How can my ssd be too full when I try to upload to the cloud?

[nællo]

Problem:
Each time I try to import pictures from my external hard disk to Lightroom cc (the new thing), Lightroom tells me that my internal hard disk drive is too full and interrupts the upload. It also tells me to delete a certain amount (f. e. 28,34 GB) of data from my drive each time I try to import a portion of my files from my external HDD. Even if that portion is significantly smaller than the amount of space left on my internal SSD.

Question:

How can I make Lightroom work for all my photos?

Setting:

PC: MacBook Pro Mid 2014, 500 GB SSD (always about 80-90% full, mainly because of iCloud I guess? „System“ requires about 270 GB)

External: 4TB USB 3.0 plus iCloud 2TB
Adobe plan: Lightroom with 1TB
plus Adobe Bridge (used to use it decades ago, then left it for Lightroom and now I don't quite know what to do) and an old version of Lightroom 5

The filing:
As of now, I have all my picture files (mostly DNG since about 2010, JPG before that) in folders sorted by year and then month stored in the iCloud and backed up on the 4TB external HDD (or vice versa).

The story:

I used to use Lightroom 5 but didn't really manage to run it on both the internal SSD and the external HDD and certainly not with iCloud. So at one point of my struggles, the whole catalog was corrupt, and I was kind of fed up with it.
I tried Capture One because everybody's praising it, but I don't find it that much different. Plus there's no cloud-solution. So I went and subscribed to the 1TB Lightroom-plan in the hope of being able to finally set up a catalog with all my files in Lightroom.

As of now, there's about 980GB of picture files that I would like to integrate into the Lightroom catalog. I then want to start tidying up and reduce the data to max 50% of what it is now, hopefully less. But I haven't got the slightest idea of how to get there. Until now, I've only managed to upload about 20 GB to Lightroom.

User profile:

This is my private setup. At work (not a photographer but lots of photography anyways), I just use the huge server there and Lightroom classic on a stationary Mac and that's that.
Depending on my holiday schedule, I shoot pictures worth about 100 to 300 GB a year, numbers rising.
I shoot a lot also in everyday life, mostly with my Ricoh GRiii (which is supported by Adobe but not really by Capture One), plus a wedding or other events every now and then with my Pentax system and I enjoy editing some of the photos on the phone – hence the decision pro Lightroom cc and against Capture One.

So once again I ask: How can I make Lightroom cc work for me and all (!) of my photos?
Thank you so much in advance for suggestions!

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom needs to make a (temporary) copy of images that are uploaded to the cloud. The default location is your internal disk, so if that disk is nearly full it can't upload. You can set the location to a different disk in the preferences, at the bottom under 'local storage'.

[nællo]

Thank you very much for a short and precise answer to a long and winding question 😉

I do have a follow-up question on that:

If I am travelling and do not have access to my external HDD (where I now put the local memory), am I still going to be able to add pictures to the catalog? Because if I change the location in settings, Lightroom will try to copy all the catalog to the internal drive again, will it not?

Or am I not going to need to change the location because Lightroom is as smart as installing a temporary local location on the internal drive which then automatically will be moved to the external drive when connected again?

[JP Hess]

Problem is, that internal hard drive needs to have a minimum of 20% free disk space at all times to function properly. If you say that it is always 80%-90% full then it has exceeded that limit, and cannot function properly. It seems to me that you need to move some data from that internal hard drive to an external hard drive.

[nællo]

Thank you! I have now done that. Let's hope that iCloud won't take that space I just cleared back. I don't really get that one (iCloud) either. But that's another support forum, I guess 😉

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom will not copy the library to the external drive, only the location for the original images. After you have uploaded the images from the external drive, you can change that location back to the internal drive for when you are going to travel without that external drive. You will still need enough room on that internal drive to copy the images of a memory card to that drive if you want to upload that memory card.

[nællo]

Thank you very much again. I'm beginning to see the light 😉
But one last question just to be sure:

When I come home and move the location from the internal ssd back to the external drive, will Lightroom move all the pictures I added to the internal drive from there to the external drive by itself? (That's what I would like Lightroom to do)

[JP Hess]

Lightroom will not automatically move them to the external hard drive, this is something that you will have to do manually. An easy way to do that within Lightroom (at least that I have found):

1. Always import to the same folder on the internal hard drive. You can do all of your editing in the field in that same folder while you are in the field.

2. When you have returned home and have attached your external hard drive, create the new folder on the EHD naming it appropriately. Then highlight all the images on the internal hard drive that you have just taken and have been working on. Then, with all of these new images highlighted, locate the new folder you created on the EHD to left hand column in the library module and right click on it. Choose the option to move the images to that folder.

This method of moving images within Lightroom seems to work very well for me, and eliminates the risk of losing track of where the images get placed.

[nællo]

Thank you very much! I guess even I could manage to do that. I'll let you (and anyone who might read this) know.

[nællo]

Just a quick update for anyone who might be interested:
Everything works perfectly.
I can load pictures from the camera onto my Macbook (SSD) or phone and Lightroom synchronizes between them. As soon as I connect the external HDD, Lightroom synchronizes the external HDD with the data from the SSD.
@JimHess I don't even need to create a folder, Lightroom actually automatically moves the pictures to the external drive, at least in my case. Very easy, very user-friendly.
Great stuff!