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S
Speez
Participating Frequently
January 9, 2020
Question

Lightroom Mobile - Thumbs Sync First automatically but Smart Preview Only When I open each image?

  • January 9, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1222 views

So this is maybe addressed elsewhere and I missed it, but I have recently started experimenting using Lightroom Mobile synced with Lightroom classic CC. I am still pretty novice at Lightroom overall, but the idea of using the iPad and/or phone to cull images and do basic edits sounded appealing.

 

What I loved (once I figured out exactly what was going on) is that with the originals on my laptop/external drive, mobile will just sync the smart previews of whatever collections I choose.

 

What I see happening though is that it appears thumbnails of each image in the collection are syncing automatically when I activate a sync for a collection, BUT the smart previews for each image does not DL until I open that image to view/edit it and thus if I have not opened every image prior to being out of wifi/cell range, then I am SOL. 

 

Does this sound right? Ideally I want the smart previews immediately D/L'd to the iPad and/or phone when I sync a collection. For example I just synced a collection with 2000+ photos from a trip, so I would need to open each and every one individually to get the smart previews to download before I could truly go off the grid. Is this a setting I am missing somewhere or just the nature of the current system that Adobe has?

 

This appears to occur on both my 11" iPad pro and Android pixel phone. Photos coming from Lightroom cc classic running on Windows.

 

{Moved from Lightroom Cloud to Lightroom Mobile Forum by Moderator} 

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

selondon
selondon
Community Expert
January 12, 2020

Lightroom Mobile cannot download RAWs and Jpegs from the Cloud if photos have been synced from Classic as Collections (as it can only sync Smart Previews up). Maybe unless those photos were in the cloud previous to that, maybe imported via a Mobile device, but that doesn't seem the case here.

 

The size disparity does seem strange, you can check what is on the device once the Album is stored locally by doing into Edit mode, it should say Smart Preview or Original, just under Edit.

I would have thought it was the smaller number (what is the size of the folder on your HD?). As an aside Smart Previews synced fom Classic are not meant to count against your Cloud quota and as you say will appear on any device logged into your account as they are in the Cloud.

If yo do Clear Cache this should not clear any Albums stored locally so it will give you a better idea of how much space that Album is taking up. Have you ever imported photos or tahen photos with the iPad, that may be the reason for the 3gb of local files?

 

 

S
SpeezAuthor
Participating Frequently
January 17, 2020

sorry for the delay, been wrapped with work.

 

I will have to look at the smart previews folder on my external HD for the lr classic instance when I get a chance, but cloud still only says 250-ish MB's used (but I guess if smart previews don't count, which is awesome and definitely increases my likelihood of use, that makes sense). 

 

I did clear the cache and it is now down to 2.15gb per the Lightroom "local storage" setting screen on my iPad. I had previously imported some photos to the iPad while on a trip, but never added them to Lightroom they are just in my camera roll. 

 

Still not exactly clear on what is happening but perhaps the smart previews really are 2.15gb for the 2500 photos, its 2456 photos 50/50 raw and jpeg so perhaps that what it compresses to. either way, I think this could be super useful now for culling and sorting stuff while I'm sitting on the couch/car/plane/etc. thanks for the input appreciate it.

selondon
selondon
Community Expert
January 9, 2020

If you are going totally offline then the best option on the iPad is the Store Album Locally on the desired Album, otherwise you may not have an editable smart preview locally.

You may have to wait until the Album populates with the thumbnails, I dint know. 

S
SpeezAuthor
Participating Frequently
January 10, 2020

Does store locally just cause smart previews to be local or does it try to bring the raw+jpegs too? If the former, that is exactly what I need because I might try to cull 50gb+ from a trip or something so syncing all that in raw form would not work with the 20gb creative cloud limit (not interested in paying more for the 1tb). I am totally good with having all synced collections smart previews sync locally to the iPad as soon as I sync the collection.

 

I imagine this also lets me control that sync by mobile device? I don't want stuff locally to my phone for space reasons, but I would like it on the ipad

S
SpeezAuthor
Participating Frequently
January 11, 2020

Update to "store locally" - didn't try it yet but based on the file size (4.5gb for ~2600 photos) I am going to guess that is just syncing the original files and not smart previews? I was figuring the smart preview file to be a lot smaller I thought.

 

Update to the update:

 

It appears all my 2456 images in the collection i am testing with are visible to the ipad, my android phone, and lightroom.adobe.com. Looking at my creative cloud storage usage, it shows 247mb used which suggests to me that these 2456 photos (combo of jpeg and raw froman a7iii) in smart preview form is 247mb.

 

I have lightroom mobile set to "sync smart previews only", but if I go to my test collection/album and try to select "store locally", it tells me that this will take up 4.2gb of local storage which is WAY more than the 247mb that my smart previews must be made up of.

 

It basically seems like smart previews DO NOT sync down to the device until you physically open each individual image within lightroom mobile, which if that is the case, is insane. 

 

Any help on this would be much appreciated, I cannot imagine this is how they intend it to work. 

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