Can I link LRCC to original photos without downloading from cloud?

[67764871]

Hi there.

I just got a new laptop.  I installed LRCC and it looks great.

The only thing is that on my old laptop I had my original files stored, whereas on my new laptop I am only working off the cloud.

I would also like to have the option to work offline like I had with my old laptop.

I realize that I can download a copy of the original files to my computer - but that would take a long time with many GB of files.

Is there any way to transfer the original files to the new computer (via external HD) and have LRCC link to them so I can work offline?

Thanks!

[Theresa J]

I don't think there is an easy way to transfer the photos from the old computer and relink them to the cloud. Your best solution is to put images that you want to work on offline  in albums. This gives you the ability to just store local copies of selective images instead of your whole catalog. Here's a tutorial. Store albums locally, save photos to your computer or hard drive, and share as web gallery in Lightr...

[67764871]

Thanks so much Theresa!

I actually found a work-around to save all my files locally instead of downloading all of them from the cloud.

I made a folder on my laptop "Photos".

In preferences, I put the Storage location of originals as "Photos".

I made an album with one picture and selected "Store album locally"

I found said picture in "Photos" and noted the file structure

     e.g. Photos\Lightroom CC\long alphanumeric\originals\2015\2015-01-01\filename

Then I took the rest of the original files taken on 2015-01-01 and put them in that folder, and made new folders with other dates.

     e.g. 2005-01-02, 2005-01-03, etc

When I selected "Store album locally" of the album that contained the original photos I moved, there was no need to download the photos from the cloud and Lightroom CC just linked up to them.

Now I just have to do it for 13 years of photos

[Theresa J]

I guess I am confused. Why is that easier than simply logging into your Lr CC with the new computer, and then turning on the store locally option? Slowly they will all download, but this will happen in the background and shouldn’t impact your workflow. Manually finding all your images and moving them to the new computer sounds like a lot more work. What am I missing?

[67764871]

It took 4 minutes to download one 20MB photo.

For my 20,000 photos, that would take about 56 days.

I think I can do it faster by adding locally.  But yeah, it would be less work to be patient and wait...

Thanks again for your ideas!

[67764871]

I also originally renamed all my files starting with the capture date so it's not too difficult to reorganize the files.