Lightroom desktop keeps asking to check free disk space

[Marije]

Dear all,

I have a laptop (256 GB), shoot in raw and upload in Lightroom CC.

Now I have a problem with my storage. Lightroom says to make free space at my harddisk, before I can upload anything. How can I solve this? I did not know that I need a lot of space for using Lightroom. It gets worse by day. Can I remove cache files or something? Or the previews Lightroom stores at my harddisk?

How does this work? Does anyone recognize this? Or do I have to upgrade my laptop to 1 TB?

Please thank you so much for sharing your experience or advice.

Marije

[Akash Sharma]

Hi there,

Sorry that you're getting an error message that says "check free disk space" while importing in Lightroom desktop.

Which exact version of Lightroom are you using? Also, what is your operating system?

Would you mind checking out the suggestions offered in this conversation https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/import-stuck-on-checking-free-space-on-disk and let us know if that helps? 

Thanks, 

Akash

[JohanElzenga]

Lightroom needs to copy the images to the local hard disk first, before it can upload them. If it did not do that, then the import speed would be as slow as the internet speed, and if you did not have internet at all temporarily, you would not be able to import at all. That is why it needs hard disk space, and 256 GB is very small these days.

Having said that, there is a problem with Lightroom not clearing up this local storage after upload for a long time, and so your hard disk can get full of older images as a result. These images could be deleted because they have been uploaded, but Lightroom doesn't do that (quickly enough). You can delete them manually if you know for sure the images are safe and sound in the cloud. You do not say which OS you are using, and how to do this depends on that answer.