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Anonymous

Question

Appropriate Size for Library File / Sync Issues Adobe CC vs LR CC

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 29, 2020
2 replies
1375 views

Hello everyone. I am new to Lightroom CC as well as Mac, so I might be asking a dumb question here. But I can't seem to find a conclusive answer anywhere, so here goes..

I took roughly 2200 pictures a few weeks ago and imported them into Adobe CC Cloud. Approximate file size of all these pictures is 100Gb. Now, my understanding of the LR CC library file is that it is basically a pointer to your original files that keeps track of changes so that the originals remain unedited. So I would expect that file to be relatively small in size. Instead, it is over 100Gb -- even bigger than all of my RAW files. Furthermore, when I imported my pictures into LR CC, they are once again uploading to the cloud -- not just the single library file, but all 2200 pictures I imported.

So I have a few questions:

1. Why is my catalog file so large, and is this normal? I definitely did not ask it to "Keep my originals" or anything along those lines in Preferences.

2. What is the difference between the Lightroom Cloud and the Adobe Creative Cloud, and are they redundant? I uploaded the originals to Adobe CC, so I would assume that LR CC would just be the catalog file with the edits, but I am unclear on what exactly is going on here since it appears to be independently uploading every single photo I imported. Also, LR CC shows that I have used the exact amount of cloud space as Adobe CC, even though LR is only about halfway through syncing all of these photos.

Many thanks for any advice you can give to a newb trying to figure all this stuff out!! I can happily upload some screenshots if anyone has a possible solution but just needs more information.

This topic has been closed for replies.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

You don't have to make an online backup of your raw files via 'Creative Cloud Files', because your raw files will already be in the cloud via Lightroom. You could back them up to a local external disk for extra safety. The size of the library should go down once the files have been uploaded, but it can take some time and it does depend on how much space you have allowed for the photo cache.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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Anonymous

Excellent! I think yall have answered my questions, but then what do you use your 'Creative Cloud Files' folder to back up? Is the 1Tb allotment in Adobe CC independent of the cloud storage in Lightroom CC?

Jim Wilde

Community Expert

I don't use the Creative Cloud Files folder for "backup", I only use it for file-sharing like Dropbox (which is the way it's intended to be used, or so I believe). It's certainly not intended to be used as a backup of your photos, they should be imported into the Lightroom app and uploaded to the cloud (where Adobe will ensure they are backed up, though plenty of users also use the "Store a Copy Locally" option, thinking they are creating their own backup).

Although Lightroom cloud storage and Creative Cloud Files are separate, the space they individually occupy in the cloud comes out of your one cloud space allowance.

JohanElzenga

Community Expert

What do you mean with "imported them into Adobe CC Cloud"? There is no such thing, so what exactly did you do? Did you perhaps place these photos in the 'Creative Cloud Files' folder in your Home folder? That is a Dropbox-like folder, meaning the contents of that folder is synced to the cloud. It has nothing to do with Lightroom however, and there is no reason to use that for your photos.

Lightroom uploads the original images to the cloud, but in order to speed up downloading from a memory card or a camera, these images are first copied to your hard disk. By default they are stored inside the Lightroom Library package, so initially that package will indeed be bigger than the uploaded images. Depending on your preference settings, that should become smaller over time, once the upload has finished. If the library grows too large and stays too large, go to Preferences - Local Storage and decrease the size of the local cache. Make sure you do not check the options to store smart previews or originals locally.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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Anonymous

What do you mean with "imported them into Adobe CC Cloud"? There is no such thing, so what exactly did you do?

Yes -- I dropped the RAW files into the 'Creative Cloud Files' folder and thus uploaded them to the cloud.

Did you perhaps place these photos in the 'Creative Cloud Files' folder in your Home folder? That is a Dropbox-like folder, meaning the contents of that folder is synced to the cloud. It has nothing to do with Lightroom however, and there is no reason to use that for your photos.

Okay so.... what is the primary purpose for my cloud storage if not to back up my RAW files? Honestly asking, again I'm new to all this so forgive the ignorance.

Lightroom uploads the original images to the cloud, but in order to speed up downloading from a memory card or a camera, these images are first copied to your hard disk. By default they are stored inside the Lightroom Library package, so initially that package will indeed be bigger than the uploaded images. Depending on your preference settings, that should become smaller over time, once the upload has finished.

This is kind of what I gathered, but I expected the library filesize to decrease as the files were uploaded. Maybe it's an "all or nothing" type thing, and the filesize will dramatically decrease once all 2200 files have completed uploading?

Really appreciate the guidance, hopefully it's just a matter of completing the uploads to Lightroom CC before the library file decreases size. Or, barring that, I suppose the library file is itself a copy of all my RAW files and pertinent modifications, in which case I can get rid of the actual RAW files in my Creative Cloud folder since Lightroom CC is all the back up I need?

Thanks for the help!

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