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pavelheinrich
Participating Frequently
December 16, 2018
Question

Deleting Original files in Lightroom from the Cloud, but keeping Smart Previews

  • December 16, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 1951 views

Hello forum,

is there a way, how to delete the Original files from the Cloud, but keeping Smart Previews there?

Desired workflow is: when working on a new album, I would have Original files synced to the Cloud, but when I'm done with it, I'd delete them and only keep the Smart Previews.

bonus: I delete Originals only for the Rejected photos (and keep the Originals for the Picks)

Thank you, Pavel

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3 replies

Bani Verma
Community Manager
Bani VermaCommunity Manager
Community Manager
December 31, 2018

Moving this query to Lightroom CC — The cloud-based photo service​ community.

P
pavelheinrichAuthor
Participating Frequently
December 21, 2018

OK, so I found a partial solution for myself (sort of), but it only works for whole Collection and I didn't find a way how to make it work for single photos.

step 1) from LR Classic turn off synchronisation of selected Collection to CC - this completely deletes it from CC including originals

step 2) from LR Classic turn on synchronisation of selected Collection to CC - this uploads Smart Previews to CC without the Originals

Well, as it appears, the solution is: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

Pavel

P.S.: I'm still looking for a better solution, preferably one where I can pick photos

99jon
99jon
Legend
December 16, 2018

With Lightroom CC all originals are stored in the cloud. It’s all or nothing. Deleting from the cloud removes everything including previews on phones, tablets and any locally stored files where that option has been selected in preferences.

Smart previews can only be synchronized manually from collections in Lightroom Classic.

P
pavelheinrichAuthor
Participating Frequently
December 16, 2018

LR Classic is my primary tool for HDR and panoramas, so I don't care if this can be done from LR Classic, LR CC, CC desktop App, from the web or even via API or any other way.

My current workflow is:

1) run custom rename and organise scripts

2) import to LR Classic - convert to DNG, generate smart previews

3) run custom geotag scripts

4) create Collection synced to the CC

5) import originals in the LR CC (result is that photo in CC is linked to my files on a disk)

6) Pick/Reject/Edit/Export <- I want to be able to do this from both LR Classic and LR CC and with this workflow I am

and now I wish for 7) removing originals from CC, leaving the Smart Previews there

So after the step 7) I'll still have all the Originals on the disk and in the LR Classic, but my Cloud won't be cluttered by already processed files.

99jon
99jon
Legend
December 16, 2018

I think when importing originals with the  same file name to LRCC, any smart previews sync’d from Classic collections would be overwritten. So after deletion from the cloud you may need to re-sync from the Classic collection. I suggest you check this on a couple of test files.

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