Import to Lightroom (on iPad Pro) while travelling, transfer to LR Classic (on iMac) on return home

[#1]

First post, so please forgive me if I'm going over old ground.

Currently when travelling I import images to LR Classic on my 13" Macbook Pro, cull and edit. Simultaneous to import, I backup to an external drive. Returning home from the trip I export the edited catalogue and images to LR Classic on my 27" iMac. I also carry my 9.7" Ipad for reading.

To save weight and the number of devices I carry, I'd like to replace my MacBook with an Ipad Pro loaded with LR CC (still with a backup to an external drive) and then on return export and sync the LR CC catalogue and images to LR Classic on my iMac. I don't want to buy additional CC storage as I would only need it for the brief period I'm transferring images from Lightroom CC to Lightroom Classic. I believe I can save a healthy amount of weight if this will work.

Can anyone help with ideas for and against?

Thanks

Mike1arooau

[#2]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the Adobe Community!

You can add images to Lightroom on your iPad and then sync them to Lightroom classic and the images would appear as a part of your collections in the catalog however, when you remove the images from Lightroom on the iPad to create space once you are back, that would remove all the images from all synced devices including Lightroom classic.

You can move the images from the collections in Lightroom classic to a folder (on the local storage of the iMac or the external hard drive) by dragging and dropping them and that would save the images on the hard drive for you and then the images can be deleted from the cloud storage. 

Regards

Nikunj

[#3]

Thanks Nikunj, This might not be as difficult as I thought. Because I'm often in places with no or slow internet whilst travelling, I want to avoid uploading to the cloud at least until I get home. I then only need to synch my iPad Pro (Yet to be bought 3rd gen 512gb) to my iMac. Trying to keep it as simple as possible to avoid "operator error". Cheers, Mike

[#4]

Hi Mike,

Bear in mind how much cloud storage you have with your plan.

You may only have 20GB, which may well be enough. Although, depending on the length of your trip, the amount of photos you take and also much storage you are currently using, it may not be.

If the cloud storage fills up, then the full res files would be stored locally within Lightroom in the iPad (space permitting) and would only upload to the cloud, when space is available.

Contrary to nikunj's post, it's my understanding that once download to Classic is complete (to the folder you have set in Classic's preferences) the deletion from the Cloud will not affect these downloaded photos.

Hope this helps

[#5]

Hi Selondon, (South East London?) This might not be as difficult as I thought. Because I'm often in places with no or slow internet whilst travelling, I want to avoid uploading to the cloud at least until I get home. I then only need to synch my iPad Pro (Yet to be bought 3rd gen 512gb) to my iMac. I think you are right about deletion from the cloud not affecting images downloaded to the desktop. I guess my primary concern is that all the work I do whilst on the road gets transferred effectively from the iPad Pro to the desktop - I shudder to think of re-culling and editing a few thousand images. John Beardsworth had an excellent response to a similar enquiry where I think it implied that if you weren't wanting to use the ongoing Cloud storage then in effect as you download and delete the images from the cloud, the LR CC device will simply "top up" with new images until the transfer process is complete. My fingers are crossed as I don't want to buy the iPad Pro only to find it won't do the job. Cheers, Mike

[#6]

Haha, indeed Mike, yes South East London.

Yep, John is correct, as you delete from the Cloud and your quota is full, then files awaiting sync on the iPad should upload. Effectively using the Cloud as a transfer portal.

If you don’t want anything syncing (or trying to) on your travels, then it may be worth pausing sync until your return. Just make sure you have a back up of the photos on SD, as if the iPad crashes or the app gets accidentally deleted, you could lose everything!