Use LR CC and add location with LR classic but keep photo in cloud only?

[stefanbach]

I am travelling for few months and want to keep all my photos online using my 1TB storage plan.

I use mainly LR CC where I import my photos in collections through the desktop version and the phone app. However, I like to add the location of the photos using LR classic (not available in CC yet). Unfortunately, my laptop is too full to keep local copies that are automatically made when you sync CC with classic.

So far, I sync the photos to LR classic and add the location. However, after doing my editing using the "map" feature, how can I remove the collection (and the local copies) from LR classic in order to keep all the photos in the cloud only without any local storage?

My other related questions are: how to sync only 1 collection from CC to classic?

The map feature is not included in LR CC, but does it still keep the metadata in the cloud? Like this, when I finish travelling I can sync all the collections back to LR classic with an external drive and read the locations of the photos properly.

Thank you.

Stefan

[Jim Wilde]

I don't think it's possible to do what you want, i.e. remove synced images from Classic while keeping them in the cloud. Basically, it's a principle of the current design that a synced Classic catalog will always download and keep a copy of any images added to the Lightroom cloud apps. If you subsequently remove those synced images from Classic, they are also deleted from the cloud.

[cmgap]

You might want to unsync collections that you know you won't need while traveling. You can always resync the once you return and sort out your images.

BTW - if you're storing images on your internal hard drive you may want to ensure that you  have a copy on an external drive. If that drive ever fails (as they often will) you may be at risk of losing all of your images.

[stefanbach]

Hello cmgap,

Thank you for your reply. If I unsync the collections, will they stay in adobe cloud (and LR cc)? If yes, can I delete the unsync collection from LR classic to make space on my hard drive (while the photos are still safe in the cloud)?

Regarding your advice, I usually always make 2 copies of my collections on external drives. However, during my travel I try to rely only on Adobe cloud hoping that nothing bad will happen during this time ;D that removes the hassle of carrying external drive with me.

[cmgap]

If you unsync your collections they will not remain in the cloud (go ahead and test this with one image in one synced collection). They will still be in your Classic catalog however and resyncing shouldn't be a problem as long as the original images are also intact. If you move the images from the location that Lightroom has them linked to you could bump into sync'ing problems. Do Not Delete Synced Collections in Classic - just toggle sync on or off.

If you're running into storage issues and/or want to be safe you can increase your amount of storage in your plan or remove some of the images you've got synced.

You have to decide which has more value for you... less of your time investment = increasing your storage so you don't have to manage it. Or the flip side of not increasing your storage plan and syncing and unsyncing collections = more of your time.

PS - good that you have backups!

[stefanbach]

Your last point doesn't really work in my case since I have already plenty of unused storage on adobe cloud but not locally. If I unsync collections they will remain on my laptop hard drive which is my problem (SSD are good but still rather limited).

It is therefore an annoying situation for me. I invested more money ($20/m) in my adobe cloud storage (1To) and plan (CC + classic) to save time, increase capabilities and remove the need of large hard drive storage but realised now that it doesn't really work this way. I should have stick either with low cloud storage with backups of my images on external hard drives every so often ($10/m) OR stick to LR cc only with a large cloud and export everything once my long travel over ($10/m)...

Important waste of money over the year...

[Jim Wilde · Accepted solution]

I'm a Classic/Cloud "hybrid workflow" user such as you. My main Classic computer is a MacBookPro, and my Classic-related images are stored on a desktop external drive. So, if I was planning to go travelling for a couple of months I would certainly be taking the laptop, but I'd also take along a couple (at least) of portable USB drives. I'd set one of them as the download location for new images downloaded from the cloud (the other would be for backup), and I'd simply move them to my desktop external drive on return home (no sync-related issues doing that provided the move is done within Classic).

That way I can carry on with my typical workflow while travelling, at the expense of carrying a couple of small portable drives, the weight of which would be insignificant.

[stefanbach]

Ok I see. I will try to find a couple of large USB drives then. I just feel that in the integration of LR classic with adobe cloud is not fully functional yet. Hopefully they will correct that in the future, allowing full storage in cloud while working on LR CC and/or classic equally.

[john beardsworth]

Remove the word "yet". Adobe started well by providing a great mobile workflow for Lightroom "Classic" but have then decided to develop a cloud-dependent Lightroom for Mac/PC with very limited features. They don't recommend using both versions of Lightroom together, though you can do so, if you know what you are doing.

[stefanbach]

Hello Jim,

I understand that if I delete images from sync albums they will also be deleted in the cloud, but can I unsync and then delete in classic?

[john beardsworth]

Unsyncing them in Classic deletes them in the cloud.