Originals stored locally without box checked

[JmD787]

Have Lightroom Version 3.0. It has taken over most of my internal hard drive. In Preferences, I do not have the box checked to store either originals or smart previews locally, yet all of my originals seem to be stored at:

Users/Home/Pictures/Lightroom

1. Why is it doing this?

2. Can I delete this folder, then check the box to store a copy of all originals, then specify a path to an external drive?

3. If 2 above is yes, will Lightroom download the originals from the cloud and store them on the external drive, or should I move these manually to the external drive before deleting this folder?

It’s a little over 20,000 photos. 

Thanks. 

[Jao vdL]

That is not a folder that Lightroom 3 would use at any time. Lightroom 3 does store some copies locally that you are editing at the moment or if you have just downloaded some images from a camera or memory card but that is hidden deep in a hidden folder structure. It keeps some around for a while basically upto the number you set for the photo cache size in the preferences. Have you had Lightroom Classic or Lightroom CC installed at some time? Older versions used to create a "Lightroom" folder in "Pictures" that contained downloaded images from Lightroom mobile. 

If you use the cloud lightroom and you are sure all images are safely synced to the cloud (look inside Lightroom 3 for the little cloud icon in the upper right. Click it and see if it says "Synced and Backed up". If it does you can safely delete the folder you saw. You can then indeed ask to store local copies of the originals (in Lightroom Cloudy, originals are always in the cloud, the local storage only contains copies) and specify where. It will download all images from the cloud and put them in the location you specified.

[JmD787]

You’re correct, that I had Lightroom cc installed several years ago and some of the photos in this folder were from there. However, the photos I’ve recently uploaded to Lightroom 3 have also gone to that folder. The old cc is still installed, but hasn’t been opened in some time. I may check to see that all of my photos are synced, then copy the problem folder to an external drive, delete it from the Mac, then set up local storage in a different folder on the external drive. Then I’ll delete the folder with my originals from the Mac and see what happens. If the problem still persists, I’ll try uninstalling the old cc. 

Please feel free to tell me if I’m on the right track. 

Thanks. 

Sent from my iPad