sure, that Lightroom Classic would never ever replace an original file in the cloud with a lesser Smart Preview.