Question a bout Lightroom storage on Ipad

[Mr_Critterfur]

I am relatively new to Lightroom on iPad and I was curious about something.

When I import photos form the files app to Lightroom, are those photos then copied into a Lightroom catalog on my iPad, thereby creating duplicates? 

The reason I ask is my iPad only has 256 GB of space, and I;m running out fast. So I just want to know if I can delete the photos from my iPad directly, and they'll still be in my Lightroom?

I do have cloud storage but haven't been using it really yet. 

I just want to learn how to optimize my storage process so I can make sure I have enough space for current work. 

My photos are backed up on an external, so I'm not worried about losing them really. O just don't want to shoot myself in the foot by deleting them from my iPad, and then have to copy them back over if they get removed from Lightroom. 

Thank you.

[selondon]

Hi....

Yes you are correct. The app imports photos from the Camera Roll into its own internal catalog, and therefore you have a duplicate.

Unless, you have paused syncing within the app, everything imported into the app will sync to the Cloud (so you may have been already using it).

You can delete from the Camera Roll once imported, although it's probably always advisable to wait until syncing to the Cloud is complete.

Once imported to the Cloud, photos will stay in the local cache until being replaced automatically (with more recent imports or when you edit older photos for example). You can speed this process up, to create more space, by going to the app's settings, local storage and selecting Clear Cache.

You may also wan to select 'Only Download Smart Previews' in the Cloud Storage and Sync section, which when you do access photos on the device that reside in the Cloud, will only download lower res editable proxies.

[Mr_Critterfur]

I didn't import into the camera roll app though. I copied them directly onto the iPad from the card into the files app, and then imported from there into Lightroom.

[selondon]

Ah yes sorry.....

If it's a direct import , then the files don't actually reside in the Files app (it's just a gateway to the SD as far as I know), so therefore only are present once, within Lightroom.

Apart from that, the rest or the post still applies though.